Tinka Bechert; Polyrhythms
Sat. 4 Apr. – Sun. 31 May 2026

Exhibition Opening: Sat. 4 Apr. 2026
3pm – Opening Reception with Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh, president of the Royal Hibernian Academy

The Model is delighted to present Polyrhythms, a solo exhibition by German-Irish painter Tinka Bechert. Bringing together painting, sculpture and textile works made since 2018, the exhibition centres on a decisive shift in Bechert’s practice away from narrative imagery toward abstraction. Accompanying this development has been an increased attention to musical thinking, with rhythm, repetition and pacing guiding how the works unfold.

In the recent paintings, forms recur and vary across the surface, creating overlapping sequences of movement and pause. Rather than describing scenes, the works develop gradually, inviting the viewer to follow relationships and intervals as they emerge across each painting. Bechert’s approach to abstraction resonates with experimental teaching traditions such as the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College, where formal inquiry coexisted with improvisation and play, allowing variation to arise within a shared visual language.

Although grounded in painting, Bechert’s practice has expanded in recent years to include installation, textiles and sculpture. Inspired by Bauhaus artist and choreographer Oskar Schlemmer, Bechert began producing small assemblages combining handmade ceramics with found materials. These objects resemble dancers held mid-movement — delicately balanced and poised between stability and collapse. Their temporary equilibrium forms a choreography of materials, each element contributing to a shared rhythm of tension and release.

Tinka Bechert lives and works between Sligo and Berlin. Recent solo exhibitions include Paintings and Objects at the RHA Gallery, Dublin (2024), Oonagh Young Gallery, Dublin (2022), and Galerie Gerken, Berlin (2019). Selected group exhibitions include Home: Being and Belonging in Contemporary Ireland at the Glucksman Gallery (2021), and Truth, Beauty, Freedom and Love at The Painting Center, New York. Bechert was awarded the Visual Artists Ireland annual residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, in Paris in 2020. Her work is held in public and private collections including the Office of Public Works, the Arts Council Collection, the Central Art Archives/National Library, Berlin; the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Tate Collection, London.

The exhibition will be formally opened by the president of the Royal Hibernian Academy, Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh at 3pm on Saturday 4 April. Tinka Bechert will be in conversation with Patrick Murphy at 1pm on Saturday 9 May. The exhibition continues until Sunday 31 May.