Keya Tama + Madeleine Tonzi: Sweet To Remember

Keya Tama is a South African artist based in New York City. Inspired by pastel color palettes, pattern, and symbolism, Keya Tama has been a practicing artist and muralist since the age of thirteen. His style can be describe as ancient contemporary minimalism; by processing and refining images into minimalistic forms while maintaining their essence, his works aim to reunite old and new through contrasting yet unified iconography. The artist uses visuality from the storehouse of art history and references and remixes their recurring themes to create stark contrasts and discover unexpected commonalities which produce unusual, arresting, yet strangely familiar works. Working primarily in acrylics to create his pieces, there is a strong graphic feel to each piece. Across the artist’s practice, there are recurring themes of contrasting ancient and contemporary iconography, family and community, mono-myths, and minimalism.

Los Angeles-based artist Madeleine Tonzi, is a painter and muralist. Her work is focused on capturing the essence of ephemeral moments, and is a reflection of her investigation into memory and place and the relationships we form with the various environments we experience. Born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, her aesthetic inescapably echos her time spent in the high desert landscape, and simultaneously gives way to her experiences traveling and living in California. Finding both solace and discomfort in the places that she goes, Madeleine creates vivid abstract representational landscapes, both organic and architectural, utilizing a distinct visual language in order to emote what can not always be put into words as we move through time and space.