membership / artist member

Tess Jaray

http://www.tessjaray.com
download cv here

biography

Tess Jaray was born in Vienna, and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, where she subsequently taught for many years.

In 1960 she was awarded the Abbey Minor travelling scholarship to Italy, and the French Government scholarship. She had her first individual exhibition of paintings at the Grabowski Gallery in 1963, and since then has exhibited regularly in Britain and abroad.

Her public solo exhibitions include the Whitechapel Gallery in 1973, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, in 1984, and the Serpentine gallery, London, in 1988. Collections include the British Museum, the Arts Council, the V & A Museum and Tate Gallery, London. Her public commissions include Centenary Square,Birmingham, Wakefield Cathedral Precinct, and the forecourt for the New British Embassy in Moscow.

Tess Jaray was featured in Contemporary Art Society's ARTfutures 2008 held at Bloomberg SPACE, London.

statement

When people ask what is it? or what is it meant to represent? I have to say it is not in the mind’s eye but rather in the eye’s mind.

Looked at literally or for narrative it could be seen as just a curtain hanging on a window, or one of those cords hung between balconies in the narrow alleyways of Naples to dry the washing, or netting hung against mosquitoes, or in a doorway to keep out the sun or weather or people or insects.

Or it could be none of those things but a metaphoric curtain hung not only to keep something out but also to let one look in, or maybe look out, perhaps without being seen or recognised, like those lattices in Middle Eastern houses where the women must be kept inside, or like pieces of cloth where if you look closely you become mesmerised by the repeated woven pattern of the wool or cotton or silk, or even plainly coloured textiles where the colour is dyed all the way through so it doesn’t just sit on the surface but appears to be made of colour itself, and the light catches the angle of the weave so a slight, subtle, undulating form is revealed which is remarkably satisfying.

Or if you really look carefully, very carefully, you might just perceive the curve changing, slowly, very slowly, so that by the time it gets to the bottom edge it is quite straight.

- Tess Jaray 2009