Detail of Hale Tenger, I Know People Like This III, 2013
Hale Tenger draws her subject matter from cultural, political, and psychosocial references. Her artistic production is characterized by the overt stimulation of the sensory and intellectual perceptions simultaneously. She builds her visual and auditory metaphors by distilling complex and loaded contents, encouraging the viewer to have an intimate experience through the connection of memory, space, and time. Tenger is acknowledged for her immersive installations bringing diverse materials together in an elaborate combination. Besides installations, her wide range of production encompasses video, sculpture, and photography.
Audio is frequently integrated into her works in various forms, either as original music, in narrative format, or as arrangement of archival recordings. Tenger occasionally incorporates her own texts, in prose or verse, as fabulation devices, getting them delivered in the form of voiced narrations.
Detail of Hale Tenger, Appearance, 2019
Hale Tenger (b.1960, Izmir, Turkey) graduated from the Ceramics Department of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University (1986) after a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Programming at Boğaziçi University (1982). In 1988, she completed her Master in Fine Arts at the South Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education. Receiving the British Council scholarship, Tenger has been invited to a number of artist residencies including The Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio Center (Bellagio, 2019), ArtPace (Texas, 1997), New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University (New York, 1994).
Select solo exhibitions include: Where the Winds Rest, Galeri Nev Istanbul, Turkey (2019); Beirut, Rizzuto Gallery, Palermo, Italy (2018); We didn't go outside; we were always on the outside/ We didn’t go inside; we were always on the inside, Protocinema, New York (2015); Perspectives: Beirut, Smithsonian Institute, Washington (2011); Balloons on the Sea, Green Art Gallery, Dubai (2011); Never Never Land, Mannheimer Kuntsverein, Mannheim (2001); and The Closet, ArtPace, San Antonio, Texas (1997).
Tenger has also participated in various biennials including the Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art, Russia (2021); Istanbul Biennial (1992, 1995, 2019); São Paulo Biennial (1994); Manifesta 1, Rotterdam (1996); 2nd Johannesburg Biennial (1998); Gwangju Biennial (2000); 8th Havana Biennial (2003); 1st Haifa Mediterranean Biennial (2010); and the 57th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia (2017), curated by Christine Macel.
She lives and works in Istanbul.
Hale Tenger on the cover of Art Unlimited's January 2024 Issue.
Hale Tenger and Kostis Velonis, two prominent contemporary artists from Turkey and Greece, engage in an indirect dialogue on the traces of life and death in the exhibition True Love Leaves No Traces.
Hale Tenger on the Lessepsian migration, “tampering with” nature and the concept of “wu wei.”
Nermin Saybaşılı’nın kaleminden Hale Tenger’in “Altında," "Hayat, Ölüm, Aşk ve Adalet” ile “Suret, Zuhur, Tezahür” başlıklı üç farklı sesli yerleştirmesinde karşımıza çıkan kadın sesinin yankısı üzerine…
Turkey's veteran artist Hale Tenger tackles coups, destruction and political assassinations in the Middle East, using marriage of poetry and images.
A review of the works presented on the 16th Istanbul Biennial by Gökcan Demirkazik.
A review of the works presented on the 16th Istanbul Biennial.
While a glut of artists tackle climate change, work elsewhere in the city dares to confront Turkey’s political regime directly.
Alexandra Chaves review Hale Tenger's mixed media installation Under.
Hanna S. Orlowski interviews Hale Tenger on her latest pubic commission, Under, commissioned by Alserkal Programming and guest curated by Mari Spirito.
HG Masters reflects on Hale Tenger's career over the last 20 years in the July/August issue of Art Asia Pacific.
Hale Tenger’s 1995 installation We didn’t go outside; we were always on the outside / We didn’t go inside; we were always on the inside, a commentary on Turkish politics in particular and state repression in general, is as disturbingly relevant today as it was 20 years ago.
Ari Akkermans reviews Hale Tenger's work We didn’t go outside; we were always on the outside/ We didn’t go inside; we were always on the inside at Protocinema, New York.
A review of Hale Tenger's We didn't go outside; we were always on the outside/ We didn’t go inside; we were always on the inside installation.
Arie Amaya-Akkermans talks about works of Hale Tenger in the context of the events of Gezi Park, Istanbul that took place in 2013.
Arie Amaya-Akkermans talks about Hale Tenger’s video work “Beirut” (2005-2007).
H.G. Masters and Nazli Gurlek survey this art scene’s recent past, and consider what the future might hold in the wake of the Gezi Park protests, a contentious edition of the biennial and little state support.
HG Masters talks about Hale Tenger’s installation Where the Winds Rest (2007) in ArtAsiaPacific issue 86.
A review of Hale Tenger’s installation I Know People Like This III presented first in the group exhibition of contemporary Turkish art Envy, Enmity, Embarrassment at ARTER Istanbul in January 2013.
A review of Hale Tenger's exhibition Balloons on the Sea, 2011 at Green Art Gallery, Dubai.
An in-depth article by Deborah Root in which she discusses Hale Tenger's various installation pieces, including Strange Fruit (2009) shown at Galeri Nev, Istanbul.
Nermin Saybasili discusses the way in which both sound, and particularly voice, becomes another "object" within Hale Tenger's installations and another "element" in her video-works.
Irina Cios interviews Hale Tenger about the artist's position in the Turkish contemporary art scene, and her ability to break the traditional pictorial fixation of Turkish art.
According to Ahu Antmen, Turkish artists are intrinsically post- modern, and the schizophrenia of this neither/nor situation, this dual existence in a space both modern and traditional, so old but so open to the new, bears a forest of inspiration.
Stuart Morgan discusses the themes of migration found in many of the works at the 1996 Manifesta.
Gregory Volk discusses the what he believes was an innovative fourth Istanbul Biennial with eclectic works and installations predominating over other genres.
