Tea has long played an integral role in the life and work of artist Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck. The transdisciplinary and cultural practitioner, who lives in rural Oxfordshire, even founded Journal du Thé – a magazine paying homage to tea cultures and their positive impact in communities around the world.

This painting, Rahel, is part of a larger body of work Safe Space, made during the pandemic year. The paintings are close-up, cropped views of Tagada Hoffbeck’s close friends, tenderly holding teacups in bold, minimal brush strokes; a tribute to the traditions of taking tea and their potential to create space for conversation and healing. For each of the paintings, Tagada Hoffbeck also created a soundscape – three minute monologues narrated by the subjects of the works. (The accompaniment for Rahel can be heard here).

Safe Space embodies Tagada Hoffbeck’s broader interest in compassion and care, and the ideologies underpinning her practice as an artist. Theories on Art therapy, Deep Ecology and Permaculture all intertwine in Tagada Hoffbeck’s sculptures, drawings, paintings, and installations, as much as they are evident in her community-oriented and gardening workshops and collaborations. With soft poetry and soothing palettes, Tagada Hoffbeck not only creates an evocative visual space, but invites the viewer to create a space within them.

Works by Tagada Hoffbeck are on view, alongside pieces by her partner, artist Jatinder Singh Durhailay, and potter Jynsym Ong, in an exhibition Ponderings Over Tea, at GALLERY 1+5, Oxford, from 11 – 24 May, 2024.

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