Tess Jaray was born in Vienna in 1937. She studied at St Martin’s College of Art and Design (1954–1957) and the Slade School of Fine Art (1957–1960), where she subsequently taught for many years.
Jaray’s art is a commitment to the unknowable, a desire to understand how the patterns of the world and the patterns of the mind reflect each other. Her complex geometric structures suggest spatial ambiguities, which subtly work on the viewer’s perceptions. Jaray is a painter whose purity of form and mastery of colour have won her numerous public commissions, including Centenary Square in Birmingham and the forecourt of the New British Embassy in Moscow.
Jaray had her first individual exhibition of paintings at the Grabowski Gallery in 1963, since then she has regularly exhibited in the UK and abroad. Solo exhibitions include the Whitechapel Gallery in 1973, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester in 1984, and the Serpentine Gallery in 1988. Public collections include the British Museum, the Arts Council, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Tate Gallery, London.
In 2010, Jaray was elected to be a Royal Academician. She lives and works in London.
Jaray’s art is a commitment to the unknowable, a desire to understand how the patterns of the world and the patterns of the mind reflect each other. Her complex geometric structures suggest spatial ambiguities, which subtly work on the viewer’s perceptions. Jaray is a painter whose purity of form and mastery of colour have won her numerous public commissions, including Centenary Square in Birmingham and the forecourt of the New British Embassy in Moscow.
Jaray had her first individual exhibition of paintings at the Grabowski Gallery in 1963, since then she has regularly exhibited in the UK and abroad. Solo exhibitions include the Whitechapel Gallery in 1973, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester in 1984, and the Serpentine Gallery in 1988. Public collections include the British Museum, the Arts Council, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Tate Gallery, London.
In 2010, Jaray was elected to be a Royal Academician. She lives and works in London.
The Piper Gallery 2012