Often, artists are portrayed as lone geniuses working in solitude. This is not the case for South African-born artist Keya Tama whose solo exhibition at Harman Projects, Where Our Worlds Meet, features collaborative artworks created with distinguished artists from around the globe. Spanning years of creative exploration, this exhibition offers insight into Tama’s career and community-minded approach, highlighting the rich tapestry of his artistic journey through collaboration.
Each artwork in Where Our Worlds Meet is more than the sum of its parts, blending the artists’ styles and mediums to create something entirely new. Experiments like that of Tama with Kevin Cincotta or Spencer Gabour reveal how artists can synthesize their styles into a harmonious whole, concealing where one artist’s contribution ends and the other begins. Other approaches, like that between Tama and Adele Renault or Audrey Kawasaki, create fresh interpretations of an artist’s work through stylistic comparison. While Tama’s hand shows through in his repetition of flat symbolic icons, each motif is transformed by the diverse visions of his collaborators.
The paintings and ceramics on display touch upon themes of sacred memory, the experience of leaving one’s country of origin, and the journey of finding and forming a new community. Blending the personal symbolism and mythos of each artist, dragons, tigers, mountains, cowboys, wrestlers, and snakes are no longer emblems of individual importance but a shared entity between collaborators. Bold, vivid, and playful, each artwork transcends individual contributions, weaving together techniques, ideas, and artistic approaches into a meeting of separate worlds.
Where Our Worlds Meet opens on Saturday, July 13th with a reception 6-8 pm at Harman's Los Angeles location at 2754 S La Cienega Blvd Suite B,