2” left from here, Tanya Goel’s upcoming solo exhibition at Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, is a show that explores both the tranquility and chaos of the urban expanse. A graduate of Yale University’s MFA program, Goel makes paintings that manifest a fascination with disruptions to formal structures, especially to urban contexts and their flawless rectilinear designs. Her compositions are a very deliberate portrayal of the decomposition (or de-structuring) of the formal use of geometry, which conveys order and symmetry.
Goel has been inspired by living in an urban environment as well as by the theories of Michel de Certeau, who has written about the ways that people individualize institutionalized and regularized forms, and by seminal early twentieth century painters such as Kazimir Malevich and El Lissitzky. Through a diverse use of gradated colours and fluctuating line that evoke the calculated chaos of a city with its lights, noise, and colours, her work inspires recognition of the idiosyncratic complexity of the urban fabric. What initially may appear to be purely formal experimentation gradually makes way for additional perceptions, as the viewer may begin to recognize a familiar form of layering and texture reminiscent of the metropolis. Goel’s magnificent paintings pull from post-industrialist super-cities such as New York and Mumbai, exposing the ruptures and flaws of the city both physically and theoretically.
Tanya Goel recieved her MFA from Yale University (2010), after completing a PBS at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2008), and a BFA from M.S. University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda, India (2007). Ms. Goel has held numerous solo exhibitions, and has participated in group exhibitions including Group Show curated by Arthur Brum (2011), White Flag Gallery, New York; City As Studio (2010), SARAI, New Delhi; Nostalgia and Sentimentality (2008), Betty Rhymer Gallery, Chicago; and Semiotic Landscapes curated by Michael Hardesty (2007), Beverly Arts Center, Illinois.
Tanya Goel lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.