I am Tamlan.

Algerian. British. Neither. Both.

I paint. I draw. I work with light. I try to hold something in place before it goes. I studied painting. Leeds, 2002. First-class degree. It didn’t matter. Not really. You learn by doing, by making mistakes, by finding something true and following it until it vanishes.

I like bold colors. Strong lines. Contrast. Light where it shouldn’t be, shadow where it belongs. Rothko understood. So did Klein, Turrell, Richter. Basquiat made a mess of it, but the right kind. Klee saw things differently. I look for those things too. Sometimes I find them.

Influences? Rust. Concrete. Dawn. Empty streets. Kraftwerk. Tom Waits. The space between words. The weight of something unsaid. My family.

This is my work. Take it or leave it.

(or stew on it)