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Some performances end when the curtain falls. Others follow me home.
I paint the people, performances, and personalities that have inhabited my imagination, sometimes for decades, with very little intention of leaving.
Actors, playwrights, dancers, and composers populate my canvases, joined by several bouquets of mutinous flowers who appear to have mistaken themselves for the leading ladies.
Some characters find their way into paintings. Others insist upon having dialogue.
THE PAINTINGS: After the Curtain
My paintings often begin with an encounter that refuses to end.
From Ian McKellen’s Richard III at BAM in 1992 to the writers, dancers, and performers whose artistry continues to haunt my imagination, I explore what remains after the performance is over.
Working primarily in oil and graphite on canvas, I am interested less in reproducing a likeness than in capturing the elusive character of a moment.
THE THEATRE: The Characters Began Talking Back
My plays explore cultivated appearances, inconvenient histories, social ambition, and the occasional spectacular collapse of good manners.
From Moments in Spring to the Jazz Age intrigues of Collectors Cabaret, I am particularly interested in the distance between what people believe themselves to be and what they reveal when sufficiently provoked.
A distance that can be remarkably entertaining.
HOMA TAJ
Painter . Playwright
For inquiries, please get in touch.