Pippy Houldsworth Gallery is delighted to announce representation of South African artist Tamar Mason (b. 1966, Johannesburg), whose first solo exhibition with the gallery will take place from 15 November 2024 to 4 January 2025.
Mason works primarily in textiles, but is also known for her ceramics, prints and architectural commissions. Her choice of media, traditionally associated with women's work, ornament, and domesticity, confronts perceived divisions between art and craft, and allows Mason to integrate artistic practices more closely into daily life. Her work further explores the meeting of urban and rural, and historical and contemporary, while probing themes such as national identity, the environment, and motherhood. Mason draws on the geography and history of South Africa, incorporating personal experience and broader cultural narratives into her work.
Much of Mason’s work references rural areas of South Africa, places with rich historical and cultural significance but where basic government services are failing local communities. An enduring legacy of exploitation and suffering mars these neglected locales, which are adversely affected by climate change and ecological crises. In densely embroidered textiles, Mason explores the permanent record that societies leave on the land, in contrast to the transience of human lives on the planet. Through references to local narratives, archaeology, biodiversity, and topography, Mason considers the social memory of the landscape, memorialising tensions that are still felt today.
Tamar Mason 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). Mason 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; Rijswijk Textile Biennial, Museum Rijswijk; Museum Africa, Johannesburg; and Pretoria Art Gallery and Museum, Tshwane. In 2020, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery presented an online exhibition of Mason's work as part of INSIGHT, an online platform dedicated to debuting new or rarely seen works by an artist alongside a video presentation. 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.
