LONDON.- Ben Uri announced the acquisition of British-Caribbean artist Tam Joseph’s The Hand Made Map of the World (2013), made possible through the generosity of the artist and Collection Patrons.
An immediately arresting and thought-provoking work, The Hand Made Map of the World examines the arbitrary nature of borders and territories, underlying issues of nationhood and the fact that where we are born is merely an accident of fate. By playfully reordering conventional geographies, blurring boundaries and suggesting new and unexpected possibilities, Tam Joseph has created what has been called a picture of an ‘alternative reality’. Yet the painting also reflects his interest in the natural world and a love of map-making which can be traced back to his school days. The painting was recently exhibited in the Edinburgh Arts Festival (2014) and in two Ben Uri exhibitions, Unexpected: Continuing Stories of Identity and Migration (February – April 2016) in St. John’s Wood, and 100 for 100: Ben Uri – Past, Present, Future (May – June 2016) at Christie’s South Kensington. It will be one of the highlights of the contemporary section within the upcoming exhibition tour of Ben Uri’s Out of Chaos exhibition at the Laing Gallery, Newcastle (15 October 2016 – 26 February 2017).
Painter, sculptor and graphic designer Tam Joseph was born in Dominica in the Caribbean in 1947 and migrated to England in 1955. He drew obsessively from an early age and later studied at the Central and the Slade Schools of Art. Joseph worked on the Beatles’ film Yellow Submarine (1968) followed by a what he calls ‘a whirlwind nomadic tour of Europe, Asia, in the 1960s’, afterwards studying typography at the London College of Printing before working for the magazine Africa Journal in the late 1970s – early 80s. He was influential in the 1980s’ Black British Art Movement, and one of his notable works from this period, Spirit of the Carnival (1983) was recently acquired by Wolverhampton Art Gallery.
Joseph explains that his work explores ‘the many and multi-faceted inspirations, aspirations, and contradictions that shape contemporary realities’. As one commentator has observed, ‘Tam Joseph has been producing vibrant, witty and political incisive paintings dating back to the 1970s. His work has consistently been underpinned by a desire and an ability to provide visually striking commentary on a wide range of subjects and themes.
Tam Joseph lives both in London and in Nîmes, France. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions and venues including the Queens Museum of Art New York, Barbican Arts Centre, Guildhall, ICA, Whitechapel Art Gallery Southbank centre and Ben Uri, and is in public collections including the Arts Council, Glasgow Museums Resource Centre, Museums Sheffield and the V&A.
