In Oren Eliav's paintings there are choirs, tourist attractions, ecclesial paraphernalia and musical instruments that appear as objects and sites of seduction and desire. Always in a state of flux, they hint at the inherent ungraspability and fugitiveness of the sublime.

Eliav often compares the process of painting to the conjuring act of a medium, thus infusing his figures and portraits with a haunting, ghost- like quality. The painterly space is constructed as a stage set in a twilight zone, where figures and events are forever 'trapped in representation' and are subjected to distortions and unnatural occurrences. Also, It is in this realm of ultimate imagination that Eliav's work addresses the notion of music and sound and its (im)possible role in painting.

Inherent to all of Eliav's paintings lays a deep poetical motivation, transforming appearance to apparition and known to unknown.

place & year of birth
1975, Tel Aviv

featured galleries
Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv

education
1998-2000
Political Science and Multidisciplinary Arts Program
Tel Aviv University.
2000-2004
Bezalel Academy, Fine Arts Department, Jerusalem, Israel
B.F.A Cum Laude

2003
The Cooper Union School of Art, New York
Exchange studies

2007-2009
MFA, Bezalel Academy of Art, Tel Aviv

solo exhibitions
2009 - Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv

2006
Visitors, Givon Gallery, Tel Aviv

2004
Three Bezalel Graduates, Givon Gallery, Tel Aviv

group exhibitions
2009

Now Silence, Gallery 39, Tel Aviv

Sound Track - Houlon center for the Arts, Houlon

Wild Exaggeration - Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa

A4 - Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

Restrained 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

Flock - Bezalel Academy Gallery, Tel Aviv

2007
Rashomon - The New Gallery, Jerusalem

Digital Landscapes - The Genia Schreiber University Art Gallery, Tel Aviv

awards
2004
America Israel Cultural Foundation Award

2008
Young Artist Award, Israeli Ministry of Culture and Education

Bezalel Encouragement Prize