Tim Kent

Hollis Taggart is delighted to present Tim Kent: Sojourn, the artist’s third solo exhibition with the gallery since joining its program in 2021. The exhibition spotlights a dozen new works from Kent’s studio.

Across the exhibition, the paintings privilege intervals of rest over events, suggesting that moments of pause possess their own emotional and perceptual complexity. Kent's figures inhabit suspended moments. Carefully calibrated color, softened edges, and measured compositions encourage sustained looking, allowing the experience to mirror the reflective and leisurely states depicted in the works. While informed by the legacy of historic French painting, Kent's practice addresses present concerns.

At a moment defined by acceleration and constant connectivity, these paintings propose rest and slowness as a meaningful mode of attention – one that we all deserve. The fact that our contemporary culture resists such desires troubles even these tranquil settings. His previous works have drawn from the imagery and techniques of art history to depict psychologically charged spaces, while this body of work shows how a state of unease persists. Amidst the onslaught of information coming from every direction regarding every facet of life, moments of respite should provide the quietude that can cultivate the strength to carry on. Sojourn inquires why that is so difficult.

Tim Kent was born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1975, and received an M.A. from the University of Sussex at West Dean College and a B.F.A. from Hunter College. As a first-generation American from Turkish and English parentage who immigrated to the United States, his work attempts to express a narrative based around the mechanisms of history and personal memory, as well as the visual structures of power that determine our experience. Trained in perspective painting at West Dean College, University of Sussex, Kent started his career by rendering historic homes throughout England, which sparked his interest in the complex historical and psychological narratives held by architecture, design, art, and culture.

Kent has exhibited widely across the United States and abroad, including solo shows at JD Malat Gallery in London and Dubai; Pilevneli Gallery in Istanbul; Hollis Taggart Gallery in New York; Slag Gallery in New York; and Patrick Mikhail Gallery in Montreal. His work has been covered in many publications, including the book New Surrealism: The Uncanny in Contemporary Painting by Monacelli Press, as well as in ArtReview, The Brooklyn Rail, New Criterion, Huffington Post, Hyperallergic, Fine Art Connoisseur, Lapham’s Quarterly, Le Monde diplomatique, White Hot Magazine, Architectural Digest, and Elle Décor. His work is held in various public and private collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Beijing; 21C Museum in Louisville, Kentucky; and the Rockwell Museum in Corning, New York. Kent lives and works in Brooklyn.