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Yigal Ozeri / Untitled;
Garden of the Gods / 2011 / Oil on paper / 42 x 60
inches
for immediate
release:
Yigal Ozeri Garden of the
Gods
May 6 – June 11,
2011
Opening Friday May 6, 6 –
8pm
Mike Weiss Gallery is pleased to present
Garden of the Gods, a solo exhibition by Israeli artist Yigal Ozeri.
The exhibition includes more than a dozen near-photorealistic oil paintings
varying in size from small intimate works displayed in vitrines to large-scale
paintings measuring up to eight feet. The show opens with a reception for the
artist on Friday, May 6th from 6 – 8pm and continues through June 11th,
2011.
Yigal Ozeri / Untitled;
Garden of the Gods / 2011 / Oil on paper / 42 x 60
inches
This new series reflects Ozeri’s continued
interest in capturing the spirit of his subjects – ageless sirens in
timeless garb, enveloped in the beauty of a vast landscape. Through his
heartfelt quest to capture his muses’ energy, he creates work that
transcends the subjects’ materiality. Time and locale are ambiguous and in
many works there is no indication of the horizon or the sky, imbuing a sense of
infinity to an otherwise brief moment. All traces of urbanity have been erased
and Ozeri’s women become surrogates of
nature.
For Garden of the Gods, Ozeri has
embarked on an exploration of scale, creating miniature paintings in keeping
with his signature style. These works are exhibited in glass cases, as if in
curiosity cabinets – treasured relics of a bygone era. The manner of
presentation renders them untouchable on both literal and metaphorical levels
despite the approachability of their intimate size and immediate
presence.
Each: Yigal Ozeri /
Untitled; Garden of the Gods / 2011 / Oil on paper mounted on canvas
panel / 9 x 13.5
inches
That Ozeri relies on photographs as source
material is relevant. In his essay “Meditations on the Space in
Between,” Shlomi Rabi notes that by painstakingly re-creating photographs
Ozeri “…breathes life into the fleeting moments that he had
captured, challenging the momentary recording of the photograph, turning the
temporal to the eternal. If any spirit had been stolen in the photographing
process, Ozeri lovingly restores it to the women depicted. The paintings,
accordingly, are not to be read as photorealistic, but rather, as transcending
reality, a visual meditation on the
soul.”
Yigal Ozeri / Untitled;
Garden of the Gods / 2011 / Oil on paper / 42 x 60
inches
Yigal Ozeri was born in Israel and has lived and
worked in New York for the past twenty years. He has been exhibiting with Mike
Weiss Gallery since 2003 and has shown extensively around the world with recent
solo shows in Bologna, Barcelona, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Amsterdam and Munich.
His work is included in prominent permanent collections including the McNay Art
Museum in San Antonio, The Jewish Museum in New York, The New York Public
Library, The Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Haifa
Museum Art, the Scheringa Museum Voor Realisme in the Netherlands, and the
Albertina in Vienna, among
others.
For additional information please contact Anna
Ortt, Director at
anna@mikeweissgallery.com.
Mike Weiss
Gallery
520 West 24th Street, New York, NY
10011
Between 10th and 11th
Avenues
Nearest Subway: C/E 23rd Street & 8th
Avenue
Tel: 212- 691-6899 Fax:
212-691-6877
Gallery Hours: Tues-Sat 10 to
6
www.mikeweissgallery.com
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