Tamlin Blake
Tamlin Blake at work in 2009
Born	1974 Johannesburg
Nationality	South African
Website	tamlinblake.com

Tamlin Blake (born 1974) is a South African mixed media artist living and working in Riebeeck West. The major themes of Blake's work revolve around cross-cultural South African symbols of wealth and status and, more recently, what constitutes and underpins each individuals sense of belonging. ^[1] Her sculptural pieces often transcend boundaries between illustration, craft, and art, using weaving, beading, and drawing, amongst other media. ^[2]

The main body of Blake's beaded art works took the form of South African stamps finely woven using glass seed beads. ^{[3] [4]} “By replicating these original stamps in a traditional craft idiom that has such a strong association with indigenous African cultures , Blake offers a genteel but acerbic reference to [South Africa’s] troubled past.” (Innes 2012: pg20 ISBN  978-0-620-52880-1).

While working on her own bead art Blake helped Jeanetta Blignaut, ^[5] to establish a bead studio which today exists as the Qubeka Bead Studio, ^[6] a collaborative owned by the bead artists themselves.

After this Tamlin used a variety of different media including three-dimensional pieces in felt and beads to explore the use of farm animals as valued commodities and symbols of wealth and status across the boundaries of race and culture. ^{[7] [8]}

Blake's more recent work consists of tapestries woven out of recycled and hand-spun newspaper ^[9] a collection of which were bought by The Spier Holdings Contemporary Art Collection ^[10]

Career

Education

Blake received a master's degree in Fine Art from the University of Stellenbosch in 2001. ^[11] Blake majored in sculpture during her undergraduate studies, and then specialised in botanical art. ^[12]

Select group exhibitions

• Brett Kebble Art Awards, Merit Award, Cape Town (2003)
• Synergy, exhibition of contemporary bead art at Iziko Michaelis Collection, Cape Town (2005–2006)
• South African Art: Signs, Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum in Bratislava (2007)
• Skin-toSkin: Challenging Textile Art, Kaunas Art Biennial TEXTILE 07 in Lithuania (2007)
• Spier Contemporary Exhibition, Cape Town (2007–2008)
• South African Pavilion, World Expo 2010, Shanghai, China (2010) ^[1]
• Tamlin Blake, presented at the Spier Booth at the FNB Joburg Art Fair (2012) Spier presents Tamlin Blake at the 2012 Joburg Art Fair

Collections

• Contemporary Collection for The New Hollard House at Villa Arcadia Hollard Insurance
• The Spier Holdings Contemporary Art Collection Spier
• South African Breweries
• Meulensteen Collection, Slovakia
• Nandos (UK) Nandos
• Water Colour Society of Ireland at the University of Limerick (Ireland) ^[13]
• Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie Mellon University (USA) ^{[1] [14]}
• Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Tasmania, Australia

Gallery

• 
  150th Anniversary of the Groot Trek 40c Crossing the Drakensberg
• 
  Triangular - 1d deep brick-red - 1853
• 
  Triangular - 4d deep blue - 1853
• 
  3rd Definitive Issue 3c Protea neriifolia
• 
  Standardised mail, Nguni Bull
• 
  Blood Sweat and Tears
• 
  BabySkins CEO and PHD
• 
  Abundance (Nguni Hide)
• 
  Falling into Herself
• 
  Flight
• 
  Silhouette
• 
  Taking Time
• 
  Waiting
• 
  Wallpaper

Works

Inherited Space

Mural at the Spier Wine Estate in Stellenbosch. ^[12]

Awards

• Merit Award, Brett Kebble Art Awards, Cape Town (2003)
• Silver medal, Kirstenbosch Biennale, Kirstenbosch Gardens, South Africa (2002)
• Silver-Gilt medal, Royal Horticultural Society Botanical Art Show, RHS, London (2002)
• Top graduate student of the year, Department of Fine Art, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

References

External links

• Altered Yarns
• Private Spaces