About the Exhibit
Tschabalala Self’s exhibit at Pilar Corrias took place in September and October of 2019 in London. The show contained a robust combination of paintings, sculpture and animation, all exploring the “cultural expectations placed upon the gendered and racialized body” (source)
“Self parses the iconographic significance of the Black female body in contemporary culture.” (source)
"Harlem-born artist Tschabalala Self possesses the rare quality of being keenly sensitive to the impact of the environment and the way it shapes human social behavior. Self creates and positions black figures to serve as a decoding device of circumstance, allowing each individual perspective to speak to the community from which it has derived. Her empathetic and intellectual density guides the creation of a black universe assembled with great distance from white ideology.” – Sasha Bonét
“A stereotype is a flat character with two dimensions. And I can confront those stereotypical images by making round, multidimensional characters with complicated desires, inner dialogues, and psychology." - W Magazine (source)
“I try to communicate with my characters a sense of complete freedom,” Self explains. “They are free bodies, and they have total control over who has access.” - Tschabalala Self (source)
‘It is the space I occupy in the world, that is the body I came from. It is who I am and who my mother was. The more sincere a story you can articulate, the more people have access to it,’ - Tschabalala Self on looking to her own history as a black woman (Christies) About the Artist
About the Artist
It’s crazy to believe the Self is only 30 and already has such a promising career. She’s made Forbes “30 under 30” as well as been recognized as a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant recipient.
She received her B.A. from Bard College in 2012, and her M.F.A. in painting and printmaking from Yale. She's represented by Eva Presenhuber Gallery in New York.
Great Articles
“10 things to know about Tschabalala Self” (Christies)
“Meet Fast-Rising Artist Tschabalala Self” - (Galerie Magazine)
“Tschabalala Self’s Avatars of Black Womanhood” (Hyperallergic)
