“First Light”—focuses on Tala Madani’s engagement with the cinematic, presenting an animation and premiering a new series of paintings. Many of the paintings feature the presence of illumination—for example, the beam of a car headlight or flashlight; Madani’s subjects interrogate both themselves and each other in search of larger truths. This notion of projection connects her work not only to cinema and its presentation of images through light and dark but also to art history and the tradition of chiaroscuro, or the contrast of light and dark. Madani’s paintings contain other art historical allusions as well, particularly to early Christian images of the Crucifixion and the Pietà. Spanning time, mediums, and cultures, this amalgam of references enriches Madani’s larger investigation into racial and ethnic visual stereotypes.

Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
“First Light”
January 15  – April 3, 2016
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MIT Visual Arts Center – Cambridge
“First Light”
May 20  – July 17, 2016
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“First Light” is organised in collaboration with the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and is curated by Henriette Huldisch, Curator, MIT List Visual Arts Center, and Kelly Shindler, Associate Curator, CAM St. Louis.