Tel Aviv, Israel
http://www.re-title.com/artists/oren-eliav.asp
Oren Eliav’s way of approaching the subjects of his paintings can be compared to that of a theater director. The painted objects, ranging from architectural elements to ancient clothing, are often centered and are always surrounded by a spatial yet fading coulisse. Like stage props enjoying the director’s full attention, the painted objects are enlarged to the full size of the canvas. The selected details are not only referential to portrait paintings because of the perspective and format, but they clearly indicate a background story. They become symbols for an historical event which stays anonymous yet becomes present through the representation of a single detail which hints at the ungraspable nature of the sublime.
The figures in his paintings are mannequins, hollow characters fitted with costumes and arranged like inanimate objects, performing a certain role. Over the years Eliav has created a collection of ancestral portraits: figures and objects whose modus operandi is the act of performing. While availing himself of traditional genres - formally, Eliav presents an elaborate and highly varied surface - his paintings expose the simple concrete facts of painterly craft and at the same time recall the ancient traditions of painting.
In his paintings, Eliav reinterprets and perhaps redirects the classic play. Through his painterly skill and direction, he revisits traditional themes while at the same time rejuvenating them in a contemporary setting.
place & year of birth
1975, Tel Aviv
featured galleries
Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv
education
2007-2009
MFA, Bezalel Academy of Art, Tel Aviv
2003
The Cooper Union School of Art, New York, Exchange studies
2000-2004
Bezalel Academy, Fine Arts Department, Jerusalem - B.F.A Cum Laude
1998-2000
Political Science and Multidisciplinary Arts Program Tel Aviv University.
solo exhibitions
2013
Call and Response, Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv
2010
They'll never wake us in time, Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv
Saddle, Ashdod Museum of Art
The Human Stain, Liverpool Biennial
2006
Visitors, Givon Gallery, Tel Aviv
2004
Three Bezalel Graduates, Givon Gallery, Tel Aviv
Upcoming:
2011
Solo show at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Solo show at Michael Schultz Gallery, Berlin
group exhibitions
2010
Face to Face, Beit Michal, Rehovot
2009
Soundtrack, Art House, Houlon (curator: Iris Mendel)
Wild Exaggeration, Haifa Museum of Art (curator: Tami Katz Frieman)
Now Silence, Gallery 39, Tel Aviv (curator: Danny Yahav Brown)
A4, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Trained Impulse, Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv
Prize Winners Exhibition, Ein Harod Museum
Bezalel MFA Graduate Show, Tel Aviv
2008
Demons, Museum of Bat Yam (MoBY), Israel
Sublime Now, Hanina Center for Contemporary Art, Jaffa, Israel
Flock, Bezalel Academy Gallery, Tel Aviv
2007
Rashomon, The New Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel
Digital Landscapes, The Genia Schreiber University Art Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
awards
2010
Rapaport Award for Painting, Tel Aviv Museum
2008
Ministry of Culture Award for Young Artist
Encouragment Award, Bezalel Academy
2004
America Israel Grant Award