Tamlin Blake
Tamlin Blake at work in 2009
Born1974
Johannesburg
NationalitySouth African
Websitetamlinblake.com

Tamlin Blake (born 1974) is a South African mixed media artist living and working in Riebeeck West. The major themes of Blake's work revolve around cross-cultural South African symbols of wealth and status and, more recently, what constitutes and underpins each individuals sense of belonging.[1] Her sculptural pieces often transcend boundaries between illustration, craft, and art, using weaving, beading, and drawing, amongst other media.[2]

The main body of Blake's beaded art works took the form of South African stamps finely woven using glass seed beads.[3][4] “By replicating these original stamps in a traditional craft idiom that has such a strong association with indigenous African cultures , Blake offers a genteel but acerbic reference to [South Africa’s] troubled past.” (Innes 2012: pg20 ISBN 978-0-620-52880-1).

While working on her own bead art Blake helped Jeanetta Blignaut, to establish a bead studio which today exists as the Qubeka Bead Studio, a collaborative owned by the bead artists themselves.

After this Tamlin used a variety of different media including three-dimensional pieces in felt and beads to explore the use of farm animals as valued commodities and symbols of wealth and status across the boundaries of race and culture.[5][6]

Blake's more recent work consists of tapestries woven out of recycled and hand-spun newspaper [7][8] a collection of which were bought by The Spier Holdings Contemporary Art Collection [9]

Career

Education

Blake received a master's degree in Fine Art from the University of Stellenbosch in 2001.[10] Blake majored in sculpture during her undergraduate studies, and then specialised in botanical art.[11]

Select group exhibitions

  • Brett Kebble Art Awards, Merit Award, Cape Town (2003)
  • Synergy, exhibition of contemporary bead art at Iziko Michaelis Collection, Cape Town (2005–2006)
  • South African Art: Signs, Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum in Bratislava (2007)
  • Skin-toSkin: Challenging Textile Art, Kaunas Art Biennial TEXTILE 07 in Lithuania (2007)
  • Spier Contemporary Exhibition, Cape Town (2007–2008)
  • South African Pavilion, World Expo 2010, Shanghai, China (2010)[1]
  • Tamlin Blake, presented at the Spier Booth at the FNB Joburg Art Fair (2012)Spier presents Tamlin Blake at the 2012 Joburg Art Fair

Collections

  • Contemporary Collection for The New Hollard House at Villa Arcadia Hollard Insurance
  • The Spier Holdings Contemporary Art Collection Spier
  • South African Breweries
  • Meulensteen Collection, Slovakia
  • Nandos (UK)Nandos
  • Water Colour Society of Ireland at the University of Limerick (Ireland)[12]
  • Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie Mellon University (USA)[1][13]
  • Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Tasmania, Australia

Works

Inherited Space

Mural at the Spier Wine Estate in Stellenbosch.[11]

Awards

  • Merit Award, Brett Kebble Art Awards, Cape Town (2003)
  • Silver medal, Kirstenbosch Biennale, Kirstenbosch Gardens, South Africa (2002)
  • Silver-Gilt medal, Royal Horticultural Society Botanical Art Show, RHS, London (2002)
  • Top graduate student of the year, Department of Fine Art, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

References

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