TARIK BERBER | Solo Exhibition at ArtMoorHouse |

TA R I K B E R B E R 03/12/2015 - 11/01/2016

1. Mystique 1 oil on canvas 160 x 240 cm (63 x 94 in) £ 8,750 Not Exhibited

7. Sammy 3 oil on canvas 160 x 120 cm (63 x 47 in)

2. Mystique 2 oil on canvas 160 x 240 cm (63 x 94 in) £ 8,750

8. Lady with Titanium White oil on canvas 160 x 120 cm (63 x 47 in) £ 5,500

£ 5,500

3. Mystique 3 oil on canvas 140 x 240 cm (55 x 94 in) £ 8,750

9. Lady in Fallow Desert Sand Stripes oil on canvas 160 x 120 cm (63 x 47 in) £ 5,500

4. Mystique 4 oil on canvas 140 x 240 c (55 x 94 in) £ 8,750

10. Lady in Dark Olive Green Stripes oil on canvas 160 x 120 cm (63 x 47 in) £ 5,500

5. Erotica Magnifica 4 oil on canvas 120 x 140 cm (47 x 55 in) £ 5,500

6. Erotica Magnifica 5 oil on canvas 120 x 140 cm (47 x 55 in) £ 5,500

11. Lady in Black & White Stripes oil on canvas 160 x 120 cm (63 x 47 in) £ 5,500

12. Charlie San oil on canvas 160 x 120 cm (63 x 47 in) £ 5,500

13. San Sebastiano oil on canvas 160 x 120 cm (63 x 47 in) £ 5,500

14. Erotica Magnifica 1 oil on canvas 60 x 55 cm (24 x 22 in) £ 3,500

15. Erotica Magnifica 2 oil on canvas 60 x 55 cm (24 x 22 in) £ 3,500

16. Erotica Magnifica 3 oil on canvas 60 x 55 cm (24 x 22 in) £ 3,500 Not Exhibited

17. Woman in English Lavender oil on canvas 60 x 55 cm (24 x 22 in) £ 3,500 Not Exhibited

18. Woman in Catalina Blue oil on canvas 60 x 55 cm (24 x 22 in) £ 3,500 Not Exhibited

19. Be Bop 1 oil on canvas 55 x 60 cm (22 x 24 in) £ 3,500

20. Untitled 9 oil on canvas 55 x 60 cm (22 x 24 in) £ 3,500

21. Untitled 11 oil on canvas 55 x 60 cm (22 x 24 in) £ 3,500

22. Untitled 18 oil on canvas 55 x 60 cm (22 x 24 in) £ 3,500

23. Blacks London 2 mixed media on paper 35 x 50 cm (14 x 19.5 in) £ 1,850 24. Blacks London 3 mixed media on paper 35 x 42 cm (12 x 16.5 in) £ 1,850 25. Blacks London 5 mixed media on paper 35 x 50 cm (14 x 19.5 in) £ 1,850 26. Blacks London 7 mixed media on paper 35 x 50 cm (14 x 19.5 in) £ 1,850 27. Blacks London 8 mixed media on paper 30 x 50 cm (14 x 19.5 in) £ 1,850 28. Blacks London 9 mixed media on paper 35 x 50 cm (14 x 19.5 in) £ 1,850 29. Blacks London 5 mixed media on paper 35 x 50 cm (14 x 19.5 in) £ 1,850

30. Blacks London12 mixed media on paper 30 x 42 cm (12 x 16.5 in) £ 1,850

32. Warehouse “Chairs” mixed media on paper 33 x 47 cm (13 x 18.5 in) £ 1,850

31. Warehouse “2 Psycadelic Chairs” mixed media on paper 35 x 51cm (14 x 20 in) £ 1,850

33. Warehouse “Unit 12” mixed media on paper 33 x 47 cm (13 x 18.5 in) £ 1,850

Artworks not exhibited at ArtMoorHouse are available from the Albemarle Gallery - 49 Albemarle St, London W1S 4JR

A R T M O O R H O U S E

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TA R I K B E R B E R 03/12/2015 - 11/01/2016 Tarik Berber’s work offers a remarkable combination of two very different cultural worlds. He is of Bosnianc origin. That is to say, he comes from the Muslim population of the always-contested territory of Bosnia, once part of the former Yugoslavia and now independent. Bosnia has a notably rich and complex cultural tradition and Tarik is a descendant of a celebrated family of artists. As a working artist, he still maintains close ties with the milieu from which he originates.

He trained, however, at the celebrated Florentine Academy, which offers perhaps the most rigorous of all trainings for painters. They grind their own colours, mix their own paints and make their own brushes, just as the apprentices did in the studios of the great Renaissance masters.

This profound respect for tradition shows itself very clearly in Berber’s work. His paintings, with their muted colours, often have the appearance of frescos. They also demonstrate a keen interest in classical principles of design – in the relationship of the form to the edges of the space within which they have been placed.

The mingling of cultural influences in Tarik Berber’s work pays eloquent tribute to the complex cultural mix to be found in his native region. On the one hand, there is a strong classical element, which at times remind one, not so much of Renaissance paintings and frescos, as of the Ancient Roman paintings to be seen in Pompeii. On the other hand, there are influences that seem to come from the artists of the turn of the century Vienna Secession – specifically from the work of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. It is worth remembering that the culture of the Balkans, of the BosniaHerzegovina of today, retains impulses that originated, not in any part of Italy, but in Vienna.

There are, in addition, things that announce themselves as being entirely contemporary, very much of our own time – for example the striking portraits of Jamaican Rastafarians that reference a ‘scene’ that is as profoundly anti-classical in spirit as anything one could imagine. These portraits nevertheless demonstrate Tarik Berber’s strengths as a draughtsman. Place them in a show of high quality Old Master drawings and they would certainly hold their own.

The eclecticism of Tarik Berber’s work is personal, yet is at the same time symbolic of much that is happening in the visual culture of today. This culture has access to an increasingly wide range of references. Images from every region of the world and from old epochs, from Palaeolithic times to our own, are readily available to young artists, and indeed to all the rest of us provided we have access to a computer. Historical hierarchies are vanishing – art from every epoch is immediately ours, if we wish it to be so. Geographical boundaries are also tending to dissolve.

One consequence of this is that the idea of an organised ‘avant-garde’, immediately recognisable as something that is collectively ahead of the game, is becoming unfeasible. Currently attempted substitutes for genuinely new ways of seeing the world, for example an insistence on sexual shock or on raucous political activism, are only a kind of ersatz version of real innovation, and audiences are beginning to realise it. The result has been the gradual emergence of a new generation of artists, less interested in avant-garde identity, much more interested in locating the true creative self.

Tarik Berber is one of those artists.

Edward Lucie-Smith Art Historian, Critic & Author

Tarik Berber Born in Banjaluka (Bosnia) in 1980. Studied at Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence. Lives and works in London.

Due to the Yugoslavian War, as a child he left his own country and settled with his family in Bolzano, Italy. Even before moving to Florence to continue his academic studies, while still very young, he had already received recognition and exemplary acknowledgements of esteem. Before the age of twenty-one he had already had public shows in Empoli and Mugello, before coming into contact with the prestigious Poggiali & Forconi Gallery in Florence. At the inauguration of the new Museo di Arte Contemporanea of Isernia, MACI, in the spring of 2004, the youngest artist invited to display, he presented a painting of expressionist stamp, showing in close up a figure permeated by a sacred aura, which galvanised the attention of both critics and public. The most important Fairs then consolidated an exceptional interest in his work.

He was invited to exhibit at the Museo della Civiltà Romana in Rome, at the Second Biennial InTranSito, in Sassoferrato at the 55th Rassegna Internazionale d’Arte G. B. Salvi Aperture, curated by Mauro Corradini, and then, by Alessandro Riva in Catania in the Le Ciminiere space, and at the 2nd Rassegna Internazionale d’Arte Citta di Bozzolo Don Primo Mazzolari, where he won the first acquisition prize. In May 2006, he had a one-man show at the eighteenth-century residence of Villa Pisani, the Museo Nazionale of Strà in the Province of Venice.

Berber had three exhibitions of his work in London since he first moved in 2013. He also completed two hand-drawn animations, which gained the attention of BBC, InsideArt and Vimeo Staff Picks among others. While developing a new concept for his upcoming paintings, he is currently working on illustrating a book of poems by Rod Stern.

Solo Exhibitions: 2015 ”FLOW” Darren Baker Gallery, Curated by Jason Colchin-Carter & Agnieszka Perche, London ”FLOW” City Gallery Bihać ,Curated by: Nermin Delić & Adnan Dupanović ”FLOW” G&M Galeria, Tuzla ”FLOW” National Art Gallery of Bosna and Hercegovina, Sarajevo Solo Show curated by Lejla Festic Britovsek-ArmaMaxa VETRINSKI DVORI, Slovenia MARIBOR 2013 “Heterotopias of Time” curated by Gabriella Daris at “Blacks”, SOHO , London 2011 “Anatomia di un lupo”, Aria Art Gallery, Florence 2010 Double Solo Show with Elena Manzan “Back to Italy” (curated by Luca Beatrice), MACI, Isernia.

“IMAGO” at LATO studio Architect Designer, Prato “Mostra di disegni”, Etrarte, Florence 2009 Double Solo Show with sculptor Lorenzo Vignoli, Ex Marmi, Pietrasanta 2007 “Firenze 2006, Berlin 2007”, SelvArtGallery, Bolzano 2006 “Gli occhi della gente” (curated by Maurizio Sciaccaluga), Il Castello Art Gallery, Trento “Vestigia Umane” (curated by Maria Livia Brunelli), Museo Nazionale Villa Pisani, Stra 2004 “Teste e/o mitologemi”, Circolo Arti Figurative, Empoli Selected Group Exhibitions: 2015 2013 2012 2010

Darren Baker Gallery, London, curated by Jason Colchin Carter and Agnieszka Perche “100 Years Gallery” curated by Pascal Ancel Bartholdi and Jaimi Valtierra, London “Bosnian Culture ” Museo della Civiltà Romana , EUR , Roma “Oltrarno” curated by Graziella Ardia, Palazzo Panciatichi, Florence “Beauty Farm, la bellezza del corpo tra idealizzazione e ossessione”, Fondazione Durini, Milano 2005 International Art Review “G. B. Salvi”, Sassoferrato International Art Review Citta’ di Bozzolo (curated by Mauro Corradini), first prize awarded International Art Review Citta’ di Bozzolo (curated by Mauro Corradini), first prize awarded