Tara Deacon is an Illustrator & painter originating from Pretoria, South Africa and relocated to Berlin in 2014. Her work explores the simplicity of everyday observations, a combination of memory and place- both real and imagined . Her compositions are populated with characters influenced from her travels, personal relationships, books and popular culture, bringing through a narrative storytelling quality to her work. The bright & bold colour palette she works in is achieved through solid planes of colour in her favoured medium of gouache and pencil crayon on paper. Her curiosity to play with colours and how they work with one another in a composition express a cohesive flavour of optimism and vibrance reminiscent of her homeland.
Clients
Liebeskind Berlin, Hennessy, Refinery 29, Flow Magazine, Random House Verlag , Lenny Letter, Oh Comely Mag, Scoop Mag, Urban Books, AWW Yours, Canal 180
Exhibitions
2023
“The Garden of my Mind” – Group Show. 11 Nov 2023- 24 Feb 2024, Gallery 2, Johannesburg
“Incredibili animalibus” – Summer Collective Exhibition . 29 July – 29 August 2023, O’! Galeria, Porto
2021
‘The Island’ – Group Show. 1 December – 23 December 2021, Salon 91, Cape Town
‘When it’s hot out and you wanna have a good time’ . 13 January – 15 February 2021, Salon 91, Cape Town
2020
‘Hometown’ – Postcard illustration group show. 6 November – 20 December 2020, Brunch Shop, Johannesburg
‘A Hazy Shade of Winter’ – Group show 8 Aug – 5 Sept 2020 ,Salon 91, Cape Town
‘Favorite Things’ -Group show- 1 Aug – 1 Sept 2020, O’! Galeria, Porto
‘Things Behind the Sun’- Group show- 20 May – 27 June 2020 – group show, Salon 91, Cape Town
‘A Postponed Future’ -Group show, No End Contemporary, Johannesburg
2019
‘Wildflower’- Group show, Salon 91, Cape Town
‘My City’- Group show, O! Galeria, Lisbon + Porto
‘Regarding Winter’ – Group show, Salon 91 , Cape Town
‘Return’ – Solo show – O’ Galeria, Lisbon
2018
‘Folklore Group Show’, Salon 91 , Cape Town
‘I am Here’ – Do Design, Madrid
‘Midnight Group Show’, Salon 91 & Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg
‘Close to Home’. Solo Exhibition- Ahem Art Collective, Cape Town
‘Wallflower’. Group Show – Ground Art Cafe, Cape Town
2016
‘It’s in my Naive Nature’, Solo Exhibition, October 2016, Berlin
Publications & Interviews
SA Creatives, Dec 2023
Beige, Sept 2019
Between 10 and 5 , 2019
Visi Online , 2018
Frankie Magazine, 2018
Between 10 & 5 , 2018
Making Things, 2018
Visi Online, 2018
It’s Nice That, 2018
Our Friends , 2017
Between 10 & 5, 2017
Tara Deacon 