Kali Tal has a Ph.D. from Yale University in American Studies (1990), with a focus on Trauma Theory and African American culture and aesthetics. She has taught African American culture and aesthetics (in literature, art, and music) for over 25 years in U.S. universities including the University of Maryland, University of Virginia, Wesleyan College and, most recently, as a Professor of Humanities and Arts at The University of Arizona (1996-2006), and is a widely published writer. While at The University of Arizona, she founded the Arts Mentor program, which matched working artists in the Tucson community with student interns interested in exploring the pragmatic dimensions of life as an artist, and also developed an undergraduate program in New Media art.
From 1995-2006 Tal was based in Tucson, Arizona, 80 miles from the Mexican border where the influences of southwestern Native and Mexican folk art aesthetics are particularly strong, and Tal began to incorporate these idioms into her work, entwining them with the elements drawn from European and African diaspora art. By 1998 Tal’s assemblage and collage work had attracted local attention, and she began creating pieces for private collectors as well as making sacred art for ceremonial use in Santería, an African diaspora religion practiced in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and a growing community in the United States. After relocating to Berlin in 2005, Tal focused on creating art in a secular environment and began working on the Short Circuit Series and other assemblage pieces. Her store-front studio in Wedding became a central meeting place for English-speaking artists in Berlin.
While in Berlin, Tal became interested in designing art jewelry and opened her internet shop, Fresh Monsters — Jewelry for the Fiendishly Elegant. As a jewelry designer, Tal combined her interests in collage and assemblage with wearable art.
In January 2010, Tal moved again, to Bern, Switzerland, where she decided to bring her studio back into her home, and to host small group classes in mixed-media art techniques.
