In the C24 Gallery Atrium, we are pleased to present a selection of photographs and paintings by Marie Tomanova, spanning work from 2016 to the present. This exhibition comes on the heels of her recent solo show, Lost and Found, and the European release of the Film Kolektiv/HBO/PubRes feature length documentary by Marie Dvorakova profiling her life with art historian Thomas Beachdel, World Between Us. The collection tracks Tomanova’s journey through New York City’s art world as she has slowly developed a name for herself in both the fine art and commercial realms.

 

Czech-born Tomanova first came into public prominence in the United States with her series of photographs of young New Yorkers, the subject of her sold-out 2019 book, Young American (Paradigm Publishing), which contained a foreword by renowned American photographer Ryan McGinley. Her next book, New York New York (Hatje Cantz, 2021, foreword by Kim Gordon), was an homage to her adopted city, as a backdrop to the friends and new relationships she found here. Selections from this period of work are included in the exhibition.

 

As her commercial career developed, Tomanova found herself craving more personal forms of expression, and in 2022, she embarked on a year-long photo project to compose a self-portrait every day. She ended up naming it, Three Empty Weeks in July, in honor of the period of time that summer during which she was unable to fulfill her mission. Selected prints from this series are also on view as part of the current collection.

 

And in 2024, Tomanova made a long awaited return to painting, her first love and the roots of her formal training as an artist in the Czech Republic over a decade ago. These paintings, also self-portraits, form a poignant counterpoint to her photographs, bringing complexity to the expression of her look inward. Together, these three bodies of work form a revealing and vulnerable exploration of identity both through representations of self and a celebration of community. 

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​MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST: 

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Czech-born Marie Tomanova grew up in a South Moravian border town, Mikulov. After receiving a painting MFA she left for the United States, where she turned to photography. Displacement, identity, gender, and memory became key themes in her work. Tomanova has had solo shows worldwide including in New York City, Prague, Tokyo, and Paris; her work has been exhibited in Berlin for the European Month of Photography 2020 Biennial, at Paris Photo (2023), and at the Rencontres d’Arles as part of the Louis Roederer Discovery Award 2021 (Arles, France). At Rencontres d’Arles it was selected to travel to the Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival in Xiamen, China in 2021. Tomanova’s first book, Young American (Paradigm Publishing, 2019) focuses on individuality, identity, and belonging in the American social landscape. It features a foreword by acclaimed photographer Ryan McGinley and sold out shortly after its publication. Deftly entwining portraiture and landscape to recontextualize and expand the meaning of each, Tomanova published, with art historian Thomas Beachdel, her second book, New York New York (Hatje Cantz, 2021) with a foreword by Kim Gordon. Her third book, It Was Once My Universe, with foreword by Lucy Sante, was published by SuperLabo, Japan in fall of 2022. It’s a deeply personal project about her return home to the Czech Republic after eight years in exile as an immigrant living in the United States. World Between Us, a feature length HBO documentary by director Marie Dvořáková on Tomanova’s trajectory as an artist, will be premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Ji.Hlava in October, 2024.

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Please contact info@c24gallery.com for more information.

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