Cloud Island, 2023

About the Artist

Tallulah Nunez (b.1963, New Zealand) is a self-taught artist practicing for more than 30 years. Tallulah describes her working style as expressionist maximalism/surrealism. She creates work that is extravagantly detailed, inclusive, eclectic and often unashamedly beautiful. The first thing Tallulah is often asked about the paintings are “How long do they take to do”? This awareness of time taken points to the depth of multiple layers in the work. Time defines the value of the work, its relevance and its appreciation. The time spent making art is also important for Tallulah as the maker. She is interested in movement and rhythm, creating works that vibrate. She set about doing this by juxtaposing unlikely colours, and the repetitive use of patterns and marks, embracing the pleasure of process for its own sake, inviting the viewer to engage with the mark-making and to follow the myriad paths into the work to discover their own interpretation of how and what they see. Her recent series, The Sun As Muse concentrates on the Sun and the Moon as subjects, often populating the surface with numerous phases of each. These geometric circles and half circles often buried deeply within the painting become the only structurally solid images in the swirling cacophony of dots, dashes and biomorphic shapes that sweep around them, much like our solar system. The sun is Tallulah's muse, (a constant and reliable source of energy and life). She is the light that gives us colour and she cannot resist the urge to paint her in all her guises. Tallulah lives and works in Aukland, New Zealand.