image by Francine Orr/LA Times

Jeff Talman

Jeff Talman Studio, New York

A sound installation artist, trained in both classical music composition and visual arts, his works are featured in public, museum, gallery and alternate sites.

Notable achievements include installations in Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Italy, and the U.S. (see listing of select installations). Talman’s work is presented in natural, arts, spiritual and cosmic contexts, in both interiors and outdoors.

His +40 installations include many collaborations with scientists from leading international institutions including NASA, Max-Planck Institute, MIT, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Princeton University and many more.

Vanishing Point 1.1 (1999), his first installation, demonstrated an intriguing technical advance in sonic work. The trace resonances in the ambient sound of the site served as the sole material for a composed work presented in a large-scale installation.

Because all sound in the work was resonant to the large historic space (Columbia University’s St. Paul’s Chapel), the building became a tuned instrument. This work was documented by positive review in the New York Times.

Within a year Wired Magazine responded and Talman’s work moved into galleries and many spaces in America and Europe. His work with resonance was later noted in a Neural Magazine (IT) review: “He is a pioneer of ambient sound composition and techniques of resonance and feedback”.

His installation, Of Sound Before the Stars, at Mt. Wilson Observatory garnered high praise in a Los Angeles Times review and was subsequently a “Best Classical Music of 2019” selection by that publication.

His teaching work has been in numerous institutions, including Columbia University and City College of New York, both in which he directed orchestras. Talman has further given graduate critiques for the Helsinki Academy of Fine Arts, the Rhode Island School of Design, Massachusetts College of Art and elsewhere.

He has been granted dozens of artist residencies in eight countries, and received grants and awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Select Installations

  • Cathedral Square, Cologne
  • Rothko Chapel, Houston
  • MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA
  • St. James Cathedral, Chicago
  • Galleria Mazzini, Genoa
  • Lucaskirche, Munich
  • Bitforms Gallery and Marc Straus Gallery, NYC
  • Diocesan Museum, Regensburg
  • St. Lawrence Church, Klatovy, Czech Republic
  • Åland Archipelago Guest Artist’s Residence, Kökar, Åland, Finland
  • Pouch Cove Residency Program, NL, Canada
  • Four installations in the Bavarian Forest, Germany

More Links

Recording releases