Tau Lewis @ Atlanta Contemporary

Tau Lewis
Atlanta Contemporary
Through February 25, 2018 

TAU LEWIS makes sculptures primarily with plaster and resin that address her Black Canadian hybrid identity. She casts her own body or the bodies of her friends as a way of turning the vulnerability lens on themselves exploring topics of individuality, collective identity, memory, self-image, gender, and sexuality. While the subjects of the faces she works with are very much alive, they frequently have their eyes closed – giving the feel of a death mask, a memento of the deceased that many cultures have used as a portrait or way of knowing and remembering those we have lost. She adds color to the masks by grinding and blending different artist chalk pastels each labeled ‘skin-tone’ or ‘flesh-tone,’ in a display of white privilege that is rampant through the Americas. Tau Lewis’ masks are likenesses of herself, are the features of black bodies, but without the pigmentation of African skin. This sense of placelessness and disembodiment and a true need for tangible self-understanding in a Canada whose cultural imaginary overwhelmingly white that runs incredibly deep in Tau Lewis’ work.

This exhibition continues Atlanta Contemporary’s efforts to present and debut newly commissioned work by national/international artists. Tau Lewis’ exhibition is a fully new body of work.

TAU LEWIS (b. 1993, Toronto) Solo and two-person exhibitions: Copper Cole Gallery, Toronto; 8-11 Gallery, Toronto; The Pendulum Project at Studio 223a, Toronto. Recent group exhibitions include: New Museum, New York; Night Gallery, Los Angeles; Sleep Center, New York; Galleri Tom Christo ersen, Copenhagen; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Cooper Cole, Toronto; Art Gallery of York University, Toronto; 116 Geary Ave, Toronto. Tau Lewis lives and works in Toronto, Canada.

ATLANTA CONTEMPORARY
535 Means Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
atlantacontemporary.org