Tam Joseph in Conversation: I Know What I See

17 Nov 2023 6.30-9pm

Overview

Join artist Tam Joseph, as he discusses his 40-year career with historian, curator and artist Eddie Chambers, both have works in the V&A collection. Tam explains his eclecticism and how it defies being pinned down to any one style or approach.

Tam’s paintings reflect on his own history and the history of injustices faced by African Caribbean people in Britain. Other works draw inspiration from diverse sources including cinema, music, and sport, as well as the natural world, and the history of painting itself.

Whether his subject is landscape, portraiture, or history, Tam employs his deep knowledge of paintings of the past to create work which invites viewers to consider these genres afresh. Tam’s art has taken him in many different directions, but it is grounded in a sensibility which revels in the connections between things, as well as the creative possibilities of human perception. A new book, Tam Joseph: I Know What I See, is the first major publication to provide an extensive survey of his work, and the artist will be in conversation with Eddie Chambers as they review a lifetime's creativity.

Tam Joseph was born in Dominica in 1947, and moved to London with his family when he was 8 years old. He studied at Central School of Art and briefly at the Slade School of Fine Art. He lives and works as an artist in London. His work has been exhibited internationally and is represented in many public collections including the Arts Council Collection, Tate Modern, and the V&A. I Know What I See brings together paintings and sculptures from over 40 years of Joseph’s wide-ranging artistic career.

Eddie Chambers was born in Wolverhampton in 1960. He gained his PhD from Goldsmiths College, University of London in 1998. Following periods of teaching at Emory University, Atlanta, he joined the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin in January 2010, where he is holder of the David Bruton, Jr. Centennial Professorship in Art History. Here he teaches classes and seminars relating to art history of the African Diaspora. His most recent book is World is Africa: Writings on Diaspora Art (Bloomsbury, London and New York, 2021).

Copies of the book 'Tam Joseph: I Know What I See', published by Four Corners Books will be available on the evening followed by a book signing with Tam Joseph and Eddie Chambers.

Four Corners Books is an independent publisher of art history books, based in London.

Tam Joseph. Photographer Lewis Ronald. Eddie Chambers. Photographer Hakeem Adewumi.

Book now