In 2024, Dirnfeld presented her debut solo exhibition at Sade Gallery in Los Angeles and completed a residency at La Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, Italy. Her current solo exhibition, I Was Always Good, is on view at Abigail Ogilvy Gallery in Los Angeles.
Where do the recurring motifs in your work come from?
I’ve always collected dolls, toys, and other childlike treasures. They resurface in my paintings on their own, somewhere between compulsion and nostalgia. I can’t let go of them, so they keep finding their way back.
Exhibition view: Tallulah Dirnfeld – I Was Always Good, curated by Ana Makharadze, Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, Los Angeles. Photo: Courtesy of the gallery
What role do the unconscious and dreams play in your practice?
My unconscious mind readily conjures up images and fragments. Dreams are like casting calls to me, where some images persist while others vanish quickly. I begin molding and perfecting them as soon as I bring them into the studio, allowing them to linger in that area between recollection and creativity.
What comes to mind for you when you hear the word “Beloved”?
I think of possession just as much as affection. Being beloved means being idealized, and being fully known is typically the price paid. It has a sharpness, almost a violent quality, along with tenderness. The beloved is exalted and even worshipped, but therefore distorted. A doll is cherished because it is silent, and the farther a memory deviates from reality, the more delightful it becomes.
Patiently Restless And Forever Hopeful, 2025, Oil on Canvas, 101.6 × 152.4 cm © Tallulah Dirnfeld
What does a typical day in your life look like?
I wake up around 7 AM, drink a giant pumpkin spiced latte or some other disgusting drink, go for an hour-long walk, and then paint for the day, broken up by food and phone breaks. At night, I’ll see a movie or get frozen yogurt and wander around the mall with friends.
I grew up in Manhattan, and always fantasized about suburbia. Los Angeles is my suburban dream.
Is It Too Much To Say I Want It Back, 2025, Oil on Canvas, 101.6 × 152.4 cm © Tallulah Dirnfeld
Your solo exhibition “I Was Always Good” is currently on view at Abigail Ogilvy Gallery. Could you tell us a bit about the concept behind this show?
The title comes from a Francesca Woodman inscription: “I was always good at holding onto nothing.” It felt to me like a curse as well as an admission. The concept of performing goodness, being agreeable, submissive, and presentable, until those traits begin to feel unsettling, permeates the entire show. I was thinking a lot about Alice Miller’s The Drama of the Gifted Children and how kids learn to survive by figuring out what other people need from them, even if it means sacrificing their inner lives in the process. The works, which include chrome horses, uniformed girls without faces, and severed braids arranged like relics, stage that performance of goodness as a sort of theater. There is a subtle feeling that everything could turn into a threat, that shrines to innocence could just as easily turn into effigies, even though everything appears to be flawless.
Faces are unique. They identify a person. What happens when you remove that, when the figure turns into a type instead of a person, is what interests me more. That reasoning is expanded upon by uniforms, which transform the body into an interchangeable emblem. It functions similarly to memory. Seldom do we see complete portraits of the people of our past. They vanish into roles, gestures, or outlines. Facelessness, in my opinion, is more a means of illustrating how memory and performance flatten identity than it is of erasure.
Do you actually enjoy exhibition openings?
Openings feel like both a wedding and a funeral. You’re celebrated, but the work itself is already out of your hands. What I do enjoy is seeing people I love, especially my family, all in one place, having fun together. Everyone is always excited to see my mom. She’s my decoy.
What kinds of questions do you hope viewers carry with them after seeing your work?
I want people to leave feeling a little uneasy and nostalgic. I want them to wonder why tenderness can come with a hint of danger, and why something that was once associated with comfort can suddenly feel almost funereal. What does it mean to get chills from something you loved as a kid? That question is more about what it stirs in my paintings than it is about my paintings themselves.
Artist: Tallulah Dirnfeld
What projects are you currently working on, and when is your next exhibition scheduled?
I’m working on a painting for a Saturday Morning Cartoon-themed group show opening in December at TW Fine Art Gallery in Palm Beach. My piece is inspired by the Powerpuff Girls.
In January, I’ll be in a war-themed group show at Abigail Ogilvy Gallery in Los Angeles. Although the topics appear to be very different, they both deal with the language of conflict, one facing it head-on, the other cloaked in the bright innocence of childhood. I’m curious about how the structures of power, control, and even violence that mold us can be reflected in the images we associate with play or safety.
Tallulah Dirnfeld – www.instagram.com/tal1u1ah
