Tamar Mason (b. 1966, Johannesburg) lives and works in Mbombela, South Africa. She received a Fine Arts Diploma from the Scuola Lorenzo dei Medici, Florence (1987) and a BA from the University of South Africa (1993). She worked with rural women’s community projects from 1987 until 2002 on a project-to-project basis, teaching embroidery and business skills, before moving to focus on her own individual practice.
Exhibitions include National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C.; Museu Inima De Paula, Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg; Rijswijk Textile Biennial, Museum Rijswijk, The Netherlands; Museum Africa, Johannesburg; and Pretoria Art Gallery and Museum, Tshwane. Collections include Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; The Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Museu Inimá de Paula, Belo Horizonte; The Origins Centre, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg; Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Gqeberha; Wits Art Museum, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg; University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI; Art Bank of South Africa, Bloemfontein; Robert Devereux Collection, UK; Constitutional Court Art Collection, Johannesburg; and Mpumalanga Legislature Collection, Mbombela.
Mason is Co-Director of The Artists' Press, a lithography studio that prints and publishes editions by artists across South Africa, including William Kentridge.