Out of Clay, Irit and Alon

Participants: Irit Abba and Alon Gil

Curator: Einav Baranes Eliasav

Opening: 1/3/18 at 19:30

Closing 28/4/18

About the exhibition:

This exhibition is the first in a series which will deals with the relationship between generations of artists.

Irit Abba is a leading ceramic artist in Israel that over the years has combined making her unique work as well as teaching young artists. With her great love for clay and especially the wheel she inspires many students and artists.

Irit was a young lecturer in the Ceramic department of Bezalel when Alon Gil began his studies.  Alon fell in love with clay and working on the wheel with Irit as his teacher and mentor for his final project.  Since then he has continued as a practicing artist in his studio and home at Clil.

Irit with her unique language in porcelain focuses on the concept of “the vessel” examining the tension between the volume and the lip, form and color, transparency and coarseness, fragility and vulnerability. The objects she makes are reserved and impulsive simultaneously and test proportion, two and three dimensions, color and surface.

Alon regards his work as an artistic medium to express ideas and feelings employing traditional ceramic techniques with contemporary touches. As a son of immigrants from Eastern Europe, Alon looks to express Israeli locality. The drawings on his works have repetitive ornamental themes inspired by the East.

Their friendship and professional connection over more than three decades are expressed in their works. Both of them use porcelain and repetitive making, testing of boundaries and the forces between two and three dimensions.

In Irit’s work two dimensions are created by removing clay and exposing the internal layers making the work very thin and transparent.  This is emphasized by the color and composition on the vessel.

ALon’s works add layers of color, decoration, outlines and backgrounds, ornamentation including the hamsa (hand shaped talisman), hearts, evil eye, etc creating a feeling of overload.

This exhibition presents the unique and crystallized language of each of the artists, and yet there remains a palpable rhythm that resonates between the two groups of works.

 

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