Tschabalala Self: Dream Girl

Dream Girl, an exhibition of new paintings and sculpture by Tschabalala Self opens at Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles on Saturday, February 15th. The works address the concept of a constructed self and the construction of femininity. The paintings and sculpture will be presented as an immersive environment, conceived as a mind map outlining the artist’s process and conceptualization of the protagonists in her paintings. The installation is anchored by the paintings, each of which function as a vignette into the mind of its subject.

Tschabalala Self is one of the most celebrated figurative artists of her generation. Her distinctive paintings combine fabric collage with exuberant paint handling. They resonate as objects with a sculptural as well as an illusionistic presence. The artist describes the paintings in Dream Girl as “existing within liminal spaces which speak to psychological, emotional and spiritual aspects of personhood.”

Self is inspired by Los Angeles as a site for reinvention. The limitlessness of “the land of Hollywood” represents the city’s expansive sense of freedom, which is both romantic and dystopic. It’s all consuming yet generative. The duality of Los Angeles speaks to the various conceptual concerns within Self’s practice.

Tschabalala Self (b. 1990, Harlem, New York) lives and works in the Hudson Valley, New York. Self is an artist who builds a singular style from the syncretic use of painting, printmaking and sculpture to explore ideas surrounding the black body. She constructs depictions of predominantly women using a combination of sewn, printed and painted materials, traversing different artistic and craft traditions. The formal and conceptual aspects of Self’s work seek to expand her critical inquiry into selfhood and human flourishing.

Self’s work has been exhibited at Art + Practice, Los Angeles (2016) and in a solo exhibition at the Hammer Museum (2019). In Los Angeles, her work is in the collections of the California African American Museum, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and The Museum of Contemporary Art. In addition, her work has been exhibited widely in international museums and is included in numerous museum collections. Her Lady in Blue (2024) sculpture won the Fourth Plinth Commission for Trafalgar Square London and will be displayed in 2026. Tschabalala Self’s work was featured in Punch LA (2019) and Luncheon on the Grass (2022) at Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles. Dream Girl is the artist’s first solo gallery exhibition in Los Angeles.