Sinta Tantra
[3] Highly regarded for her site-specific work in the public realm, she has since undertaken commissions that include the Folkestone Triennial (2017), Songdo Tech City (2016), Liverpool Biennial (2012), The Southbank Centre (2008), and TFL Art on the Underground (2007).
'[4] Her work has been described as "exuberant",[5] a "hedonistic celebration of excess and decoration",[6] and her contribution to public art by transforming spaces with "chaotic yet captivating images" has been recognised by collectors and commissioners alike.
[7] Her 2010 work Universe of Objects in Archive, Arsenic and Railings praised for lifting the perspective "like the energy of a released spring and pulses horizontally around the room in endless optical trigonometric fugue".
During her studies, Tantra was introduced to the work of the conceptual artist Sol LeWitt (1928-2007), whose reduction of painting to a 'series of instructions or blueprints' she cites as a ‘huge’ and enduring influence on her practice.
'Even at art school, painting on canvas didn't really appeal to me- I was more interested in playing with architectural space, injecting colour, line, and form into new environments.
Through her work she made contact with Camden Council, who commissioned her first public art piece, a mural stretching across Regents Park Bridge titled Isokon Dreams (2007).
[13] Tantra's early work was composed of intricately cut vinyl and painted designs, featuring vibrant colours and geometric shapes.
[6] Other early projects include a large mural and stage for the Saison Poetry Library in the Southbank Centre, titled A Good Time and a Half!
Poet Lemn Sissay described it as an 'incredible piece of work', which 'allows for the full breadth of human experience upon the stage [...] brings the entire world into the library'.
[15] Of public art, Tantra has said: 'There's a sort of "constructivist" approach to the entire process which I like [...] there are the practicalities of making the work itself whilst giving the artwork a "social function"'.
[18] Tantra united her contemporary design and colour palette with the compulsory elements: the Madonna of the Assumption, the City insignia (Terzi), and the symbols of each contrada participating in the race), as well as that year's commemoration for Giovanni Duprè.
The sculpture of Sappho by Giovanni Duprè on the other hand, was based on drawing illustrations by Andy Warhol from the 1950s- I wanted to add a layer of 'pop art' and 1950s nostalgia into the work".
[20] As part of the 2017 Folkestone Triennial, Sinta Tantra was invited by Lewis Biggs (founder of the Liverpool Biennial) to paint the Cube building on Tontine Street.
[16] The work's title, and its colours (candy pink, racing green and Wedgewood blue) were lifted from a poster from 1947 advertising rail travel to Folkestone.
"[16] Design Historian Dr. Paul Rennie of Central St. Martins praised the work's "evident simplicity, economy, and effectiveness [...] Sinta's made a pig-ugly 1970s building disappear into plain view!"
"[24] Tantra was commissioned by the city of Songdo, Korea's ‘High Tech Utopia’, to create a floor painting as part of its major public art programme.
[28] It is part of Canary Wharf Group's Permanent Collection, alongside artists such as Lynn Chadwick, Bruce McLean, and Catherine Yass.
She has spoken of her preference for tempera paint: "[it is] very similar to the finish of an Italian fresco; highly pigmented, very matt and has a brilliant lustre […] when you stare at it, its almost like 'falling' into the colour.
"[30] Her artworks increasingly make use of historical and literary references and found objects, lifting colours and shapes from the 18th century architecture of John Nash to Hollywood films such as Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (2016) at Pearl Lam Galleries, Hong Kong, featured paintings that played with the relationship between the two-dimensional the three-dimensional.
In this new series of paintings, I wanted to draw a stronger focus on a sense of rhythm and how line and colour represents a sort of musical notation across the canvas.
