What artists are doing now. Liliane Tomasko in New York
An inspiration and mutual solidarity project for the creative industries
In the current situation, clearly our top priority is to take care of our families, friends and fellow citizens. Nevertheless, while public life is paralyzed and museums, galleries and cultural institutions are closed, in many of us neither the urge to work nor the creative spark have disappeared. In fact, quite the opposite is happening in what is turning out to be a time that befits self-reflection and the generation of new ideas for the future. Although we are at home and self-isolating, we all – artists, creatives and Arterritory.com – continue to work, think and feel. As a sort of gesture of inspiration and ‘remote’ mutual solidarity, we have launched the project titled What Artists Are Doing Now, with the aim of showing and affirming that neither life nor creative energy are coming to a stop during this crisis. We have invited artists from all over the world to send us a short video or photo story illustrating what they are doing, what they are thinking, and how they are feeling during this time of crisis and self-isolation. All artist stories will be published on Arterritory.com and on our Instagram and Facebook accounts. We at Arterritory.com are convinced that creativity and positive emotions are good for the immune system and just might help us better navigate through these difficult times.
From her studio in New York, Swiss artist Liliane Tomasko answers a short questionnaire by Arterritory.com:
Are you working on any projects right now in your studio? If so, could you briefly describe them?
I have been working on organizing the material for a monograph over these last few weeks. It was supposed to be launched on the occasion of a mid-career survey exhibition, due to open this year at the end of June at the Mattatoio in Rome. Needless to say, everything that was planned for this year has mostly been pushed to 2021 and it remains to be seen what will happen next.
My husband and I have a studio, which is a five-minute drive from where we live and we take turns homeschooling and looking after our 10-year-old son, keeping to a schedule not unlike before the pandemic unfolded. It allows us both to have a little time to work each day. At the moment I am working on a series of black oil stick on canvas paper, drawing freely and without filter. I will try to make one every day until I run out of the canvas pads. The whole series of works made in this period carries the title Hold on to Yourself and also includes paintings that were created during the time of lockdown.
What is your recipe for survival in a time of almost only bad news?
Keep things simple. Go about your daily routine with purpose and care, and pay attention to what is in front of you. I feel this is an opportunity for all of us to rethink our way of life, to reflect on what we have done to our home, this beautiful planet, and why we have acted in this way, and last but not least, to acknowledge the fact that to have life, to be living, is nothing short of miraculous. So in other words, think, feel, and go deeper.
What is something that we all (each of us, personally) could do to make the world a better place when this disaster comes to an end? It is clear that the world will no longer be the same again, but at the same time...there is a kind of magic in every new beginning.
I sincerely hope we won’t return to the way things were prior to this crisis. We are at a crossroads, collectively speaking, and we are being given the opportunity to become more conscious of how we as individuals affect our surroundings. We are invited to embrace a more simple and direct way of life, away from the rampant consumerism and superficial complexities we have seen creeping into our world during these last few decades. This pandemic is not some arbitrary threat but a disaster that was waiting to happen.
The art world and the culture sector is one of the most affected. What is the main lesson the art world should learn from all this? How do you imagine the post-apocalyptic art scene?
It is the people around the globe living in poverty who are most affected by what’s happening, not the art world or the culture sector. But since this crisis is having a profound effect on the economy, indeed a devastating one, we will see a different kind of art market, perhaps a more sober one, which is a good thing in my opinion. Artists will continue to make art as they adapt to these new circumstances, and find ways to be creative, as they have throughout the various periods in history. There will definitely be a reduction of everything in the aftermath of this crisis: fewer artists and galleries, less art fairs and consultants, and as we redefine our relationship to what is essential in life, what carries meaning and what is worth holding onto, we shall give shape to a new, and better reality.
Liliane Tomasko. Hold on to yourself, 2020. All the paintings and works on paper are done since the Covid-19 lockdown.
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Liliane Tomasko’s (b. 1967, Zurich, Switzerland) abstract paintings employ a distinctive, bold lyricism, with an equally unabashed sense of colour. The artist often begins with a study of the personal effects of everyday domesticity such as bedding or clothing to create work that suggests a gateway into the realms of sleep and dreaming; delving into the gulf between what we understand as the ‘conscious’ and ‘subconscious.’ This new series of paintings display an increasing vitality and assertiveness, articulating an abstraction that is rooted in the physical realm but attempting a departure from it. Intense colour, subtle tone, shadows and painterly gesture are woven together in such a way that space comes in and out of focus, suspending one’s perception of them and emulating the clarity or lack thereof of dreams and memories
Recent solo exhibitions include: dark goes lightly, Chateau la Coste, France,(2019); The Red Thread, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, (2019); Caja de sueños , Museo MATE, Lima (2018); 12 nights x dreams, Rockland Center for the Arts, New York State (2018); Kunstwerk,(two-person exhibition with Sean Scully), Sammlung Klein, Germany (2017); Sean Scully + Liliane Tomasko, Fundación Bancaja, Valencia (2016); Mother-Matrix-Matter, Lowe Art Museum, Miami (2015); In Visible World, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ, USA (2015) and dusk at dawn, Kunsthalle Rostock, Germany (2015). Recent group exhibitions include: Abstract Painting Now!Kunsthalle Krems, Austria, (2017); Park, Holly’s Gallery, Guangzhou, China (co-presented by Kerlin Gallery), (2017); Couleurs Contemporaines, Centre D’Art de Chateauvert, France, (2014) and Hôtel des Arts, Centre Méditerranéen D’Art, Toulon, France, (2009).
Tomasko’s work is represented in the collections of The Albertina, Vienna, AU; Bank Vontobel AG, Zurich, CH; Hilti Art Foundation, Schaan, LI; Hôtel des Arts, Centre Méditerranéen D’Art, Toulon, FR; Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, IE; IVAM-Institut Valencia d’Art Modern, Valencia, ES; K20 K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, DE; Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, CH; Lowe Art Museum, Miami, US; Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, DE; Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, DE; Sammlung Klein, Eberdingen-Nussdorf, DE; Try-Me Collection, Richmond, Virginia, US; VMFA Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, US.
