Tamara Malcher, The Three Graces, 2020, acrylic paint and pastels on canvas, 135 x 210 cm
Tamara Malcher, The Three Graces, 2020, acrylic paint and pastels on canvas, 135 x 210 cm

“The decision to choose being an artist consequently for my future life came with time. I want this. And I am fully aware of the difficulties that come with this decision.”

Name

Tamara Malcher

Profession

Artist

Website 

tamaramalcher.com

Tamara Malcher 2020 © Galerie Droste
Tamara Malcher 2020 © Galerie Droste

Who are you? What do you do?

I am a painter from Münster, Germany. In my work I deal with the ‘image of the woman’ which is always connected with the ‘image of painting’ – a conglomerate of expectations, traditional symbols and ‘rules of presentation’ which have shaped our habits of seeing. In my paintings I try to question such possible expectations (as well as what is ‘allowed’ or ‘forbidden’) to consciously break with them – liberate them. My female and fruit bodies are filled to bursting with energy and colour. The surfaces are tense and the forms are full of activity. Freed from the rigid profile of old-fashioned leanings and set into naked movements the physical space, that a body forms, is here completely utilized, is animated to the limits of the skin and beyond that – it is alive. A mystical, modern human being who is in motion with his environment. In an eternal attempt to assert freedom in this smallest unit – the own body. 

Where are you from?

Münster, Germany

Your style in 3 words?

voluminous, colourful, free

Tamara Malcher, kleines grün, 2020, acrylic paint and pastels on canvas, 130x100cm
Tamara Malcher, kleines grün, 2020, acrylic paint and pastels on canvas, 130x100cm

Your weakness? Your strength?

My anxieties, my lack of trust in the future / My joie de vivre, my enthusiasm.

What makes you different

My use of colour and paint, my figures, my inventions…

When did you decide to become an artist?

The decision to choose being an artist consequently for my future life, came with time. I want this. And I am fully aware of the difficulties that come with this decision.

Tamara Malcher, Hula Hoop V  2020 acrylic paint and pastels on canvas 33 x 30 cm
Tamara Malcher, Hula Hoop V 2020 acrylic paint and pastels on canvas 33 x 30 cm

What do you find most fascinating about your work?

To make art means to deal with everything that exceeds our reason, with what cannot be grasped by language. If we could say it, explain it, understand it, we wouldn’t need to make art. I think to deal with these uncertainties daily is one thing that is so exciting about making art for me. The same applies to the artistic process. When I paint, I do not have to ‚understand‘ anything. This tool ‚understanding‘, which I apply to everything else, simply does not work. And in the end others are confronted with my artwork and feel something from this energy, they hopefully can take something of it for their own. I would say that even has a touch of magic.

A few words about your favourite creation?

I like ‚the three graces‘ because I didn’t do too much. Maybe I made the right jump. The motives are direct and the painting style is too – both are not contradictory, I think that’s important. At the same time the topic is complex. I’m still waiting for a painting, clear as this one, to happen again…

Someone else’s work that inspired or inspires you

Mika Rottenbergs Videoworks. She creates a world that is similar to ours but inherits so many strange and suprising inventions that persiflage our habits, thoughts and routines in a way that is aesthetic and at the same time radically complex. She mirrors us the trap we‘re caught in. Her works are very inspiring and important to me.

Tamara Malcher, Lucia 2020 acrylic paint and pastels on canvas 150 x 175 cm
Tamara Malcher, Lucia 2020 acrylic paint and pastels on canvas 150 x 175 cm

Who would you like to work with someday and why?

On Instagram and in current exhibition projects you can see how a generation of female artistic practitioners who use humour and warping in an attempt to dismantle ideas of the traditional gaze on the female body in art, is gaining more and more visibility. I am happy to see that, because I feel like I may belong to this new development, this ‚new female gaze‘, which rids painting off feminine shame. So I would be glad to work with for example Genesis Belanger, Emily Mae Smith, Louise Bonnet, Julie Curtiss, Rose Nestler, Sara Anstis…I am a fan of Shana Moulton and Mika Rottenberg. Working with them must be very inspiring. And the list goes on and on…

A new project coming up or an idea you want to work on?

I think with my next paintings I may go deeper into the jungle. This topic fascinates me. It’s overwhelming and confusing and so rich of colours, forms, live. The jungle is about subconsciousness and new paths to go, about resistance and truth and aberrations – that’s exciting to me. The picturesque possibilities (especially in relation to the question of freedom) are so varied, that attracts me a lot.

Finish the sentence „More important than my career is…“

…the preservation of freedom (including legal freedom) for all people, which was the foundation for me to decide for art in the first place.

Tamara Malcher, Reflections 2020 acrylic paint on canvas 200 x 250 cm
Tamara Malcher, Reflections 2020 acrylic paint on canvas 200 x 250 cm

When the going gets tough…

I lie down and sleep, if possible. Tomorrow will be a new day, according to my previous subjective experience… 

Your city’s favourite spots?

My studio space.

Put on your future vision glasses: What direction is our generation moving in, what will our world look like in 50 years?

I put on the idealistic vision glasses (everything else depresses me):
In 50 years, human rights will hopefully be respected globally (and digitally). The big players will no longer evade taxes and the universal basic income will be introduced. People will be trained to think for themselves and to recognize their own potential and abilities and to live them out. The GDP is abolished and prosperity will be measured by health and happiness as well as by the availability of opportunities to use your individual potential.

Tamara Malcher, Chicken-thief 2019 acrylic paint and pastels on canvas 100 x 100 cm
Tamara Malcher, Chicken-thief 2019 acrylic paint and pastels on canvas 100 x 100 cm

What would you do if you could change the World?

First of all I would try to change the image of humankind. A change from fear to trust. For this I recommend the book “humankind” by Rutger Bregman. If we say goodbye to the misconception that human beings would be destructive and brutal in nature, and start to accept (what science shows us for years now) that we are cooperative in nature, we could change all our systems to cooperation and trust, especially the education system.

If the universe is everything and it’s expanding, what is it expanding into?

Into ‚the other Everything‘ that we cannot understand with ratio…?

Tell us about your future plans….

Painting. Exhibiting. Painting…

Tamara Malcher, Reflection, 2020, acrylic paint and soft pastels on canvas, 195 x 160 cm

Last but not least: what is your favourite Song?

Wow. There are many. Most recently I often listen to Kate Bushs „An endless sky of honey“, a 42 minutes long, crazy song with bird-sounds in it. Somehow it fits very well with my painting mood.In general one of my favourite bands is ‚Admiral Fallow‘. You can pick any song you want from them and it will be good.

One last statement please: „Wood or stone, gold or art?“

Wood because it is alive and has the ability to develop and grow. But I also sympathise with stones because they relativise our sense of time: they are constant and hold us, no matter what happens. Definitely art. Gold cannot heal nor change minds.

Your #…?

#tamaramalcher