Tamar Ettun (she/they) is a New York-based artist working with immersive textile installation, sculpture, video, and performance. Ettun’s practice reflects on somatic empathy – the process of responding to others through sensory-based, embodied experiences – alongside trauma-healing modalities and rituals.
Amongst other long term projects, Ettun’s multidisciplinary work Lilit the Empathic Demon has since 2020 explored the insidious side of empathy, empathy fatigue, trauma-healing modalities, and astrology as storytelling through text messages to a growing community of people and most recently a textile installation and a performance at the Walker Art Center that traveled to The Armory Show Off-Site.
Ettun has had exhibitions and performances at The Walker Art Center, The Chinati Foundation, Pioneer Works, The Watermill Center, Art Omi Sculpture Garden, PERFORMA, Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, Fridman Gallery, Uppsala Museum of Art, Bryant Park, Sculpture Center, Madison Square Park, Socrates Sculpture Park, Indianapolis Museum of Art, The Jewish Museum, among others.
Ettun is the recipient of awards and fellowships from The Pollock Krasner Foundation, Interlude Artist Residency, BAX (Brooklyn Arts Exchange), Windgate Artist In Residence at SUNY Purchase, California Studio Manetti Shrem artist residence at UC Davis, Artis Contemporary, Moca Tucson, Stoneleaf Retreat, MacDowell Fellowship, Franklin Furnace, Iaspis, Fountainhead, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Abrons Art Center, Triangle Arts Association, Art Production Fund, and RECESS among others. Ettun founded The Moving Company, an artists collective creating performances in public spaces and a social engagement project with Brooklyn teens hosted by The Brooklyn Museum.
Ettun founded The Moving Company, an artists collective creating performances in public spaces and a social engagement project with Brooklyn teens hosted by The Brooklyn Museum.
Ettun received her MFA from Yale University in 2010 where she was awarded the Alice English Kimball Fellowship. She studied at Cooper Union in 2007, while earning her BFA from Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem. Ettun teaches at Columbia University School of Arts, and Parsons School of Design.
︎ @tamarettun
︎ tamarettun@gmail.com
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Contact:
tamarettun@gmail.com
Education
2010 MFA Yale University School of Art, Sculpture, CT
2008 BFA Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Fine Art, Jerusalem, Israel
2007 BFA The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Fine Art, New York, NY
Selected Residencies
2023 Interlude Artist Residency
2022 Brooklyn Arts Exchange
2022 Stoneleaf Retreat
2022 Windgate Artist in Residence, SUNY Purchase College
2021 The California Studio, Manetti-Shrem Artist Residencies at UC Davis
2020 The Chinati Foundation
2020 The Watermill Center Research Retreat
2019 Museum of Contemporary Art at Tucson Artist Residency
2019 Stoneleaf Artist Retreat and Residency
2019 Pioneer Works Production Residency
2018 Marble House Project
2018 Caldera Arts Center
2016 Iaspis, Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Sweden
2015-6 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Workspace Residency
2015 Fountainhead Residency
2014/5 The Watermill Center
2014 Triangle Arts Association Residency
2014 MacDowell Fellowship
2013-4 Abron’s Art Center AIRSpace Residency
2013 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Swing Space Residency
2012 Socrates Sculpture Park Residency and Exhibition
2012 Triangle Artist Workshop Residency
2011 RECESS Activities, New York
Awards and Fellowships
2021 New York Foundation of the Art, City Artist Corps
2020 Foundation for Contemporary Art Emergency Grant
2020 Artis Contemporary grant
2019 Puffin Foundation Grant
2018 Brooklyn Art Council Fund
2016 Artis Contemporary Exhibition Grant
2015 Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art
2014 The Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant
2013 Art Production Grant and Residency Program
2011/09 Artis Contemporary Art Fund Artist Grant
2010 The Alice Kimball English Traveling Fellowship, Yale School of Art
2009 The World Performance Project at Yale University
Solo Exhibitions and Performances
2023 Lilit, The Armory Show for the Armory Off-site at Bella Abzug Park, presented by Dreamsong, New York
2023 SUMMON, Dreamsong Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2023 Texts from Lilit, Demon Game Show (performance), Printed Matter, New York
2022 How to Trap a Demon, curated by Meghana Karnik, Richard and Dolly Mass Gallery at Purchase College, New York
2020 Lilit, The Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas
2019 Dead Sea (performance installation), curated by David Everritt Howe, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn
2019 Jubilation Inflation, curated by Sarah Cunningham, Pace University Gallery, New York
2018 Jubilation Inflation, curated by Alisha Kerlin, The Barrick Museum of Art, University of Nevada, NV
2017 Eat a Pink Owl, Fridman Gallery, New York City
2017 Mauve Bird with Yellow Teeth Red Feathers Green Feet and a Rose Belly, Part: PINK (performance), The Battery Park and Katonah Museum of Art, New York
2016 The Yellow Who Wants, curated by Rebecka Wigh Abrahamsson, Uppsala Art Museum, Uppsala, Sweden
2016 Mauve Bird with Yellow Teeth Red Feathers Green Feet and a Rose Belly, Part: YELLOW (performance), Bryant Park, New York and Uppsala Botanical Garden, Sweden
2015 Alula in Blue, Fridman Gallery, New York
2015 Mauve Bird with Yellow Teeth Red Feathers Green Feet and a Rose Belly, Part: BLUE (performance), The Watermill Center, Long Island, NY, and The Knockdown Center, Queens
2015 Pre-Midnight, (performance) Tamar Ettun and Molly Lowe, curated by Adi Puterman, Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York
2014 My Hands are the Shape Of My Height, curated by Victoria Reis, Transformer, Washington, DC
2014 One and One, One and Two, One and Three, One and Four, curated by Adi Gura, Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2013 The Lion Who Liked Strawberries, Art Production Fund, PS3, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, NV
2013 One Thing Leads to Another, (performance) The Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis
2011 One Thing Leads to Another: Part 2, Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York
2011 One Thing Leads to Another, (performance) PERFORMA 11, presented by RECESS, New York
2009 Empty is Also, (performance) in collaboration with Emily Coates, Commissioned by RoseLee Goldberg, PERFORMA 09, X-initiative, New York
2009 Post Traumatic Trance Dance Disorder (performance), curated by Sergio Edelstein, Center of Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
Selected Group Exhibitions and Performances
2023 Plant Teachers, First Free Saturdays, The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, ME
2023 Lilit, NADA House, presented by Dreamsong, New York
2023 Interior Resonance: 10th Anniversary Show, curated by Regine Basha, Fridman Gallery, New York
2023 Pop Up: Inflatable Sculpture, curated by Carolyn Bauer, Shelburne Museum, Vermont
2023 How to Trap a Demon (performance), Pioneer Works, New York
2022 Lilit the Empathic Demon, curated by Ava Locks, The Watermill Center, New York
2022 Upstate Art Weekend, curated by Helen Toomer, Stoneleaf Retreat, New York
2021 Though We Dance, curated by Hyejung Jang and Sunmi Yong, Cosmo40, Seoul, Korea
2021 Cut Ups, Essex Flowers, New York
2021 Patterns of Patience, Curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud, Marc Straus Gallery, New York
2021 A Glitter at Sea, curated by Rebecca Heidenberg, Dreamsong Gallery, Minneapolis, ME
2021 Speech Act, curated by Gali Greenspan, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery at Alfred University, New York
2021 The Moving Company and Friends, (performance), organized in collaboration with Rebecca Pristoop and Laura Bernstein, Essex Flowers Gallery, New York
2020 All At Once, curated by Regine Basha, Fridman Gallery, New York
2020 Private View, curated by Naomi Lev, Rebecca Pristoop and Sara Crown, Collective View
2019 The Fourth Iteration, ZUMU-The Mobile Museum, Kiryat Hayim, curated by Ruth Oppenheim, IL
2019 Summer solstice, (performance) Socrates Sculpture Park, New York
2019 Rosy Fingered Dawn, Pace University Gallery, Curated by Jacob Rhodes & Jen Schwarting, New York
2019 AXxoN N.: A Collective Commentary on David Lynch’s Inland Empire, Essex Flowers, Organized by Jonathan Ehrenberg and Sean McCarthy, New York
2018 The Fields, curated by Nicole Hayes, Art Omi (outdoor sculpture) New York
2017, -18 The Moving Company at Teen Night, The Brooklyn Museum, New York
2017 It’s Happening: 50 Years of Public Art, (performance) NYC Park Department, Central Park, New York
2017 The Dreamers (performance), curated by Ruth Patir, Danspace, New York
2016 Co-Lab projects, curated by Russell Etchen, Texas
2015 In Practice, Sculpture Center, Curated by Olga Dekalo, New York
2015 TRILATERATION, Diana Lowenstein Gallery, curated by Ombretta Argo, Miami
2015 Illegal Souvenirs, Curated by Annesofie Sandal, Field Projects Gallery, New York
2014 Summer Monday, Curated by Amanda Parmer, e-flux, New York
2014 Last Day of Folly, Madison Square Park, New York
2014 AIR SPACE, Abron’s Art Center, New York
2014 Still Acts, Curated by Ian Daniel and Sara Reisman, La MaMa La Galleria, New York
2013 We Live With Animals, Van Alen Institution, PERFORMA 13, New York
2013 Goods, Bat Yam Museum, Bat Yam, Israel
2012 Socrates Sculpture Park: EAF 12, New York
2012 Summer Solstice, Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York
2012 Trees, Art and Jewish Thought, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco
2011 Odyssey Of Iksa, The Herzelia Biennale, ARTLV, Curated by Ory Dassou, Israel
2010 Handheld History, Queens Museum of Art, Video summit, New York
2009 Reinventing Rituals, Rite Now: Sacred and Secular in Video, The Jewish Museum, New York
2008 No-Nonsense – VideoZone, curated by Antonio Geusa and Dalia Levin, Herzelia Museum of Contemporary Art
Bibliography and Publications
2023 MN Artists, The Walker Art Center by Elisabeth Workman, “Demon Bloomsongs: Tamar Ettun’s Vivid Somatics”
2023 Brooklyn Rail by Nick Bennet, “Tamar Ettun’s Texts from Lilit”
2022 White Wall Magazine by Pearl Fontaine, “Tamar Ettun Demonstrates How to Trap a Demon”
2021 White Wall Magazine by Katy Donahue, “Trapping Demons with Tamar Ettun and Lilit”
2020 Chinati Foundation Newsletter, Volume 25
2020 Granta Magazine (Hebrew)
2020 Artnet by Noor Brara
2020 1280° Magazine for Material Culture, interview with Gali Greenspan
2019 Artnet by Sarah Cascone
2018 Brooklyn Rail by Nicole Miller, “Tamar Ettun: Jubilation Inflation”
2018 Interview with Andreana Donahue, Settlers and Nomads
2018 Artsy by Abigail Cain
2017 Wall Street Journal by Sarah Crown
2017 Hyperallergic by Carey Dunne
2017 VICE by Taylor Lindsay
2017 Eat a Pink Owl, Catalog published by Fridman Gallery, essay by Wendy Vogell and interview with Barry Schwabsky
2016 VICE by Nate Ainley, “The Inflatable World of Tamar Ettun”
2016 The Observer by Paul Laster
2016 Catalog, published by Sculpture Center, essay by Olga Dekalo
2016 Catalog, published by Uppsala Museum, essays by Rebecka Wigh Abrahamsson and Ulrika Carlsson
2015 The Huffington Post, interview by Sarah Murkett
2015 Art Critical by William Corwin
2015 Studio International by Natasha Kurchanova
2015 Modern Painters by Jennifer Piejko
2015 Bomb Magazine, interview by Naomi Lev
2015 Catalog, published by Fridman Gallery, introduction by Steven Henry Madoff, essays by Claire Barliant and Natasha Marie Lorenz
2014 The Washington Post by Mark Jenkins
2014 Hyperallergic by Daniel Larkin
2014 Vogue by Mark Guiducci
2014/9 Art Forum Video
2012 Performa 11: Staging Ideas by RoseLee Goldberg
2011 The New York Times by Hilarie M. Sheets
2011 The Observer by Dan Duray
2010 Performa 09, Back to futurism Edited by Roselee Goldenberg
2010 The X Initiative Yearbook Edited by Cecilia Alemani (Milan: Mousse)
2009 New York Times by Roberta Smith
2009 New York Magazine by Jerry Saltz
Curatorial Projects
2021 Guardian, Ester Partegas and Claire Watson, Curated in collaboration with Antonia Kuo, Essex Flowers Gallery, New York, NY
2020-2021 The Moving Company and Friends, seasonal performance program, Essex Flowers Gallery. In collaboration with Rebecca Pristoop and Laura Bernstein
2018-2019 Video Program for Jubilation Inflation, The Barrick Museum at the University of Las Vegas, & Pace University Gallery, works by Alika Cooper, Cheryl Donegan, Trulee Hall, Joan Jonas, and Jen Liu