Tanoa Sasraku
About
Tanoa Sasraku's practice shifts between sculpture, drawing and filmmaking. Her stitched and torn newsprint works frequently harness earth pigments and garment making processes to express ideas relating to the British landscape, the human body and the artist’s familial legacy. In her practice as a filmmaker, Sasraku engages in retellings of traditional folklore via the medium of analogue film.
Tanoa Sasraku (b. 1995, Plymouth, UK) graduated from Goldsmiths College (2018). Recent solo exhibitions include Man Engine, Vardaxoglou, London (2023); Tanoa Sasraku, Vardaxoglou, London (2022); ‘Terratypes’, Spike Island, Bristol (2022); and ‘Liths’, Peer, London, UK (2023). A major forthcoming Tanoa Sasraku solo exhibition will open at ICA, London in October 2025.
Recent group exhibitions include, ‘Tituba, Who Protects Us?’, cur. Amandine Nana, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR (2025); ‘Dartmoor: A Radical Landscape’, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, UK (2025); Royal Academy Schools Show, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (2024); ‘Parent Object’, cur. Tanoa Sasraku, Vardaxoglou Gallery, London, UK (2024); ‘Auerbach, Hamana, Hepworth, Page, Sasraku’, Ben Hunter, London, UK (2024); ‘Unbuild: a site of possibility’, Drawing Room, London (2023); ‘The Laboratory of the Future’, Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice (2023) cur. Lesley Lokko; Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Newlyn (2023); ‘Radical Landscapes’, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool; tr. Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry (2022); ‘Testament’, CCA Goldsmiths, London, UK (2022); ‘A Tower to Say Goodbye’, General Release, Chelsea Sorting Office (2021); ‘Recession Grimace’, Klosterruine, Berlin, (2020); ‘Tanoa Sasraku: O’Pierrot’, LUX Moving Image, London (2020); ‘Resist: be modern (again)’, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, UK (2019); ‘Nashashibi/Skaer – Thinking through other artists’, Tate St Ives, UK (2019). Sasraku’s moving image works have been screened at the BFI Southbank, as part of the 18th London Short Film Festival (2021); Selected X, VideoClub online and touring (2020); Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival, Berwick-upon-Tweed (2019). In 2021, Sasraku was awarded the Arts Foundation Futures Award for Visual Arts. In 2023 Sasraku completed a residency at Porthmeor Studios, St Ives, UK.
Tanoa Sasraku’s work is held in a number of collections, including Arts Council Collection and The Government Art Collection.
Selected Works
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Tanoa Sasraku
Trouser Front R, 2023
newsprint, foraged Cornish and Ghanaian earth pigments, tailor’s chalk, fixative spray, thread, St Ives seawater
132 x 117 x 4.5 cm
52 x 46 x 1 3/4 ins -
Tanoa Sasraku
A Tower to Say Goodbye, 2024
newsprint, foraged English and Ghanaian earth pigments, digital print, UV-print produced using a sunbed, tailor's chalk, fixative spray, thread, tap water from the Royal Academy, custom plinth
65 x 288 x 392 cm
25 5/8 x 113 3/8 x 154 3/8 ins -
Tanoa Sasraku
Trouser Back R, 2023
newsprint, foraged Ghanaian earth pigment, digital pigment print, tailor’s chalk, fixative spray, thread, St Ives seawater
134.5 x 65.5 x 4.5 cm
53 x 25 3/4 x 1 3/4 ins -
Tanoa Sasraku
Pocket R, 2023
newsprint, foraged Cornish and Ghanaian earth pigments, tailor’s chalk, fixative spray, thread, St Ives seawater
57.5 x 57.5 x 4.5 cm
22 5/8 x 22 5/8 x 1 3/4 ins -
Tanoa Sasraku
Jacket Back R, 2023
newsprint, foraged Ghanaian earth pigment, digital pigment print, tailor’s chalk, fixative spray, thread, St Ives seawater
111 x 97.5 x 4.5 cm
43 3/4 x 38 3/8 x 1 3/4 ins -
Tanoa Sasraku
Jacket Front L, 2023
newsprint, foraged Ghanaian earth pigment, digital pigment print, tailor’s chalk, fixative spray, thread, St Ives seawater
108.5 x 61 x 4.5 cm
42 3/4 x 24 x 1 3/4 ins -
Tanoa Sasraku
Vest Front R, 2023
newsprint, tailor’s chalk, graphite, fixative spray, thread, St Ives seawater
94.5 x 59 x 4.5 cm
37 1/4 x 23 1/4 x 1 3/4 ins -
Installation view, Tanoa Sasraku: Man Engine, 4 October – 4 November 2023, Vardaxoglou Gallery, London
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Installation view, Tanoa Sasraku, Vardaxoglou Gallery, Frieze London, 2023
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Tanoa Sasraku
Transformer (Terratype), 2021
newsprint, thread, graphite, foraged Oronsay red ochre, foraged Sligichan yellow ochre, fixative spray, Sound of Raasay seawater
42 x 63 cm
16 1/2 x 24 3/4 ins -
Tanoa Sasraku
Yellow Gate (Terratype), 2021
newsprint, thread, graphite, foraged Sligichan yellow ochre, fixative spray, Sligichan river water
37.5 x 37.5 cm
14 3/4 x 14 3/4 ins -
Tanoa Sasraku
Blue Gate (Terratype), 2022
newsprint, thread, foraged Torbay red ochre, Ultramarine pigment, Antwerp blue pigment, fixative spray, Plymouth Sound seawater
41 x 36 cm
16 1/8 x 14 1/8 ins -
Tanoa Sasraku
Red Gate (Terratype), 2022
newsprint, thread, foraged Torbay red ochre, foraged Sligichan yellow ochre, forage Braes purple pigment, Ultramarine pigment, Antwerp blue pigment, fixative spray, Plymouth Sound seawater
41 x 36 cm
16 1/8 x 14 1/8 ins -
Installation view, 'Tanoa Sasraku', Vardaxoglou, London, 14 October– 3 December 2022
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Tanoa Sasraku
Mire Horse, 2022
newsprint, thread, toner, foraged Bideford Black pigment, foraged Yarner Wood orange pigment, fixative spray, Dartmoor bog matter
77.7 x 39.2 cm
30 5/8 x 15 3/8 ins -
Tanoa Sasraku
Storr Terratype, 2021
newsprint, thread, foraged Storr red ochre, graphite powder, fixative spray, Sound of Raasay seawater
71 x 38.1 cm
28 x 15 ins -
Tanoa Sasraku
Mire Horse, 2022
newsprint, thread, toner, foraged Bideford Black pigment, foraged Yarner Wood orange pigment, fixative spray, Dartmoor bog matter
40.2 x 29.2 cm
15 7/8 x 11 1/2 ins -
Tanoa Sasraku
Red Wet-Cell, 2022
patinated cast bronze, resin glue, foraged Torbay red sandstone
13 x 7.5 x 1.5 cm
5 1/8 x 3 x 5/8 ins
Government Art Collection, UK -
Tanoa Sasraku
A Tower to Say Goodbye, 2021
newsprint, soft pastel, fixative, polyester thread, linen thread, PVA glue
401 x 260cm
157 7/8 x 102 3/8 ins -
Installation view, 'Terratypes', Spike Island, Bristol, 28 May–17 July 2022
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Installation view, 'Terratypes', Spike Island, Bristol, 28 May–17 July 2022
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Installation view, 'Tanoa Sasraku: Liths', PEER Gallery, London, 17 February – 20 May 2023
Vardaxoglou Exhibitions
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Man Engine
Solo Exhibition
Tanoa Sasraku
4 October – 4 November 2023
Vardaxoglou, London -
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Frieze London
Art Fair
Tanoa Sasraku
11 – 15 October 2023
Vardaxoglou Gallery, Stand H10
Frieze London, The Regent’s Park, London -
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Tanoa Sasraku
Solo Exhibition
Tanoa Sasraku
14 October – 17 December 2022
Vardaxoglou, London
Selected Institutional Exhibitions
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Tituba, Who Protects Us?
Group Exhibition
17 October 2024 – 5 January 2025
Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France -
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Dartmoor: A Radical Landscape
Group Exhibition
19 October 2024 – 23 February 2025
Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, UK -
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Terratypes
Solo Exhibition
28 May – 17 July 2022
Spike Island, Bristol, UK -
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Liths
Solo Exhibition
17 February - 20 May 2023
PEER Gallery, London, UK -
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Unbuild: a site of possibility
Group Exhibition
22 September – 10 December 2023
Drawing Room, London -
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We Are Floating In Space
Group Exhibition
11 Febuary – 3 June 2023
Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Cornwall, UK -
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Radical Landscapes
Group Exhibition
5 May – 4 September 2022
Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK -
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TESTAMENT
Group Exhibition
21 January – 3 April 2022
Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, London, UK
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