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.
Hale Tenger (1960, Izmir), graduated from the Ceramics Department of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University after a bachelor’s degree in Computer Programming at Boğaziçi University. In 1988, she completed her Master in Fine Arts at the South Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education. The artist who participated in the 16th Istanbul Biennial in 2019, held a solo show at Dubai, Alserkal Avenue in 2018, which was a significance international project after her participation in the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. Tenger’s solo exhibitions include; Rizzuto Gallery (Palermo, 2018); Protocinema (New York, 2015); Galeri Nev İstanbul; Smithsonian Institute (Washington, 2011); Green Art Dubai, Mannheimer Kunstverein (Mannheim, 2001). Group exhibitions and biennials include 6th Ural Industrial Biennial (2021); Pera Museum (Istanbul, 2021); Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2016), Art Gallery of Western Australia (Perth, 2014), Arter (Istanbul, 2011-2019), Boghossian Foundation (Brussels, 2013), Istanbul Modern (Istanbul, 2013-2011); Martin-Gropius-Bau (Berlin, 2009), 8th Havana Biennial (2003); 22nd São Paulo Biennial (1994); Manifesta 1 (Rotterdam, 1996); 3rd Gwangju Biennial (2000); 2nd Johannesburgh Biennial (1997). 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). The artist, whose works have been included in a number of collections including Centre Pompidou, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Istanbul Modern, Arter and Dr. Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı Foundation Collection, lives and works in Istanbul.