CV
Contact


        
info@roseeaston.com
tasneemsarkez@gmail.com
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  


B. 2002, Portland, OR.
Based in New York, NY


Employing an aesthetic she describes as "Arab kitsch," the New York based artist Tasneem Sarkez works across various media to create works that are united by an elegant marriage of pop culture visuals and potent symbolism. Elements of autobiography combine with broader mainstream signifiers, often nodding to American media and culture, in an ongoing exploration of her own experience of living in the diaspora as an Arab woman. The culture of the internet, with its ability to disseminate and recontextualise images on a global scale, is influential on her practice, as is a more art-historical interest in both romance and poetics. She has described her work as being intended to evoke a feeling of "Apricity," an old-fashioned word that refers to the experience of feeling the rays of the sun in winter: a revelation of something real and warm hidden beneath the cool, slick surface of commercial imagery.

Selected exhibitions include: ‘SLxRE (New York)’ - Silke Lindner (New York, NY, 2024), ‘Art Brussels’ - Rose Easton Gallery (Brussels, BE, 2024), ‘Dirt in the Eye’ - Gnossienne Gallery (London, UK, 2024), ‘Saccharine Symbols’ - Rose Easton Gallery (London, UK 2023), ‘Me and you and me and’ - SADE Gallery (Los Angeles, 2023), ‘Beginner's Luck’ - Rosenberg Gallery (New York, 2023), ‘Transversal: Where We Come From and Where We Are Going’ - 80 WSE Gallery (New York, 2023), ‘Printing the Future’ - Diefirma Gallery (New York 2022).

In 2023 she received the Martin Wong Award from the Martin Wong Foundation. Her work is in the collection of the Thomas J. Watson Library in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and FORMA Arts, London, UK.





Education


New York University - Steinhardt Honors/Tandon School of Engineering BFA (2020-2024)

Selected Solo/Two-Person Exhibitions/Fairs

Rose Easton, London, UK (2025)
Romance, Pittsbrugh, US (2025)

Selected Exhibitions/Fairs

SLxRE, Silke Lindner Gallery, New York, NY (2024)
WANAWAL Archives, curated by Evar Hussayni, FORMA Arts, London, UK (2024)
Art Brussels, Rose Easton gallery, Brussels, BE (2024)
Landscapes of Ornamentation, curated by Marie Catalano, 80 WSE Gallery, Broadway Windows Gallery, New York, NY (2024)
Dirt in the Eye, curated by Sahand NezamabadGnossienne Gallery, group show with Anna Clegg, Uccella Khan-Thomas, and Polly Plowden, London, UK (2024)

I THREW MYSELF IN A CONCRETE MIXER, Gallatin Galleries, New York, NY (2023)
Saccharine Symbols, Rose Easton Gallery, three-person show with Marisa Kriangwiwat Holmes & Shamrian Istifan, London, UK (2023)
Me and You and Me and, SADE Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2023)
SPEW, curated by Violet Cheverez and Coco, Waste Gallery Space, London, UK (2023)
Beginner’s Luck, two-person show with Sarah Carliner, Rosenberg Gallery NYU, New York, NY (2023)

Printed Matter: East Village Zine Fair, Performance Space, New York, NY, (2023)
Brooklyn Art Book Fair, Amant Foundation, New York, NY (2023)
Creating Futures: Education for Employment (EFE) Auction
, New York, NY (2023)
Transversal: Where We Come From and Where We Are Going, 80 WSE Gallery, New York, NY (2023)

Printing the Future: Riso Revolution, curated by Panayiotis Terzis, Diefirma NYC Gallery, New York, NY (2022)
Kitchen Sink, Postcrypt Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY (2022)
Printed Matter: New York Art Book Fair, 548 W 22nd St, New York, NY (2022)
Retracing Home, two-person show with Oscar Garay, Rosenberg Gallery NYU, New York, NY (2022)
Growth Axis, 80 WSE Gallery, New York, NY (2022)

Liminal Space, curated by Annabelle Park, 42 Rivington St, New York, NY (2021)
LKTV exhibition with Lino Kino Collective x Hotbed Micro gallery, Philadelphia, PA (2021)
BC/DC, New York University, Virtual USAO (Undergraduate Student Art Organization) (2021)
Erotica, Postcrypt Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY (2021)
LKTV exhibition with Lino Kino Collective x Auto Mat gallery, Philadelphia, PA (2021)


Selected Publications

“’SLxRE (New York)’ at Silke Lindner, New York, Mousse Magazine (2024)
“SLxRE (New York),” Contemporary Art Library (2024)
“These Gallerists Have Transatlantic Chemistry” by Sofia Holström, Elephant Magazine (2024)
“Tasneem Sarkez” for KIDZ 2023 curated by Raphaelle Bellanger & Anna Gardere, Book (2024)
“Tasneem Sarkez” for Lilypad Issue #5,  Print Magazine (2024)
“SPECIAL FEATURE: Art Brussels 2024 (Part 1),” Art Viewer (2024)
“Tasneem Sarkez in conversation with Clyde Nichols” by Clyde Nichols, Overstandard (2024)

“Tasneem ‘Neem’ Sarkez on confronting the translational abstraction of Arabness” by Sarah Sadia Daoui, AZEEMA Magazine (2023)
“Saccharine Symbols - A Sweet Tooth for Politics” by David Valero, Metal Magazaine (2023) 
“Sugar-Coated Realities: An Interview With the Artists of ‘Saccharine Symbols’” by Rosie Fitter, Elephant Magazine (2023)
“Art shows to leave the house for in december 2023” by Ashleigh Kane, DAZED (2023)
“Saccharine Symbols”, Contemporary Art Library (2023)
“Saccharine Symbols at Rose Easton,” émergent Magazine (2023)
“Neem Sarkez is a Designhead” by Sahir Ahmed, Pink Essay (2023)
“Photography Then” by Clyde Nichols, ArtSeen - Brooklyn Rail (2023)
"A Show of Firsts" by Tasneem Sarkez, Read Copy Co (2023)
“Studio Diaries” by Tasneem Sarkez, Read Copy Co (2023)

Scratch Zine, Vol. 5 , Print Magazine (2022)

“What’s Gone is Dead” by Tasneem Sarkez, Asterisk* Journal for Art & Art History Issue #004, Yale University (2021)
Scratch Zine, Vol.3 "In Process", Print Magazine (2021)

Visceral 8 second issue "NOW" (2020)


Awards

Martin Wong 2023 Award, Martin Wong Foundation and the Department of Art and Art Professions, New York University (2023)


Public Collections

FORMA Arts, London, UK
Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY




مَا شَاءَ ٱللَّٰه