TAMLIN BLAKE
(b. 1974 Johannesburg, South Africa)

Tamlin Blake is a professional multi-media South African artist. A central theme of Blake’s work is a concern with cross-cultural South African symbols of wealth and status. More recently she has become interested in what constitutes and underpins each individual’s sense of belonging and identity. She is influenced by her rural surroundings and the communities who live and work there. A prominent aspect of Blake’s work is her fascination with materials and manipulating new mediums in ways which take them past the merely decorative or prosaic. She was instrumental in developing beading techniques which are now used by various South African artists with the help of the bead studio Qubeka. Her own recent work consists of tapestries woven from re-cycled hand-spun newspaper.

Tamlin Blake holds a Masters Degree in Fine Art from the University of Stellenbosch. She has had eight solo exhibitions to date, the most recent being Revelation: Stories and Secrets Disclosed at CIRCA, Johannesburg (2015). She has also exhibited extensively in group shows nationally and internationally. Her work was included in the Synergy exhibition of contemporary bead art at Iziko Michaelis Collection (2005-06), the South African Art: Signs exhibition held at Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum in Bratislava (2007) and the Skin-to-Skin: Challenging Textile Art show, which formed part of the Kaunas Art Biennial TEXTILE 07 in Lithuania (2007). Her work was exhibited at the Spier Contemporary Exhibition (2008), included in the South African Pavilion at the World Expo 2010 Shanghai China and presented as a Spier Special Project at the FNB Joburg Art Fair in 2012. In 2003 she received the Brett Kebble Merit Award and in 2011 she was invited to the Frans Masereel Centre in Belgium for an artist's residency. Her work can be found in various corporate and public collections.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2015
Revelation: Stories and Secrets Disclosed, CIRCA, Johannesburg, South Africa

2013
Altered Yarns Revisited, online exhibition at out of the Cube

2012
Spier Special Project: Tamlin Blake, The FNB Joburg Art Fair, South Africa
Altered Yarns, Spier Wine Estate, Cape Town, South Africa

2008
Private Spaces, Curious Whetstone and Frankly, Cape Town, South Africa

2007
Birthright, Bell-Roberts Contemporary Art Gallery, Cape Town and 2008 Hollard Gallery Hall, Johannesburg, South Africa

2005
Blood, Sweat and Tears, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2004
Change of Address, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa

2001
Exploring Cremnophytes, Bang the Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2019
SUMMER, Everard Read, London, UK

2015
FNB Joburg Art Fair with Everard Read and Circa Galleries, South Africa
Summer Exhibition, Knysna Fine Art Gallery, South Africa

2013
Small Canvas Project, initiated by the Benetton Foundation and exhibited at Ca’ dei Carraresi, Treviso, Italy (2014) and Museo Bilotti, Rome, Italy (2014) and the Venice Biennale (2015)
SPI National Portrait Award, a portrait competition sponsored by Sanlam PrivateInvestment
Shown at various galleries in South Africa , South Africa

2012
The 8th Definitive Series of Stamps, Iziko Museums of South Africa (South African National Gallery, South Africa

2010
South African Pavilion at the World Expo 2010 Shanghai, China

2009
Keepsakes, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa

2008
Skin-to-Skin: Challenging Textile Art. Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2007-2008
Spier Contemporary 2007. Spier Wine Estate and Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa

2007
Skin-to-Skin: Challenging Textile Art. Kaunas Art Biennial TEXTILE 07, Kaunas, Lithuania
South African Art, Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum. Bratislava, Republic of Slovakia
Portrait and Landscape, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Lourensford, Somerset West, South Africa

2006
2006, print exhibition, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2005-6
Synergy, Iziko Michaelis Collection (South African National Gallery), Old Town House, Greenmarket Square, Cape Town, South Africa

2005
Shaping Place, Grande Provence Estate, Franschhoek, South Africa
Finding You, Collaborative work in clay, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa

2004
11th International Exhibition of Botanical Art and Illustration, Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation,Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA
Doring Dollies, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa
Assemblage, Battersea Affordable Art Fair, London, Uk

2003
Water Colour Society of Ireland Annual Exhibition, Dun Laoighaire, Ireland
show, Queen Victoria and Art Gallery, Tasmania, Australia
 
2002
Fruits of Desire, The Metatron Art Gallery, Co. Wicklow, Ireland Water Colour Society of Ireland
Annual Exhibition, Dun Laoighaire, Ireland
Red Dot Artists. Bartley Dray gallery, 62 Old Church St, Chelsea, London, UK

2001
Botanical Art, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg

1998
Botanical Art, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, RSA
Succulents in Botanical Art, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, RSA

COMPETITIONS AND AWARDS

2005
ABSA l’Atelier Competition, National Exhibition, Johannesburg

2003
Brett Kebble Art Awards, Merit Award, CTICC, Cape Town

2002
Kirstenbosch Biennale, Silver medal, Kirstenbosch Gardens, Cape Town
Royal Horticultural Society Botanical Art Show, Silver-Gilt medal, RHS, London Awarded membership of the Water Colour Society of Ireland (WCSI) (2002 and 2003)

2000
Inaugural Kirstenbosch Exhibition of Botanical Art, Bronze medal, Kirstenbosch, Cape Town

1996
Volkskas L’Atelier Competition, National Exhibition, Johannesburg

1995
Absolute Artistic License, First Prize, held by Absolute Vodka, Annex to the National Gallery, Cape Town
Top graduate student of the year, Department of Fine Art, University of Stellenbosch

RESIDENCIES

2011
Frans Masereel Centre, Kasterlee, Belgium. A three-week residency focusing on two- colour, stone, lithographic
printing

CORPORATE AND PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Iziko Art Collections (South African National Gallery)
Spier Holdings Contemporary Art Collection
The Contemporary Collection for the New Hollard House at Villa Arcadia
South African Breweries
Erma Stern Museum, UCT
Meulensteen Collection, Slovakia
Nandos UK
Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Water Colour Society of Ireland at the University of Limerick
Botany Department of the University of Stellenbosch (commissioned by Dr. Piet Vorster and Dr. Betty Marais)
Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Cape Town (commissioned by Dr. Ernst van Jaarsveld)

BOTANICAL WORK REPRODUCED IN

Flowering Plants of Africa, Volume 58, 2007
Cactus and Succulent Journal. (U.S.), Vol. 73, March-April 2001, no. 2. p 68.
Aloe. (South Africa), Vol. 38, No 1&2, 2001. p 30.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MCINNES, Jackie (2012) Tamlin Blake. Spier ISBN 978-0-620-52880-1
ARNOLD, Marion (Ed.) and ROURKE, John P. (2001) South African Botanical Art: Peeling Back the Petals, Cape
Town: Fernwood Press, p 188. ISBN: 978-1-8749-5054-7
Catalogue: FNB Joburg Art Fair 2012 (Artlogic and Jacana Media: 2012), p 60. ISBN: 978-1-4314-0709-5
Catalogue: South Africa: 10x12 @ SA, Contemporary Artists from South Africa. Luciano Benetton
Collection. Curator: Nadja Daehnke (Fabrica: 2012). p 35-36.
Catalogue: Spier Contemporary 2007 exhibition and awards. Editor: Jay Panther (Africa Centre: 2007), p 52.

EDUCATION

2001
Masters in Fine Art (Illustration), University of Stellenbosch

1999
BA in Fine Art (Honours) Illustration, University of Stellenbosch

1995
BA in Fine Art (Sculpture), University of Stellenbosch, top graduate student of the year