Tomma Abts (1967 − )
Tomma Abts was born in Kiel, Germany, in 1967 and currently lives and works in London.
She won the Turner Prize in 2006, after being selected for exhibitions at Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland and at Greengrassi, the gallery in South-east London she is represented by.
Abts develops her paintings slowly over time, by an intuitive process of layering and overpainting through which the painting's final form emerges. Through early experimentation with scale and structure she came to her now standard format of 48 x 38 cm canvasses. Meticulously crafted, Abts' works at first appear abstract, populated with geometric forms, but the artist is keen to distance herself from such readings, preferring to see her paintings more as objects in themselves. She titles - perhaps 'names' is a more appropriate term - her works carefully and deliberately, selecting from a dictionary of first names. The act of naming marks the painting as finished.
Reference list:
www.tate.org
www.greengrassi.com
Glossary
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Painting
Work of art made with paint on a surface. Often the surface, also called a support, is a tightly stretched piece of canvas, paper or a wooden panel. Painting involves a wide range of techniques and materials, along with the artist's intellectual concerns effecting the content of a work.
