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Artist Statement:
Synthetic Realism expresses a
metaphor different from
reality. The works create
synthetic life on canvas,
forming diverse flat shapes in
contrasts which are not
naturalistic, academic or
sentimental. Shapes which
recreate themselves while
rendering a different
interpretation to reality.
These works emerge from the
present experience without
drawing from the ...
Further Information
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Artist Exhibitions:
• One Person Shows:
o 2005 Ramat Gan Eshkol for
Sciences and Arts. “Smiles and
Suprizes”
o 2004 BoxHeart Gallery,
Pittsburgh, PA “Magna Mater”
o 2002 Painters and Sculptors
Association - Tel-Aviv,
Israel
o 12/2001-2/2002 Wilfrid
Israel Art Museum - Kibbutz
Hazorea - Israel (Catalog)
o 2001 The Castra Gallery...
Further Information
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Artist Galleries:
Coming Soon!
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Collections:
Coming Soon!
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Commissions:
Coming Soon!
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"Synthetic Realism
Ilana Raviv is a citizen of the world who prefers to be interested rather than being interesting ...
She perceives the real relationship to art, by knowing what it is... Her work stems from a cup that runnith over filled by art from the source which is art in relationship to life ... Her works inspired by the dynamics of living to points of joy in revelation and celebration is her art”.
Knox Martin
Professor of Art, formerly at Yale University Art Dept.
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"...With techniques in acrylic paintings, drawing, etching, cast paper, tapestry, mural and clay sculpture, this Israeli artist creates different levels of reality in spontaneous work..."
Gabriel Maanit
Curator
"Synthetic Realism" Exhibition Catalogue
The Wilfrid Israel Museum
December 8, 2001 - February 9, 2002
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"The Magical Synthetic Realism of Ilana Raviv
I am completely and sincerely convinced that the best criticism is amusing and poetic; not the other kind, cold and algebraic which under the guise of being all explanatory, voluntarily shuns any emotion ... but regarding valid criticism, I expect philosophers to understand what I intend saying: in order for it to be deemed valid, in order to justify its existence, criticism should be partial, passionate and political; It should adopt an exclusive point of view, broadening its horizons as much as possible".
(Charles Baudelaire)
In order for this definition of art criticism - as expressed by the distinguished French poet to be tangible, the object of the critical observation should be a striking creation, exciting and inspiring. What we see before us today, is such a work, in all its facets and true to its word: it is a passionate and poetic creation, seeing that the aesthetic foundation of the universe of the Israeli painter Ilana Raviv is the same artistic foundation through which the painter - assisted by her intuitive conscience - creates different levels of reality, apart and distinguished from the reality which we usually face.
The paintings of Ilana Raviv are the fruit of her immediate inspiration, which the painter does not nurture to a level of consciousness and in their character, they are more in the realm of a vision, than a calculated intellectual analysis. This is a true, tempestuous outburst of creative force, generating powerful images which express the creative unrest surrounding the lyrical and intimate - such as the flower or the woman in their different manifestations, much like the visual pictorial creation of enigmatic archetypes of mythology, whose symbolic processing become more complex and like the plastic expressions which originate from the tragic history of her people.
For this exhibition, Ilana Raviv selected a series of paintings which glorify femininity in all its aspects, represented by female characters which have become mythological and which have inspired artists in all artistic spheres throughout all times: Eve, Cleopatra, Pandora, Ophelia, Leda with her swan, Lady Godiva, covering her glorious nudity with her own hair, Sheherezade, Alice in Wonderland…, all of which are represented in a new and unique picturesque vision.
In this display, the sublime essence of the Magna Mater is the source of feminine manifestations. Further than an attempt at rendering a tribute to Womanhood and Maternity, Ilana Raviv discloses the source of the creation which is inherent to her and her processes simultaneously: to sense the femininity which is expressed symbolically as the passive foundation of Creation, as the omnipotent soul of all creation which beats within the artist inherent to the higher rules which are inseparable to art - granting the privilege of creating new worlds...
...The images, full of strength and creative passion, emerging from her overflowing fantasy, encompassing her own world vision, reflected in the broad canvases - the effervescent temperament of Ilana Raviv's artistry requires large expanses - which are a genuine song of praise to intuitive art, welcoming "partial, passionate and political criticism..." (C.B.), preparing it , justifying it and granting it its "raison d'etre".
Branka Berberijan-Art Critic (Spain)
"Magna Mater" Exhibit
The National Arts Club, NY, September, 2000
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"The Great Mother and Her Pets
The present exhibit by Ilana Raviv was born out of an emotional tempest, from which spring up the desires of a woman who expresses in painting, her relationship to the heroines of history, mythology and literature. The hinted identification with those heroines and the different commentary made about each one of them in drawing, create the nucleus of the exhibit, which worships the powers of woman: that magical power, a power that transmits a dichotomy of power and strength against all vulnerability and weakness.
The alluded identification with these heroines and the different interpretation given to each one of them in poetry and painting form the nucleus of the exhibition, celebrating female magic, enhancing vitality, radiating a dichotomy of strength and firmness vis-a-vis vulnerability and frailty.
Raviv's paintings grant each heroine new personal and modernistic meanings, expressing a variety of insights. Never before have Europa and Leda, Flora, Helen, Pandora, Shehrezade, Alice and Lady Godiva been portrayed this way: in a haze of colours and expressive forms that exhibit their relations with their spouses or the way they see themselves from within...
...As a pause from the heroines of mythology and history, Raviv exhibits present-day women in her other group of paintings; women without symbolic role that epitomize human values, heroic activities, etc. The contemporary women are an allegory to daily human condition like self satisfaction, small personal happiness, perhaps even gladness. A little smile is hinted on the face of the nameless heroine in the double painting (diptych) Woman with Dog; similar atmosphere, almost idyllic is conveyed in Two Women with Watermelon. In Secret, two dressed women are facing each other: one, fair-haired, is wearing a large black hat; the other is reserved, her head turned down, wearing an underdress with large breasts underlined by red lines; the fair-haired woman extends her hand, almost touching them. The black dog is watching the two women.
In these paintings, as in the rest of her paintings, the mainly abstract female body is just implied. It is composed of body parts of uncommon proportion: the arms are long, the large fingers are spread, the facial parts - eyes, nose, eyebrows, and mouth - are not symmetrically arrayed and do not pretend to form a "real" facial image; quite the contrary, sometime these components overstep the painted limits that define the faces. The women's breasts, sometimes protruding, sometimes fallen are underlined; the hair is black, mostly curly and dispersed and their figures are delineated by thick and curving lines.
Raviv's paintings convey dynamic description, full of energy, expressive of the complex relation between man and woman - seen from a female perspective. In them, mythological heroines, as well as ordinary women, acquire a sharp expression, saturated by colorful sensual storm, creating in the spectators a kind of sweeping identification.
Dr. Alec Mishory
Art Critic & Art Historian
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