Tanya Goel’s works are notable for their exploration of a rigorous abstraction that is deeply invested in the process of their creation. The artist makes her own pigments from a diverse array of materials including charcoal, Aluminum, concrete, glass, soil, mica, graphite and foils, many sourced from sites of architectural demolitions in and around New Delhi. She is interested in the textures of her pigments as well as their colors, which is a direct result of how they reflect light. Her compositions, noted for their density and complexity, are mathematical formulas which are established and then violated, resulting in a balance between structure and chaos. Goel’s paintings can also be read as linguistic systems, as meaning is constructed only through laborious repetition.

The artist is interested in the idea of the Screen, which painting has always been analogous with. We can trace the Screen through the trajectory of Art History from the flatness of Egyptian art to the simulated three-dimensional space of the Renaissance, back to the flatness of Modernist Abstraction. Goel’s works elaborate a dialogue for painting acknowledging the digital screens in which most of our information and images now reside, exploring both the limitations and the freedoms to be found within this flux.

Tanya Goel was born in New Delhi in 1985 and studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University, Baroda and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, before completing her Master’s Degree in Fine Arts from Yale University in 2010. She has had two solo shows with Nature Morte in New Delhi (2018 and 2019) and two with Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke in Mumbai (2011 and 2015). In May 2019, Nature Morte presented a solo show of new works by the artist at the Highline Nine Galleries, Chelsea, New York. Her works are in the collections of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi; The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; The Art Gallery of Alberta, Canada; and the UBS Bank, Zurich; Istanbul Museum ; Louis Vuitton Collection of art and The Lalbhai Museum – Indio Museum. She was a participating artist in both the Sydney and Gwangju Biennales in 2018. Currently a site-specific work, titled, ‘index V’, is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as a part of ‘fault lines’, curated by Amanda Sroka.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

• 2022:
  Optics and Duration, Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium
• 2020:
  Equations in a Variable, Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne, Switzerland
  Pause in a Flicker (Online Viewing Room), Nature Morte, New Delhi, India
• 2019:
  This, the Sublime, and its Double, Highline Nine Galleries, New York, USA
• 2017–2018:
  This, the Sublime, and its Double, Nature Morte, New Delhi, India
• 2015:
  LEVEL, Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai, India
• 2011:
  Left from Here, Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai, India

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

• 2021:
  On Site, Bikaner House, New Delhi, India
  Frieze Art Fair, London, UK, Presented by Nature Morte
• 2020:
  Fault Lines: Contemporary Abstraction by Artists from South Asia, Philadelphia Museum of Art Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  India Art Fair, New Delhi, India
• 2019:
  Visions Exchange: Perspectives from India to Canada, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Canada
  Shadow lines, Experiments with Light, Line and Liminality, Shrine Empire, New Delhi, India
• 2018:
  Imagined Borders, The 12th Gwangju Biennale, Curated by Clara Kim, Gwangju, South Korea
  Vision Exchange: Perspectives from India to Canada, Curated by Catherine Crowston and Jonathan
  Shaughnessy, Art Gallery of Alberta and the National Gallery of Canada, Canada
  Wasteland, Curated by Birgid Uccia, Tarq, Mumbai, India
  Aspirational Architectures, Curated by Justine Ludwig, Fridman Gallery, New York, USA
  SUPERPOSITION: Equilibrium & Engagement, 21st Biennale of Sydney, Curated by Mami Kataoka, Sydney, Australia
  India Art Fair, New Delhi, India, Presented by Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke
• 2016:
  DWELLING, 10th Anniversary Show, Curated by Ranjit Hoskote, Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai, India
  Abstract Chronicle, Curated by Girish Shanane, Gallery OED, Kochi, India
• 2014:
  Experiments with Truth and Time, Museum of Conflict, Ahmedabad, India
• 2013:
  Sarai Reader Exhibition, Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi, India
  Un Popola Senza Memoria E Un Popola Senza Futuro, Curated by Sumesh Sharma and Serena
  Trinchero, Casa Masaccio Arte Contemporanea, San Giovanni Valdarno, Italy
  India Art Fair, New Delhi, India, Presented by Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke
• 2012:
  Salaam Bombay: Beauty and Chaos within the Urban Environment, Curated by Jasmine Wahi, Art Asia Miami, and Twelve Gates Arts, Philadelphia, USA
  ART HK12, Hong Kong International Art Fair, Hong Kong, Presented by Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke
  City as Studio 2, SARAI, New Delhi, India
• 2011:
  Cabarnet Initiatives, Northside Open Studios, Brooklyn, New York, USA
  OPT (Working Title), Curated by Arthur Brum, Gallery White Flag, New York, USA
• 2010:
  City as Studio, SARAI, New Delhi, India
• 2009:
  Ten Ton Lid, Greene Gallery, New Haven, USA
  Sam’s Space, Yale School of Art, New Haven, USA

AWARDS

• 2012:
  City as Studio Fellowship, SARAI, New Delhi, India
• 2010:
  Elizabeth Canfield Hicks award for Painting and Drawing,
  Yale School of Art, New Haven, USA

RESIDENCIES

• 2011:
  SARAI, New Delhi, India
  Vermont Studio Centre, Vermont, US