Tirtzah Bassel (b. 1979) is a visual artist based in Brooklyn. Her figurative paintings and site-responsive installations draw attention to the presumed neutrality of ubiquitous spaces like airports and supermarkets, and Canon in Drag – a series of paintings in the style of iconic artworks – subverts the authority of canonical images through gender flipping and altered narratives.
Solo exhibitions and site responsive installations include Slag Gallery, NY (2022, 2018, 2014), Galerie Thomas Fuchs, Stuttgart, Germany (2018), Ortega y Gasset Projects, Brooklyn, NY (2018), and BRIC Arts Media Center, Brooklyn, NY (2016). Recent projects include Platform in partnership with David Zwirner Gallery (2022), Natasha Arselan Gallery, London, UK (2022), and Martha’s Contemporary, Austin TX (2022).
Selected group exhibitions include Kunstverein Viernheim, Germany (2017), Home Land Security at the FOR-SITE Foundation, San Francisco, CA (2018), The Visual Arts Center, New Jersey (2015), and Open Source Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2015).
Bassel’s work has been reviewed in ARTNews, The Brooklyn Rail, BBC Radio 4: Front Row, Stirworld, Frieze Magazine, Hyperallergic, The Boston Globe, KQED, San Francisco Chronicle, The Art Newspaper, Huffington Post, Arts in Bushwick, Artspiel, Lilith Magazine, Al Jazeera English, and Le Monde Diplomatique among others.
Bassel received an MFA from Boston University and studied drawing and painting at the Jerusalem Studio School in Israel. She is a faculty member in the Visual and Critical Studies Department at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and a resident artist in the Chashama Workspace Program in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Bassel is represented by Slag Gallery in New York and Galerie Thomas Fuchs, Stuttgart, Germany.
Contact: tirtzahbassel[at]gmail[dot]com
SOLO EXHIBITIONS & SITE-RESPONSIVE INSTALLATIONS
2023 Little Deaths, RX&Slag, Paris, France
2022 Canon in Drag, Slag&RX, New York, NY
2018 Close One Eye, Slag&RX, Brooklyn, NY
2017 Volta NY, Slag&RX, New York, NY
2016 Terminal, BRIC Arts Media House, Brooklyn, NY
2015 Rites (Two Person), Slag&RX, Brooklyn, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
The Invention of Truth, 601 Gallery, New York, NY; Participating Artists: Tirtzah Bassel, Omer Fast, Louise Lawler, Katie Paterson, Sarah Peters, Zorawar Sidhu, Kara Walker, Betty Woodman.
Sacré, RX&Slag, Paris, France
The Rule of Five, Slag&RX, New York
From the Eyes of Her, Port Authority and New York City and Culture Club, New York, NY
2023
Milk Tongue, Martin-Mullen Gallery, SUNY Oneonta, NY
2022
PLATFORM (David Zwirner Partnership), New York, NY
Tomorrow’s Women, Natasha Arselan Gallery, London, UK
2021
Curated Choice: Female Figuration, ENTER Art Fair, Copenhagen, Denmark
Unconquerable Women, Martha’s Contemporary, Austin TX; Curator: Katarina Janeckova
2020
Domestic Brutes, Pelham Art Center, Pelham, NY
2019
Volta Basel, Slag Gallery, Basel, Switzerland
2017
Four New York Painters, Kunstverein Worms & Kunstverein Vierhnheim, Germany
2016
Home Land Security, FOR-SITE Foundation, San Francisco, CA
2015
Adhere, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit, NJ
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2024
The Brooklyn Rail, The Queer Imagination, Then and Now, The Irving Sandler Essay Series, Christopher T. Richards, Edited by Alexander Nagel, July/August 2024
2023
Milk Tongue Exhibition Catalog, essays by Sallie Han, Ashley Cooper, and Carrie Mae Smith, Martin-Mullen Gallery, SUNY Oneonta, Oneonta, NY, January-March 2023
2022
ARTNews, Canon in Drag: Female Artists Reimagine Famous Works by Men, Karen Chernick, December 26, 2023
The Brooklyn Rail, Tirtzah Bassel: Canon in Drag, Christopher T. Richards, November 2022
2021
BBC Radio 4: Front Row, Artist Tirtzah Bassel's Canon in Drag reimagines art history without the patriarchy, July 20th
Lilith Magazine, Artist Tirtzah Bassel’s Female Gaze, Susan Schur, November 15th, 2021
The Art Newspaper, Canon in drag: Tirtzah Bassel reimagines art history without the patriarchy, Chernick, Karen, July 7th
Rethinking Painting, essays by Nancy Princenthal, Raphael Rubinstein, Jutta Koether, Barry Schwabsky, edited by Joan Waltemath, The LeRoy Hofflberger School of Painting at MICA
2020
The Journal News, Pelham exhibit ‘a realistic picture of what it means to be a woman today’, Michelle Falkenstein, September 16th
2018
Stuttgarter Nachrichten, Die Stille Vor Dem Blick: Aktuelle Ausstellungen die Israelische Malerin Tirtzah Bassel - jetzt in der Galerie Thomas Fuchs - wird sich die Kunstwelt erobern, Nikolai B. Forstbauer, October 19 2018
Stuttgarter Zeitung, Einmal Waschen und Legen, Galerienotizen, Dr. Georg Leisten, October 5th
2017
Le Monde Diplomatique, Artist of the Month, Wilhelm Werthern, December 7th
Wormser Zeitung, New Yorker Kunst in Worms und Viernheim, Sophia Rishyna, April 4th
2016
SFAQ, Home Land Security at the Presidio, Gabrielle Gopinath, December 15th
Hyperallergic, Stories of War and Survival Unfold in San Francisco’s Presidio, Thea Quiray Tagle, November 16th
ArtLtd Magazine, Report: San Francisco, Leora Lutz, November
Freize Magazine, Home Land Security, Rob Marks, October 24th
KQED, “Artwork and Setting Depict Post-9/11 World,” Matthew Harrison Tedford, September 26th
SF Weekly, “For-site is 20/20,” Jonathan Curiel, September 22nd
The Bay Area Reporter,“Coastal Art Installations,” Sura Wood, September 15th
KQED Forum, “Homeland Security Installation Comes to San Francisco’s Presidio Barracks,” Michael Krasny, September 13th
The Art Newspaper, “Political Art That Packs A Punch,” Jori Finkel, September 9th
Curbed SF, “Exclusive Look at Art inside Presidio’s Abandoned Bunkers,” Adam Brinklow, September
San Fransisco Chronicle, “Foundation Puts Ballistics Test Inside Mothballed Presidio Bunker,” Sam Whiting, September 7th
C Magazine, “Safe Haven,” Leilani Labong, September
SF/ARTS, “New Presidio Exhibit Illuminates Complex Social Issues,” Jean Schiffman, September 2016
San Francisco Magazine, “Make Art Not War,” Annie Tittiger, September
The New York Times, A ‘Home Land Security’ Art Show, at the Foot of the Golden Gate Bridge, Jori Finkel, June 23rd
KQED, Ex-Military Bunkers to Host Major Group Exhibition in San Francisco, Chloe Veltman, June 23rd
San Francisco Chronicle, For-Site Show coming to Presidio in September, Sam Whiting, June 23rd
Al Jazeera English, “Artists Exhibit Work in Historic Bunkers,” Allen Schauffler , September 29, 2016
NBC Bay Area, “Presidio Exhibit Gives Artful Twist to Homeland Security,” Joe Rostao, Nov. 23, 2016
San Francisco Chronicle, “Exhibits Inside Soaring Cathedral, Stark Bunkers,” Charles Desmarais, December 14, 2016
The Creators Project, “That Time Art Took Over a Military Complex,” Tanja M. Laden, January 3, 2017
BK Live, Tirtzah Bassel’s Duct Tape Art, March 17th
2014
The Boston Globe, BU’s Abstract Ace Shows His Stripes, Cate McQuaid, December 2nd
Arts in Bushwick, An Odd Symbiosis: Action in Non-Action, Etty Yaniv, April 23rd
The Huffington Post, Tirtzah Bassel Transforms Duct Tape, Vanessa Albury, March 26th
2013
Hyperallergic, The Miami Fairs, Rendered in Duct Tape, Jillian Steinhauer, December 5th
EDUCATION
2010 MFA in Painting, Boston University, Boston, MA
2004 Jerusalem Studio School, Jerusalem, Israel
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2018–Present Faculty, Visual and Critical Studies, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
LECTURES & PANELS
2022 Artist Panel: Birthing Bodies/Birthing Art, University of New Hampshire
Visiting Artist, Visual Arts Department, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, LA
2018 Visiting Artist, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2017 Visiting Artist, Print Media Department, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Detroit, MI.
2016 Visiting Artist, Parsons The New School of Design, New York, NY
2015 Visiting Artist, University of The Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Visiting Artist Lecture, L.E. Hoffberger Graduate School of Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
2014 Visiting Artist Lecture, Nassum Community College, Garden City, NY
2013 Visiting Artist Lecture Stanlee & Gerald Rubin Center for Visual Arts, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX
Visiting Artist Lecture Davidson College, Davidson, NC
RESIDENCIES, GRANTS & FELLOWSHIPS
2025 Peleh Residency Fellowship, Berkeley, CA
2010–2024 Studio Residency, Chashama Workspace Program, Brooklyn, NY
2013, 2016 Asylum Arts, International Artist Retreat, Garrison Institute, Garrison, NY
2011–2012 LABA Artist Fellowship, 14th Street Y, New York, NY
2011 Artist Residency, I-Park Foundation, East Haddam, CT