Elad Kopler: 7 Paintings
Elad Kopler: 7 Paintings March 2022 – Jun 2022 Catalogue editors: Orit Ephrat-Moscovitz, Hadas Glazer Design: Moria Bachar English translation and text editor: Daria Kassovsky Photography: Youval Hai Measurements are given in centimeters, height x length
Cover: Detail from Nine-Eight, 2021, Acrylic and, oil on canvas Inside cover: Detail from Genesis, 2021, Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas
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The Press of History: On Elad Kopler’s Works March 2022 Hadas Maor When I encountered Elad Kopler’s current cluster of works during a preliminary studio visit, some were spread out on the floor, and some were hanging directly on the walls of the space, without any rear frame, support, or stretcher. The looseness of the canvas thus exposed allowed the intense materiality of the painterly act to erupt, making the tension between the absence of an outer frame and the multiplicity of inner frames in the works the decisive element in contemplating them. The cluster includes large, colorful works, stormy and at the same time orderly, presenting an assortment of refracted gazes, reflections, and forms, subjected to what appears to be an ongoing struggle between dispersal and convergence. The relinquishment of the painting’s frame, of the full stretching of the canvas, during the work process, is what generated the multiple inner demarcations and the engagement with the tension between abstraction and regulation. The act of painting itself involved the use of a wide variety of materials, including oil, acrylic and spray paints, oil pastels, markers, etc., and the materials’ non-hierarchical application on a bare, unprimed canvas is what enabled this seemingly impossible combination.
Alongside the direct application of paint, Kopler also used an imprinting technique by painting on papers of different sizes, soaking them in paint, and using a roller to transfer the paint and embed it into the works. Due to the imprinting act, these parts of the works are a negative drawing rather than a positive painting, and the distinction between the various layers of the paintings is blurred. Moreover, through the use of imprinting, Kopler created the internal geometric division which lends the works qualities of aerial photography or a map, referring to territorial as well as ornamental aspects. The papers themselves function as a kind of private diary, in which the history of painting is contained and recorded. Each paper evokes a different context from the history of art, from the figurative to the abstract, from the historical to the contemporary, from the lush and abundant to the frugal and minimalistic; a melting pot of themes, colors, and practices, that seems to be flattened and smoothed into a single compressed whole.
Internal frames have appeared in Kopler’s work in the past, but in this group of works they take on a different meaning. In earlier works the architectural context of the imprinted frames was intense and direct: windows, doors, scaffolding, bars, etc., but the continuous attempt to deliver the description of the space from the boundaries of logic seems to culminate in the current body of work, where the descriptive aspect of the three-dimensional space seems to have been pressed.
multiplied, been broken up and have diversified. There are spaces today of every kind and every size, for every use and every function. To live is to pass from one space to another, while doing your very best not to bump yourself.”1 Kopler’s works indeed present a multiplicity of spaces, but these invade each other beyond recognition, and the struggle to produce clear boundaries and distinctions between them seems a priori doomed to failure.
The various frames in the works may be construed as a repeated engagement with the window in art, from the window facing outwards to the world as a metaphor for interior-exterior relations, to the window as a principled frame, which allows for flattening or abstraction of the world. At the same time they can also be regarded as evidence of the implosion of different worlds into the act of painting; periods, gestures, and ideas, swallowed up as into a black hole where the energy is so dense that it jumbles and erodes everything in its vicinity. In his book Species of Spaces, George Perec maintained that there is no longer one space, but only multiple small bits of space: “Spaces have
1 Georges Perec, Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, ed. and trans.: John Sturrock (London: Penguin, 1997 [1974]), p. 6.
Elad Kopler Frost, 2021 Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas 180 x 218
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Elad Kopler Chess in Spring, 2021 Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas 176 x 137
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Elad Kopler Time Regained, 2021 Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas 184 x 138
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Elad Kopler Genesis, 2021 Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas 180 x 230
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Elad Kopler Deep into the Forest, 2021 Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas 185 x 215
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Elad Kopler Nine-Eight, 2021 Acrylic and oil on canvas 175 x 164
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Elad Kopler Berlin, 2020 Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas 170 x 220
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Elad Kopler Born in Ramat Gan, Israel, 1974. Lives and works in Tel Aviv and Ein Gedi, Israel.
SOLO & DUO EXHIBITIONS 2022
7 Paintings, Litvak Contamporary, Tel Aviv, Curator: Hadas Glazer.
2019
Border Disorder, Baari Gallery, curator: Dr. Ziva Jelin, Isreal.
2017
Dread & Delight, The Nahum Gutman Museum of Art, Tel-Aviv
GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2020
Land No Land, Beit Hankin Multidisciplinary Gallery, curator: Neta Haber.
2018
Only Through Time Time is Conquered, DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM gallery, Berlin.
VOLTA13 Basel, Art Fair 2017, Markthalle Basel, Switzerland.
2017
Imaginary Spaces: Works by Elad Kopler and Itamar Freed, Mana Contemporary, USA.
Ingathering, 10th Anniversary of Rappaport Prize, Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
2016
A Terrible Beauty is Born, Tivon Art Gallery, Kiryat-Tivon; curator: Michal Shachnai- Yacobi
2016
VOLTA NY Art Fair 2016, Pier 90, New York, USA.
2014
Eminent Domain, Feinberg Projects, Tel Aviv
Re Seek, START COLLECTION Gallery, Jaffo, curator: Carmit Blumensohn
2013
Elad Kopler: Temperatures, Rappaport Prize for a Young Israeli Painter, Tel Aviv Museum of Art; curator: Tal Lanir.
Modernism 2016, Rosenbach Contemporary, Jerusalem; curator: Nogah Davidson
2011
No Man’s Land, The Artists’ Studio, Tel Aviv; curator: Vered Gani
Druchim, Alma Center for the Arts, Zichron Yaakov, Israel; curator: Sarit Shapira
“Artist Room” Project, Artplus Hotel, Tel Aviv; curator: Dana Golan 2009
Black Clouds, Habres + Partner Gallery, Vienna After the Heat Wave, Tavi Dresner Gallery, Tel Aviv
2008
2007
Tishaa Ktarim, Soka Gallery, Tel Aviv; curator: Orly Dvir 2015
Mehilot, Beit Kaner Gallery, Rishon Le’Zion, Israel; curator: Galit Semel Akhshav: Contemporary Israeli Painting, Stein Rose Fine Arts, NY
Twilight, Biet Berl Academic College Gallery, curatorial team guided by David Ginaton
Dark Matter, Litvak Contemporary, Tel Aviv; curators: Howard Rutkowski, Mary Dinaburg
Ship of Fools, Kibbutz Be’eri Gallery, Kibbutz Be’eri; curator: Ziva Yelin
2014
Select Art Fair, Miami Art Week
When Despair Becomes Plausible, Tavi Dresdner Gallery, Tel Aviv
2012
Other Space, Feinberg Projects, Tel Aviv
Passages, Hamidrasha Gallery, Biet Berl Academic College
The Coming Community, Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa; curator: Yeela Hazut
Placing Time, Theatrical Exhibition in the Public Space; curators: Yael Tsabari, Hila Cohen Schneiderman 2010
International Sculpture Triennial, Poznan, Poland
2009
Crisis of the Genre, International Sculpture triennial, Poznan, Poland
2008
Postpop, Israeli Cartoon Museum, Holon; curator: Yuval Caspi In Silence, Rothschild Gallery 69, Tel Aviv; curator: Noam Segal
2005
Summer Exhibition, Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv 2004
Graduates Exhibition, Hamidrasha School of Art, Beit Berl, Israel
2003
Wounded, Hamidrasha Gallery, Tel Aviv
2002
A Day Will Come: Artists for Arab– Israeli Coexistence, Umm ElFahm Gallery- Rosenfeld Gallery, Tel Aviv
Young Artist Award Winner Exhibition, Haifa Museum of Art; curators: Tami Katz-Freiman, Tal Yahas
2007
PRIZES / AWARDS
Etchings, Scratches and Scars, Petach Tikva Museum of Art, Petach Tikva, Israel; curator: Drorit Gur Arie
2013
Rappaport Prize for a Young Israeli Painter, Tel Aviv Museum
White, Tavi Dresdner Gallery; Tel Aviv
2007
Young Artist Award, Ministry of Science, Culture and Sport
Secret Art, Bank Hapoalim, Tel Aviv
2006
Award for Excellence, Bezalel Academy of Art Design
Under the Sun, Gilit Fisher Gallery, Tel Aviv
2005-07
America-Israel Cultural Foundation
By the Way, The Heder Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv
2004
Excellence Award Scholarship, Hamidrasha School of Art, Beit Berl Academic College
Above and Beyond, The Kibbutz Gallery, Tel Aviv 2006
Artik 7, America-Israel Cultural Foundation Award Winners, Ramat-Gan Museum
RESIDENCIES
Shoshelet, (Dynasty), Sapir College, Sderot, Israel 100 Years of Bezalel Art Academy, Ben Gurion Airport
2019
Yaddo artist residency, Saratoga Springs, NY, USA.
Graduate’s Program exhibition, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Tel Aviv
COLLECTIONS
Bezalel-Glasgow, Bezalel Gallery, Tel Aviv
The Tel Aviv Museum for Contemporary Art Collection (Israel)
Bezalel in Istanbul, Istanbul Biennial
The Petach Tikva Museum of Art Collection (israel) The Bank Ha’poalim Collection (Israel) Philip Hofer Collection, NY (USA)