2022 Catalogue Archive

Canadian-born, Dallas-based Keer Tanchak draws her imagery from historical sources that she translates into delicate, brushy portraits, mostly of women. Previously taking inspiration from 18^th century French Rococo painting, Tanchak has found a similar romanticism in more modern depictions of actresses and fashion models. For this series of works, Tanchak focuses on actress Nastassja Kinski in a pivotal scene from the 1984 film Paris, Texas. Tanchak obsessively paints and repaints this scene, finding the vulnerability, beauty, and recognition in the actress’s face as she is confronted with the character’s impossibly painful past. Tanchak writes, “Understanding the secrets she has been holding, feels almost impossibly painful. By reproducing the picture, there is a chance to mitigate the emotion, pacify it.” Tanchak received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from Concordia University in Montreal. Tanchak has exhibited at the Dallas Contemporary and her work is part of the collection of the Dallas Museum of Art.