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.

Teaching others.

This is my work.