Abts is known for her complex paintings and drawings that evolve in accordance with a self-determined and ever-widening set of parameters, which results in compositions that are intuitively constructed and precisely articulated. The textured surface, fine ridges, and subtle gradations of color are evidence of the process of finding, rendering, and establishing a final image. As art historian and philosopher Juliane Rebentisch speculates, the subject of Abts’s works may originate in the process of their creation: “The feeling of freedom at the beginning [of Abts’s process] is imbued with a kind of euphoric sense of possibility. To the painter, the format contains infinite possibilities of formal creation.” ¹

In the works on view—which include a painting in two parts and a painting on silk, as well as two works that incorporate a segment of a bronze or aluminum cast—Abts finds alternate means of beginning, realizing, and resolving a painting. In some of the paintings, the artist employs the structure of a previously established composition, using it as a starting point to further explore its properties, shifting focus to different aspects of scale, color, surface, and support. Likewise, three of the exhibited works are larger paintings that each measure 34 by 25 inches—the first instance of Abts working on a different scale within this body of work. The artist deepens her investigation by locating new facets of material and depth that underscore the sense of discovery inherent to her process.

Tomma Abts was born in Kiel, Germany, in 1967. She studied at the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin, from 1988 to 1995. Abts’s work has been the subject of major international exhibitions, most recently in 2018 at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Serpentine Gallery, London. Other prominent institutions that have presented solo shows of the artist’s work include the Aspen Art Museum, Colorado (2014); Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2011); New Museum, New York (2008; traveled to the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles); Kunsthalle Basel (2005); and The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2005). Abts’s work has also been included in major international exhibitions such as the Berlin Biennale (2006); Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (2004); and Istanbul Biennial (2001), among others.

In 2006, Abts was the recipient of the prestigious Turner Prize, awarded by Tate, United Kingdom. The artist has been represented by David Zwirner since 2005 and received her debut exhibition at the gallery in New York in 2008.

The artist’s work is represented in public collections internationally, including the Art Institute of Chicago; Baltimore Museum of Art; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Staatsgalerie Stuttgart; Tate, United Kingdom; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Since 1995, Abts has lived and worked in London.

Tomma Abts. Exh. cat. (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago; London: Serpentine Galleries, 2018), p. 29.