In these new works he brings a quizzical eye to the largely unconscious actions of seduction, desire and gratification. For the artist, that which is on display is only successful in as much as it activates the imagination, hinting at something tantalisingly out of reach; in the 'back room' as the artist says โ unseen and unknown.
Keeping us on the outside is a deliberate creative strategy. Working from photographs, some sent by friends and acquaintances from around the world, Tal R is on the outside too: shut out by closed doors and frosted windows, which he paints with varying degrees of abstraction in dazzlingly seductive hues. But what is actually inside the image? From anonymous doorways to brightly-patterned windows, there are distinct shifts in tone and mood โ compare the relatively subdued colour scheme of Zwanglos , meaning 'relaxed' in German , a Berlin swingers club, with the cheerful candy stripes of Venus , Yet, as to the venues themselves, and what kind of experience they might offer, while some paintings hint at what goes on behind closed doors most tell us almost nothing about the exact nature of their business, or even their location.
More often, though, the paintings confirm that, whether in Antwerp, Prague, Tel Aviv or LA, these venues, untouched by corporate identity, exist in a parallel world of homespun graphic design and occasionally lost-in-translation signage.
The paintings operate on different levels. There are the plain facts of the scene, cleanly delineated, but also an undercurrent of modernist abstraction, their lattices of doors and windows offering readymade grids that, inevitably, bring to mind names such as Malevich or Mondrian.
Any anthropomorphic reading of his windows and doors is between the viewer and their subconscious. At the same time, limiting opportunity for addition and revision, this process has resulted in a series of stripped-back compositions.
