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