Home, sweet home …
A staple of the American dream, the house with the picket fence, gets a toothsome reworking in this typically dreamlike 2018 painting by the Copenhagen-based painter Tal R.
House bound …
It has the simplicity of a children’s drawing yet those fenceposts are worryingly pointy: the gappy grin of a monster mouth. The windows are sombre black. The house keeps its secrets to itself, even as it invites us to imagine the pasts of this forlorn home and its occupants.
Ghost watch …
Tal R has painted mysterious urban spaces before, including sex shop facades and Copenhagen’s streets. This painting was inspired by an abandoned house he saw in Detroit, a potent setting for an artist trailing urban ghosts.
Melt away …
Meaning is elusive in Tal R’s work and he once said that he wants people looking at his paintings to feel that “their ice-cream melts faster than they can eat it”. His work often has bright colour and buzzy geometries, but here what resonates is a sense of loss.
Included in Asger Jorn, Per Kirkeby, Tal R, Victoria Miro Mayfair, N1, to 23 March
