Tess Tallula's work is multilayered and mixed media, blending textiles and craft techniques with traditional two and three dimensional art forms. Recurring characters inhabit her soft hued dreamscapes, ribbon faeries and spiders, swans and small black creatures. Rooted in a lineage of creatives and trained formally at Oxford Brookes, Tess's creations serve as both a celebration and a means of survival. Through her practice and play, she navigates themes of memory, emotion, and interconnectedness, inviting viewers on their own introspective journeys. Processing time in a nebulous, nonlinear way, Tess Tallula wades back through her childhood, preserving each connection with humans, animals, plants and spirits. Saccharine memento mori, smiling skulls, flowers and ghostly spirits act as a way to process grief and celebrate the circularity of life and our place in the universe. These seemingly otherworldly or fantastical scenes are intensely familiar recreations of something innate and unspoken.
Exhibitions
2024 Potluck, Phantasmal Gallery, 44AD, Bath
2023 Temporary Autonomous Art, London
2023 Bimbo Pop, Pineapple Black, Middlesborough
2022 Our Fragile Earth, St Mary's Church, Oakley
2020 SCRAN, Cafe Etch, Middlesborough
2019 Pets, TOMA, Southend
2019 Fandom, Bad Art, London
2019 Lead for LAPER, Headington Hill Hall, Oxford
2019 Fandom, a 'BAD ART' exhibition by Blobby Boys, Bones and Pearl, London.
2019 Pleasure Palace, The Medicine Gallery
2018 Squash and Stretch Book Launch, Modern Art Oxford
2018 Blob E, Celebrations, Oxford
2018 Hoi Polloi, Oxford Brookes, Oxford
2018 Stretch and Squash International Performance Event, Headington Hill Hall, Oxford
2017 Soapbox Art and Science, Oxford
2017 Psychedelic Circus, Performance, East Oxford Community Centre, Oxford
2017 The Goodlife, Performance, Bullingdon Arms, Oxford
2017 Cabaret Melancholique, Peckham Liberal Club, London
2017 Situate, Oxford Brookes, Oxford
2017 A Sense of Space, A Letter in Mind, Oxo Tower, London
2017 Reclaiming Spaces, Fusion, Oxford
2017 7 Countries open, Ovada, Oxford
2017 Intrusion, 2 Kingdom Street, Paddington, London
2017 Elastic, Performance Event, Oxford Brookes, Oxford
2017 ‘Where’s the Art?’ CARU, Ovada, Oxford
2016 Jam, Oxford Brookes, Oxford
2016 Sleep On It, Solo Intervention, And So To Bed, Oxford
2016 A View on Nature, A Letter in Mind, Oxo Tower, London
2016 Psychedelic Circus, Art Performance, Cellar, Oxford
2015 Evolve, Oxford Brookes, Oxford
2015 .472, Ovada, Oxford
2015 The Art of a Journey, A Letter in Mind, Oxo Tower, London
Commissions
2022 Picnic Picknick, Oxford Leiden Link, Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
2022 The Other Art Show, Artistic Direction, Licklemor Productions, Sky Arts
2020 Unmuted Set Design and Artistic Direction, Licklemor Productions, Sky Arts
2020 Trumpington Park School, The Insect Breeding Institute, Cambridge County Council
2018 Ceramic Sculpture, Nuffield Hospital, Oxford
2018 Sensory Room, Sobell House hospice, Oxford
2016 Commemorative Sculpture, Oxford Brookes Nursing Department
2007 Mama Youth Project Logo Design
Awards
2017 Rishi Mullett Sadones Memorial Prize
Education
2018 Fine Art BA Hons, Oxford Brookes University
2015 Art and Design Foundation Diploma, Oxford Brookes University