Tai Shani
Tai Shani’s artistic practice, comprising performance, film, photography, and installation, uses experimental writing as a guiding method. Oscillating between theoretical concepts and visceral details, Shani’s texts attempt to create poetic coordinates in order to cultivate, fragmentary cosmologies of marginalised nonsovereignty. Taking cues from both mournful and undead histories of reproductive labour, illness and solidarity, her work is invested in recovering feminised aesthetic modes – such as the floral, the trippy or the gothic – in a register of utopian militancy. In this vein, the epic, in both its literary long-form and excessive affect, often shapes Shani’s approach: Her long-term projects work through historical and mythical narratives, such as Christine de Pizan’s allegorical city of women or the social history of psychedelic ergot poisoning. Extending into divergent formats and collaborations, Shani’s projects examine desire in its (infra-)structural dimension, exploring a realism that materially fantasises against the patriarchal racial capitalist present. Tai Shani is the joint 2019 Turner Prize winner together with Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Helen Cammock and Oscar Murillo. Her work has been shown extensively in Britain and internationally.
Solo and Group Exhibitions
2024
The World to Me Was a Secret: Caesious, Zinnober, Celadon, and Virescent, The Cosmic House, London, UK
2023
Our Hieromantic Objects of Love, KM21. The Hague, Netherlands
And above the beautiful commune, Contemporary Art Center. Cincinnati, USA
you can now enter: notes on immersion, CLIMA. Milan, Italy
2022
Your Arms Outstretched Above Your Head, Coding With The Angels, Gathering. London, UK
You Are a Wave and I Am a Wave, Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Berlin, Germany
Testament, CCA Goldsmiths. London, UK
2021
The Neon Hieroglyph, Manchester lnternational Festival. Manchester, UK
Sol LeWitt/Mahler Foundation Carla Fendi Foundation. Spoleto, ltaly
British Art Show 9, Touring. UK
100 Years of conviviality: what you can see is what you can imagine, Kunstnernes Hus. Oslo, Norway
2020
Tragodia, Grazer Kunstverein. Austria
Transmissions (Founder and co-curator). The lnternet
Our Ashes Make Great Fertilizer, Public Gallery. London, UK
Monsteribeauty, Lychee One. London, UK
2019
Tragodia, Temple Bar Gallery. Dublin, Ireland
Tragodia, Moravian Gallery. Brno, Czech Republic
Turner Prize, Turner Contemporary. Margate, UK
Andromedan Sad Girl, Centro Centro. Madrid, Spain
Tragodia, Temple Bar Gallery. Dublin, lreland
DC Psy Chic Anem One, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. Turin, Italy
Alias, Netwerk. Aalst, Belgium
All His Ghosts Must Do My Bidding, Wysing Arts Centre. Cambridge, UK
Snowcrash, lMT Gallery. London, UK
2018
DC Semiramis, Glasgow lnternational (Director's Programme). Glasgow, UK
DC Semiramis, The Tetley. Leeds, UK
Still I Rise, Nottingham Contemporary, De La Warr Pavilion, Arnolfini. Bristol, UK
Beaconiflare Caustic Coastal. Manchester, UK
Orgasmic Streaming Organic Gardening Electroculture, Chelsea Space. London, UK
2017
Andromedan Sad Girl, Wysing Arts Centre. Cambridge, UK
Dark Water: The Dead of Night, CGP. London, UK
Plural Melts: Household Values, Yvonne Lambert Gallery. Berlin, Germany
2016
A Mysterical Day, Serpentine Galleries. London, UK
Moans of Approaching Death, Tate. London, UK
Radar, commission Loughborough University. Loughborough, UK
Dark Water: The Dead of Night, CGP. London, UK
Reality Production, Tensta Konsthall. Stockholm,
Sweden(A=O) The archive of epistemic collapse, MACAO. Milan, Italy
The Serpentine Miracle Marathon, The Serpentine Galleries. London, UK
Preserves and Presences, lrish Museum of Modern Art. Dublin, Ireland
Anathema, Danielle Arnaud. London, UK
2015
Double Feature, Schirn Kunsthalle. Frankfurt, Germany
2014
Mirrorcity, Hayward Gallery. London, UK
For as Long as You Like, Gaudel de Stampa. Paris, France
Myth-Science-Colloquium, Reactor Halls E1O. Nottingham, UK
Obliteration Device, lMT Gallery. London, UK
2013
Silver Fiat Vox Xero, Kline and Coma. London, UK
Anthology Live Film in Space, Camden Arts Centre. London, UK
Open Heart Surgery, The Moving Museum. London, UK
Drawing Biennial 2013, The Drawing Room. London, UK
Unconscious Archives, Cafe Oto/Apiary Studios. London, UK
An Arrangement in White, XO. Leeds, UK
2012
Revolver, Matt's Gallery. London, UK
Visionary Kingdom, The Arnolfini. Bristol, UK
WE ARE THE TIME, Gerrit Rietveld Academie. Amsterdam, Netherlands
Les Fleurs du Mal - New Art from London, AWANGARDA. Wroclaw, Poland
2011
Anti-Antigone End Time, FRAC Nord Pas de Calais for Loop. Barcelona, Spain
More Soup and Tart, Barbican. London, UK
Contemporary Art at Festival, Arts Council/UP Projects Commission
Good Intentions, Hezi Cohen Gallery. Tel Aviv, Israel
Music as Medium: Tate Shots commission, Tate Britain. London, UK
Diffusions, Tate Britain. London, UK
Tableau Vivant: A Wandering Retrospective Prospect, 1.5. New Orleans, USA
2010
W.O.W. Noumenon Dilation: Reduced to 3, Artprojx. London, UK
Last Night I Dreamt I was Venus... Barbican. London, UK
Tai Shani ICA Screentest, lCA. London, UK
Selected Press
19 Nov 2024
How to Destroy Angels curated by Tai Shani and Anne Duffau, is on display until 30th November at The Horse Hospital
1 Nov 2024
Tai Shani features in Harpers Baazar on the occasion of the artist’s first solo exhibition at Gio Marconi, Milan, Italy
31 Oct 2024
Tai Shani will be in conversation with Iwona Blazwick at The Hellenic Centre on 31 October from 7 PM
14 May 2024
Tai Shani profiled by Emily Steer for Wallpaper Magazine in discussion of her exhibition at The Cosmic House
29 Apr 2024
We are thrilled to announce Gathering’s participation in the inaugural edition of Esther with works by Turner-prize winner Tai Shani