Los Angeles February 2023 - 3: Tala Madani's 'Biscuits' at Geffen Contemporary

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I made this trip to Los Angeles for the fairs, but the best thing about it was catching the tail end of Tala Madani's big show, Biscuits, at Geffen Contemporary, presented by Tala herself. Both she and her work are fearless and funny, reminding me, incongruously no doubt, of Ivy Compton-Burnett. I mean, she deals with some of the worst, most shocking aspects of human behaviour, taking risks and breaking taboos, but nevertheless does it with humour. She's intelligent, articulate and passionate, about her work and about her country. Discussion of the current situation in Iran and how to help, over a casual lunch of German wurst hot-dogs with half a dozen Iranian friends before she returned to the Geffen to sign catalogues, was intense.

And it was a great show, including a room of magnificent, giant 'sky' paintings made specially for the space, though I didn't do a great job of photographing it...

Art in America wrote about the show much better than I can. And there are some clips on YouTube:












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