- 9/30/21 - 9/30/21

Reuven Israel: F.L.O.O.R. (Formulated, Liminal, Oblique, Openable, Rectangles)

30.09.2021 - 01.01.2022

Opening: Thursday, September 30 at 8 pm
Reuven Israel will give an artist talk at 7 pm (Hebrew)

30.09.2021 - 01.01.2022

Opening: Thursday, September 30 at 8 pm
Reuven Israel will give an artist talk at 7 pm

Working within the tradition of sculpture and simultaneously questioning its very essence, Reuven Israel (*1978, Jerusalem; lives and works in New York) is a master of opposite solutions. His work often starts from disparate positions and ideas that he links together to reach an endpoint which conveys a deep sense of visual and conceptual harmony, as an equilibrium could only be reached through tension. Associating the algid aesthetics of minimal art and Finish Fetish with the playful look of children’s toys, appropriating elements of modern architecture with the visual vocabulary of ancient sites of worship, adopting the legacy of monumental sculpture in order to transform it into modifiable pieces, Israel’s objects represent a unique position in the landscape of Israeli art.

For his solo exhibition at CCA Tel Aviv, the artist conceived a new site-specific sculptural installation commissioned and produced by the Center and tailored for its first floor gallery. The work, entitled F.L.O.O.R. (Formulated, Liminal, Oblique, Openable, Rectangles), consists of thousands of wooden segments laminated in different colors. Tiling the exhibition space, these segments create tessellated geometric patterns that crisscross throughout the gallery, covering most of its floor. To physically enter the heart of the installation, to literally go through the work, visitors are obliged to tread on the locking rows of colorful segments. Unfolding from this tiled floor, multiple sculptural structures sprout up, leaving empty gaps in the tessellated wooden surface, where the pieces of wood once lay. Further advancing into the installation, the tiled floor breaks up into groups of segments creating geometric patterns and leaving swathes of bare floor to complete their negative spaces. On the other side of the installation, joint pieces of wood unravel – stretching across the gallery floor and spiraling into a loop, similar to a loose thread – and untie the work, giving a sense of transient temporality.

Israel explores the notion of “sculpture as place,” coined by artist Carl Andre, and furthers it by presenting sculpture not only as a physical place but as a virtual one as well. The unified wooden components are the standard components of the entire environment holding the potential of countless configurations to emerge into the three-dimensional space. The towering geometric structures resemble people integrated within a place, moving, taking actions, and some are folded back to fit neatly into the tiled floor. Inspired by early modernist art movements, Navajo and Hopi weaving traditions, Op Art, and sacred geometry, the overall experience is somewhat uncanny as if stepping into a pixelated image or a woven rug – an interconnected, total, and enclosed sculptural environment that holds within itself the tension of self-destruction.

“Reuven Israel: F.L.O.O.R. (Formulated, Liminal, Oblique, Openable, Rectangles)” is curated by Nicola Trezzi. The exhibition is supported by the Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation, Sam Ben-Avraham, Sonia S. Cummings, Giora Kaplan, Thomas Rom, Marc Schimmel, Chaim Zach and the artist’s representing galleries – Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv, and Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles; hospitality provided by Outset Contemporary Art Fund. The exhibition was conceived in collaboration with MAMBO – Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, where it will be presented in 2023.

Image: A rendering of Reuven Israel’s F.L.O.O.R. (Formulated, Liminal, Oblique, Openable, Rectangles)

reuven israel, cca tel aviv, floor, installation view

- 11/19/20 - 11/19/20

"The Promise: Artists to Benefit CCA Tel Aviv" (open by appointment)

CCA – Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv is pleased to announce “The Promise: Artists to Benefit CCA Tel Aviv” (8-28.11.2020) an exhibition featuring works of art by Diti Almog, Yael Bartana, Keren Cytter, Yael Efrati, Asaf Elkalai, Noa Glazer, The Haas Brothers, Reuven Israel, Liora Kaplan, Esther Kläs, Alex Mirutziu, Jordan Nassar, Karam Natour, Ruth Patir, Pratchaya Phinthong, Yana Rotner, Barak Rubin, Haim Steinbach, Nahum Tevet, Naama Tsabar, Sharif Waked, Alexandra Zuckerman, Noa Zuk & Ohad Fishof.

Displayed throughout the entire building, “The Promise” sheds light on the history and program of this Institution, presenting works by artists who exhibited at CCA Tel Aviv in the past – often showing exactly the same works – as well as works by artists who will exhibit in the future and artists whose work is in tune with the atmosphere of the exhibition. Placed under the same roof, these works of art have been gathered to benefit the program of the Center as well as the artists who helped make this exhibition happen in such challenging and unprecedented times.

Despite the fact that all the artworks presented in the exhibition were created before the spread of Covid-19, many of them suggest that art making is an act that is carried out, ultimately, in solitude, privately, with no direct connection outside the self. This approach – which acquires, in the current scenario, additional layers of meaning – was honored by the co-curators, who decided to select the works in tandem and developed their own interpretation of the title, and its related articulations, without discussing these with each other. Furthermore, the exhibition’s title implies the notion of a “Promised Land” –which has been adopted by such radical thinkers as Martin Luther King – a notion conceived in deeply universal terms, since it defines a state of liberation, a “holy site,” a free territory – where “free” means freedom of thought and freedom of expression. At the same time, it also becomes a metaphor for the role of art institutions, and CCA Tel Aviv specifically, being the site (the land) of the sign (the promise) of engagement and support that is bestowed on the artist by the institution itself and by those who represent it.

The Promise is co-curated by Nicola Trezzi, Director and Curator, and Thomas Rom, Executive Board Member at CCA Tel Aviv. It is accompanied by a digital catalogue in English (printed on demand) which includes essays by the co-curators, reproductions of the artworks included (presented with full details and artist biographies), and enriched by quotes by some of the participants, alongside those written by luminaries in the field such as Nicolas Bourriaud (CEO, MO.CO. Montpellier Contemporain), Simon Castets (Director Swiss Institute / Contemporary Art, New York), Joseph Del Pesco (International Director, KADIST, San Francisco / Paris), Ines Goldbach (Director / Curator, Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz / Basel), Donatien Grau (Advisor to the President of the Musées d’Orsay and l’Orangerie for contemporary programs at Musée d’Orsay, Paris), Gabriele Horn (Director, Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art), Zoe Lukov (Chief Curator, Faena Art Center, Buenos Aires / Miami), David Neuman (Director Emeritus / Chairman, Magasin III Museum for Contemporary Art, Stockholm / Jaffa), Hans Ulrich Obrist (Artistic Director, Serpentine Galleries, London), Marta Ponsa (Head of artistic projects and cultural action, Jeu de Paume, Paris), Yasmil Raymond (Rector, Städelschule Academy of Fine Art / Director, Portikus, Frankfurt), and James Snyder (Director, Jerusalem Foundation / Director Emeritus, Israel Museum Jerusalem).

For more information about “The Promise” please email CCA Tel Aviv Office Manager Guy Bernard Reichmann at info@cca.org.il or CCA Tel Aviv Assistant Curator Bar Goren at bar@cca.org.il. To download the digital catalog, click HERE. To schedule a visit or to purchase the catalog please contact CCA Tel Aviv Content Manager Mona Benyamin at office@cca.org.il.

- 11/29/18 - 11/29/18

OFFSHOOT | Braverman Gallery, Tel-Aviv | Nov 29, 2018 - Jan 31, 2019

reuven israel offshoot braverman invite.jpg

- 11/3/18 - 11/3/18

“In Four Acts”, Shulamit Nazarian Gallery, LA

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Opening reception: saturday, Nov 3, 6-9 pm

Shulamit Nazarian is pleased to present In Four Acts, a solo exhibition of new sculptures by Israeli-born, Brooklyn-based artist Reuven Israel. This will be the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery.

In Four Acts features a series of new works that occupy the floor and walls of the gallery. Each sculpture originates in a flat, compact state, but is modular and has the potential to expand to form multiple variations of itself. During the course of the show, the works gradually unfold from minimal configurations into more elaborate adaptations. Each sculpture will change four times during the exhibition, with each modification resulting in a new visual landscape.