Tess Jaray | Megan Piper

Biography

Tess Jaray was born in Vienna in 1937. She studied at St Martin’s College of Art and Design (1954–1957) and the Slade School of Fine Art (1957–1960), where she subsequently taught for many years.

Examining the geometry of pattern, repetition and colour within her surroundings, Jaray has explored painterly perspective for more than five decades. Her work is characterised by the enigmatic interaction of forms and colours. The patterns she creates suggest spatial ambiguities and shifting structures which work on the viewer’s perceptions in subtle ways. In many of her works, the area of pattern – whether polygons, waves or rectangles – is contained by a strong, grounding background colour, thereby controlling the movement of the forms.

Solo exhibitions include the Whitechapel Gallery (1973), the Ashmolean Museum and Whitworth Art Gallery (1984), and the Serpentine Gallery (1988). Public collections include the British Museum, the Arts Council Collection, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Tate Collection. Her paving designs can be seen in Centenary Square, Birmingham and the forecourt of Victoria Station. In 2010, Jaray was elected a Royal Academician.

Recent publications include The Art of Tess Jaray (2014 – her monograph published by Ridinghouse) and The Blue Cupboard: Inspirations and Recollections (2014 – published by the Royal Academy – a memoir and diary described by the critic Brian Sewell as ‘an enviably beautiful book’), Painting: Mysteries and Confessions (2010 – a collection of Jaray’s writings) and Thresholds (2012 – published by the Royal Academy).

She lives and works in London.

Exhibitions

2017 Celestial Mechanics: Tess Jaray, Linda Karshan, Jeanne Masoero, Megan Piper, London
2017 Into Light, Marlborough Gallery, London
2017 The Light Surrounded, Albertz Benda, New York
2016 Tess Jaray: Dark & Light, Megan Piper, London
2016 The Edge of Printing, Royal Academy of Arts, London *
2016 TURN THE COLOUR DOWN!, Turps Gallery, London *
2016 Tell it Slant, Frith Street Gallery, London *
2016 Extra Terrestrial: Tess Jaray and Alison Wilding, East GalleryNUA, Norwich *
2015 Art15: Tess Jaray and Paul de Monchaux *
2015 From Centre, Slate Projects, London *
2014 Landscapes of Space, Djanogly Art Gallery, Nottingham
2013 The Edge of Painting, The Piper Gallery, London *
2013 Drawings: Mel Bochner, Robert Holyhead, Ann-Marie James, Tess Jaray, Bridget Riley, Alison Wilding, Karsten Schubert, London *
2012 Mapping the Unseeable, The Piper Gallery, London
2012 New Possibilities: Abstract Paintings from the Seventies, The Piper Gallery, London *
2009 Jerwood Drawing Prize, Jerwood Space, London *
2009 The Rise of Women Artists, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool *
2008 , Lyon & Turnball, London
2003 , Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
2001 , Clifford Chance, London
2001 , Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
1988 , Serpentine Gallery, London
1984 , Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
1984 , Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
1973 Tess Jaray, Marc Vaux: Recent Paintings, Whitechapel Gallery, London
1969 , Axiom Gallery, London
1965 , Hamiltons Gallery, London
1963 , Grabowski Gallery, London