For the 2023 edition of Paris Internationale, ChertLüdde is pleased to share a presentation by Monia Ben Hamouda (1991 in Italy), Tyra Tingleff (1984 in Norway), and Sofía Salazar Rosales (*1999 in Ecuador). Reflecting the gallery’s wide range of interests, the booth unites the material research of the three artists by considering the different personal connotations carried out in each of their practices. Through diverse approaches to sculpture and abstract painting, these artworks recenter the distinct trace or signature left behind by each artist. 

Monia Ben Hamouda is a Tunisian-Italian artist who often uses spices and powders like cumin, paprika, salt, charcoal, and curry as a protective mechanism that bridges the artist’s sculptures with medicinal, ceremonial, culinary, and ritualistic traditions that are thousands of years old. This can be seen in her new series of mixed media works that function as abstract paintings. The laser-cut steel sculptures, that mimic Arabic text yet signify nothing, borrow from the tradition of Aniconism in Islamic calligraphy to circumvent the depiction of figurative elements that are otherwise prohibited by the Muslim religion.These sculptures on display were originally exhibited in the artist’s solo show at the gallery earlier this year, which elaborated on her first institutional solo show in Spain at Madrid’s La Casa Encendida.

Tyra Tingleff’s most recent artworks demonstrate her dynamic method of oil painting: myriads of colors form a precarious balance within each canvas, challenging the medium’s material and emotive thresholds. Breaking with the historical conventions of painting with oil, Tyra’s non-figurative practice is an exercise in how far the medium of oil paint can stretch and move, often leaving sections of the raw linen canvas exposed. This draws attention to the two mediums’ dynamic relationship, which often blends multiple patches of color into one, homogeneous layer that seems to melt into the canvas. Consisting primarily of new works, the titles of the paintings at the ChertLüdde booth offer a glimpse into the artist’s mind in the form of poetic fragments or witty retorts. Still maintaining the ambiguity of non-figurative painting, the titles too remain open for interpretation.

The practice of Sofía Salazar Rosales produces and is a result of a sensitive attention to objects that have been obscured through merchandise transport or modern infrastructure and architecture planning. The works on display are all from her 2023 degree show at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, which became an exercise of experimentation and reaffirmation of handcrafted work and the manipulation of materials. Giving life to the objects with her hands, Salazar Rosales is able to give her artworks a breath while reproducing familiar objects that embody histories and stories of colonial and postcolonial events related to the artist’s Cuban-Ecuadorian heritage and her own life.