Out of Sight: Israeli Young Artists in New York

Growing numbers of Israeli artists are choosing to relocate their place of residence and artistic activity abroad. It seems that today, international artistic success is a prerequisite for recognition in Israel. Many Israeli artists choose to move to New York, because of the opportunities it offers as one of the world’s leading art capitals.

The works presented in this exhibition were in large part created for the foreign eye, which is not accustomed to the intensive everyday life in Israel. This general, more universal reading gives us breathing space and a broader range of interpretation, beyond the immediate critical-political dimension of the works. The presentation of these artists' works in Israel suggests examining the way in which we perceive ourselves "from there."

The detached perspectives in these artists' works borrow their various imageries from mass media and documentary materials, but also from the artists' memory and imagination. They dissect and reconstruct the landscape and reality of their homeland, as well as their identity as immigrant and as Israeli artists.

 Changing Perspectives

The present cluster of exhibitions seeks to view the issue of the relation to "place" in Israeli art. What is the effect of the presence of the artist here in Israel or his absence from it, on the representation of the "Israeli place", of the "here and now? The artistic oeuvre presented in the exhibitions express the tension between an artistic practice that is activist and socio-politically oriented, and one that seeks the realms of dream and fantasy. It seems that the further away an artist is from the pit of the volcano, the more it sparks his interest, and the closer he is, the more urgent is his need to escape.