Whether Tavares Strachan (born 1979 in Nassau, Bahamas) undertakes expeditions to the Arctic and sends a 4.5-ton block of ice back to his birthplace in the Bahamas, undergoes cosmonaut training, sends a golden canopic jar with the likeness of the first black astronaut into orbit or creates his own alternative to the Encyclopedia Britannica - his bold, poetic-conceptual works are structured by a visual language of storytelling. The Kunsthalle Mannheim is now presenting the first major survey exhibition of the internationally acclaimed artist in continental Europe.
Between Nassau and the North Pole: the expedition as artistic material
The MacArthur Genius Grant-winning Strachan, who describes his artistic work as an "endless protest against the status quo", operates at the intersection of art, science and history. Aeronautics, astronomy, deep-sea exploration and extreme climatology are just some of the subject areas from which Strachan creates monumental allegories about the past, present and future. He evokes historical and cultural references, expressing the similarities and contradictions in the untold stories of historically marginalized people, places and events. His ambitious Encyclopedia of Invisibility project, now a 3,000-page compendium, sheds light on these untold stories while questioning the means by which systems of knowledge and power are created in the first place.
Tavares Strachan: There Is Light Somewhere. Six Thousand Years, 2018, photo: Marc Blower. © Courtesy the artist and the Hayward Gallery
Bringing untold stories to light
Tavares Strachan explores light and darkness by drawing parallels between historiography and astrophysical phenomena. The light of the supernova, the bright flash of exploding stars, stands for the complex interplay between image, language, sculpture, music, universal knowledge and collective memory, which he brings together in breathtaking installations in the exhibition spaces of the Kunsthalle.
Tavares Strachan's work has been featured in numerous ambitious exhibitions, including the Hayward Gallery in London in 2024, the Venice Biennale in 2019, and Carnegie International in 2018. Strachan earned a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2003 and an MFA in sculpture from Yale University in 2006. Utilizing both the resources and community of his birthplace, he divides his time between his studio in New York City and Nassau, where he operates an art studio and scientific research platform B.A.S.E.C. (Bahamas Aerospace and Sea Exploration Center).
April 11 - August 24, 2025
