Deborah Tarr's Rare Earth, Cadogan Gallery, London

Cadogan Gallery is proud to present Rare Earth, a bold and atmospheric new solo exhibition by British painter Deborah Tarr. This powerful body of work channels the raw energy and poetic mystery of the natural world through a language of refined abstraction.

A rising force in contemporary British art, Manchester-born Deborah Tarr is known for her emotionally resonant, texturally rich works that blur the boundaries between landscape, memory, and inner experience. In Rare Earth, she continues to refine her distinctive language of abstraction, capturing the quiet power of geological forms - rocks, mountains, and terrain reduced to their most essential lines and tones.

Drawing from shifting weather systems, tidal flows, and ancient terrain, Tarr’s paintings are more than landscapes, they are inner topographies. Her brushwork is intentional, her compositions delicately balanced. These are acts of quiet self-soothing, steeped in emotional resonance and subtle vulnerability. The result is a body of work that feels both intimate and expansive, still and storm-touched, abstract and elemental.

Lunar rhythms thread quietly through the exhibition. The moon appears as a recurring, abstracted motif, minimal yet powerful. In The Painted Desert, Arizona, a small red moon hovers in the corner of the canvas, serene and forceful, anchoring the composition and hinting at the cosmic cycles behind the visible world. The Helford, a standout of the show, captures Tarr’s ability to hold elemental force within a profound stillness, mirroring the moon’s quiet gravitational pull.

“I’m interested in what lies beneath the surface - both in the physicality of the paint and in our inner landscapes,” says Tarr. “My work is about presence, absence, and everything in between.”

Each painting stands as a complete, singular object, its impact shaped not just by layered pigment and canvas grain, but by the frame itself. Whether antique, reclaimed, or custom-made, Tarr’s choice of frame is integral, forming a dialogue between the organic and the constructed, the timeless and the contemporary.

Rare Earth marks a vital evolution in Tarr’s practice, an exploration of our connection to the land, the cosmos, and to ourselves. It is a moving meditation on matter, memory, and the quiet power of nature.

About Deborah Tarr

Deborah Tarr (b. 1966, Manchester, UK) creates paintings that often reference real landscapes, yet are never depictions of specific places. Hovering between abstraction and representation, her works are distilled expressions of memory, emotion, and atmosphere, meditative spaces that invite the viewer to pause, reflect, and breathe.

Evoking both the British coastline and countryside, as well as the expansive terrains of California’s national parks, particularly those surrounding Los Angeles, Tarr’s recent work draws on her travels and encounters with wild, elemental landscapes. These influences quietly infuse her paintings with a sense of timelessness and geographical ambiguity.

Each piece is carefully composed and beautifully restrained, with a subtle balance of texture, tone, and negative space. Her critically acclaimed work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions across the UK and the United States. Cadogan Gallery has proudly represented Tarr since 2002, presenting her first London solo show in 2004.