ABOUT THE MAGAZINE
The 44 DEGREES is an online magazine and dedicated to promoting Israeli artists. The magazine deals with the field of contemporary art. Present digital media artists, painters, sculptors and curators. Each magazine will discuss a different Issue. To contact each artist, click on his site, or write to his email. The issue of the magazine – ‘People’ Presents an impressive body of work of contemporary Israeli artists. ‘People’ is a very wide subject, and it was my point to Allow a wide range of perspectives of concepts in various techniques. People doing everyday activities, walking, running, looking, sitting Touching, sleeping, thinking, eating, dancing and hugging. They stand alone or in a crowd, talking or shouting. Sometimes they laugh sometimes cry. Young or old people. “People who need people” like the famous song by Barbra Streisand. The 44 DEGREES Magazine is founded by TAMMY MIKE LAUFER 2013
The official website of the magazine: http://art-magazine.wix.com/44degrees
Drawing on the front of the magazine, Logo and design by Tammy Mike Laufer
Participants 1
AVIVA BEIGEL
16 NAAMA SARID-MALETA‘
2
ORITT LANDAU
17 ILANA GRAF
3
TAMAR ISTRIN
18 IRIT RABINOWITS
4
DAN REISNER
19 ORNA EIZENBERG
5
ITA AVIDAN
20 ELLA BARSKY
6
TAMMY MIKE LAUFER
21 YVONNE HELMRICH
7
ZVI FADELMAN
22 GIDEON SMILANSKY
8
JOZSEF RAZ
23 DINA ZAIFER (LOUZON)
9
ELAD DAVID
24 ETTI CHECHOVER
10 OREN SHVED
25 MEGI ROME
11 AVI LEVIN
26 SIGAL RON
12 AMIR LAVON
27 MEIRAV GOLAN
13 ASHER GIBEL
28 NETA GOREN
14 SHAY ALONI
29 AYELET BERMAN
15 YOAV PELED
30 GUY GEVA
27 NAVA RON 28 LITTAL ELINGER- BACHAR
• AVIVA BEIGEL The pre-occupation with the human character, or actually, with what occurs to us as people, in either the physical or the spiritual/ emotional aspect, became the central motif in my creations. People appear in big and small forms, and in different physical states: broken, Incomplete, and in variety of mediums: painting, sculpture, installations, relief and hand made mosaic. My people try to merge, black with white, big with small, Going up or falling down. Sometimes they are strong and heavy, sometimes wick and thin, but always trying to find their place. Beigel198@gmail.com www.avivabeigel.com
• ORITT LANDAU In my kiln-cast sculptures I try to express my optimistic message of hope for harmony between couples, despite the differences in their personalities, according to Heraclitus of Ephesus (5th century B.C.): "The universe is constructed from opposites that compete with each other, complement each other, and join into a single unity." Technique: Glass casting (kiln casting) lanj@bezeqint.net www.oritt-landau.com
• TAMAR ISTRIN I was born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel. I create my sculptures focus on people, human portrait, with emphasis on facial expressions. I'm starting a lump of clay and shaping it until it "comes to life". I "infuse life" in the sculpted figure so it will have high expression. The inspiration for my wrinkled face sculptures, I get out of my meetings with a very mature audience in my work. In my sculptures, there is an expression of respect for human and extraordinary admiration of his old age. . My sculptures participated in solo and group exhibitions. istrint@gmail.com www.istrin.co.il
• DAN REISNER My name is Dan Reisner, and I am an active artist in Israel, throughout the last 15 years I am specializing in the personal process of public sculpting. The Work Process My creation is built from a unique creative model I developed called “From an Urge to a Creation". This work method assumes that the creative origin is connected to an inner unsolved space, which we can be aware of or not. I believe in art as an amendment, and in the creative process as a healing therapeutic process, and from here I create. The materials I used are tenable, and I always aspire to create with a material that translates the emotion in the correct way possible. Understating the source of the pain creates the material understanding, and that is why I use different materials in each and every work. The material solution, then, is first and foremost a conceptual solution. I also can be ascribed to a multi-disciplinary group of artists that specialize in combining video arts works in the projects. I can share from my rich experience in this process, and say that this kind of process in a unique experience, that the most intriguing thing for us is our inner place, and there is nothing more exciting than to depart from it, as an inspiring creation in the world. In my art, I deal with personal evolution, processes and insights whilst coping with the relations between defectiveness and inner crippling, trying to understand the foundations and the aspiration for rehabilitation through delivering it out to the world as an object. www.danreisner.com danreisner@gmail.com
• ITA AVIDAN My inspiration consists on human circles of life including love, death, desperation, anxiety, motherhood and passion. I try to convey these emotions through my art. I believe that art has mysterious ways to cause a conflict -searching for beauty and perfection, but on the other hand pointing out the existence of banality and misery. l deal with people and relationships, trying to express the lights, colors, human nature, experiences and small moments that connect us as human beings. In these sculptures I try to emphasize the sadness of being old and exhausted through my parents opposed the joy of new life ahead mixed with jealousy.
avidans@bezeqint.net
• TAMMY MIKE LAUFER Sometimes, we are facing the unknown. The communication with the world is not simple, but if you have Someone reach out to you, ready to sit and listen, so we feel that we are not alone… My works are similar to mental puzzles, where you can travel from one point to another by analyzing a picture’s symbolic objects. there is always something for the observer to discover. I never force my vision or push my philosophical opinion on the viewers each and every one, can give theirs philosophy to my creation. My art is surreal reality, all in my head. The viewer take a journey to places just as real as those you might find in this reality. When I start working on a new scene, it's like enter to a fantasy dream. like starting your new only virtual world. “Everything is possible” and in the majority of my works I am trying to combine visual realities, with subconscious emotions and philosophical thoughts. I create my virtual world, with 3d software and 2d paint software. Using combinations of renderings, lightings, textures and shapes. www.Tammymikelaufer.com tamylauf@netvision.net.il
• ZVI FADELMAN Designer and illustrator, Head of Visual Communication Department at the Avni Institute,Tel-Aviv. When cameras and VCRs will long be gone, we will remain only with our imagination. The unpredictable, surprising and vital part of the brain. That which existed long before books, films and computers. Tearing parts of the imagination and recreating them in the real world creates a world of Hyper-realism. After a long career as an advertising art director; designing and illustrating more then 200 books, I find that the most fulfilling aspect of my career is inspiring artistic creativity. For the last twenty years I have been constantly teaching Art and Design students. I always say to my students: practice, practice, and practice. Experiment with techniques and different styles, through trial and error and just have fun. Sooner or later you‘ll find out what you are good at and what you enjoy the most. Stick to it, don’t give up and you’ll soon start getting recognition for what you’re doing. No doubt you’ll meet like - mind people along the way to collaborate with and receive productive critique. Passion, dedication and hard work are three key factors to becoming successful! The Land of Exile Is a series of illustrations that takes the viewer to ‘A no man’s land’, Just to survive in exile as a fate worse than death; An uncompromising dialogue with modern life. https://www.facebook.com/zvi.fadelman comix.comix@gmail.com
• JOZSEF RAZ Jozsef Raz a Digital Artist Photographer. Visual Graphic Design and History of Art graduate . On the way from the Analog world to the Digital world, I went from using direct contact of the materials such as: Celluloid, Steel, Wood, Glass and Canvas to the Digital world where I collect all the materials for my work using the camera and the scanner. The computer's mouse is my main tool to draw and scalp my work of art. My work expresses "searching after the beauty in the ugliness and the ugliness in the beauty" and creates an illusion of the fantasy world jozsefraz@gmail.com http://www.facebook.com/jozsef.raz?ref=tn_tnmn
• ELAD DAVID In my works of portraiture, I deal with various subjects such as gender, family and surroundings, photographer-illustrated relations and more. Although I define myself as a photographer, I choose not to be limited to one medium, and a lot of my works include text, painting and usage of other media. In my portraits I try to reach my subject-matter in a personal way, and by that to reveal a part of their story, while leaving the other part to still enigmatic to the viewer. In my opinion both the photographer and his illustrated subject are exposed in the process of photography. More than once I feel that my portrait works force me to deal with the question who is the real subject in the portraits. www.eladdavid.com eladdpp@gmail.com
• OREN SHVED In the fine balance between true and real, I am interested in finding things that are true to me; small inner truths that speak to my very core, bringing them to life and creating a world around them. Visualizing them in a way that maybe someone else would look at them and recognize that same truth hiding inside... That is what makes these truths real and that is what makes my art real to me. orenshved@gmail.com www.orenshved.com
• AVI LEVIN As a photpgrapher, I am interested in the co-existense of man and the world. His world. There are mainly two ways to portay someone. The one looks for the subject in his surroundings. His flat. His office. His living room watching TV or eating dinner. It looks for clues, hints, relations and aversions. It seeks to get a sentence, or better, a story. The other way, seeks to isolate the human being, and by doing that, to “research” this mysterious thing called man, in a “clean”, sterile (mostly studio) environment. By isolating the photo-subject, there is nothing to look at, except for the subject. No where to run to, no where to hide. The mystery is even bigger, and you stare at the eyes of someone, trying to figure out who he or she are, where are they from, what might be their profession, are they married, do they seem happy persons, or maybe sad ones. Could I talk to them, and do I want to talk to them. Are they “my kind” of people? A lot of questions arise from watching a portrait, mainly because we are curious, and fascinated by this thing called portrait photography, which combines two big riddles. One is about the action of capturing a moment in time and space, the other is about us relating, “reading”, and reflecting in the other. The ability to identify ourselves with an image, and the ability to sense the situation, the temperture, and the atmosphere are the things that draw us into the photo. Of course, the distance between the viwer and the image is always maintained. Kept for ever. We might think we “know”, but we don't. It is an open question, and an invitation to dive into it. Since it gives you (only) a moment, you, as the viewer, have to make the rest of the story, and this is what makes it the challenge it is. bossanova69@gmail.com
• AMIR LAVON Hyatt the old man is 90 years old ,still leaves in the" zriff house" that he got from government over 60 years ago. There is no day that passes without him sitting on his porch just like his friends from the Other houses telling about the old good days on a hot cup of tea and honey. He remembers the " mhabara" ,the poverty and 12 kids leaving in one room. He is telling his grandchild about how he was living without electricity and water, and mud Was everywhere but despite all he keeps on saying that it was good back in the old days We didn’t have anything but we had love and warm instead , who would believe‌ In my work I'm seeking and searching after a certain truth if there is a one anyway. I want to explore my boundaries and to look for what there is to see beyond close doors and What can happen when all lies and masks are falling down, leaving us naked and exposed With our real feelings and weaknesses, ashamed cause our life is one big lie. Then and only then when you're facing your innersole the true story comes out, then all Taboo can be broken alongside with our guilt feelings when facing our desires that never Came true. amirlavon@hushmail.com www.socialmuseum.coi.co.il
• ASHER GIBEL 2004 was a good year for me. After I was diagnosed with Parkinson disease, I had to close my photographer's studio I had to fit all the photography equipment ,camera's ,backdrops',developing equipment into 2 by 2 meter room Any thing that didn't fit in was thrown out The neurologist who treat me told me 'I can't help you any more ,It's like two stuck gears that can't move he was referring to my mobility To make his point he intertwined his fingers and tried unsuccessfully to rotate his palms This image accompanied me for a few days ,until I decided that from now on I will photograph what I want and that year 2004 I started photographing the 'Usiskin forest' that had been planted 100 years before by jews exiled from jafa It's true Parkinson's limited my movement but it opened horiizons of thought and imagination so today I intent on the path I look ashergibel@gmail.com
• SHAY ALONI Series photographed between 2000-2002 The ideological crisis which fell upon the kibbutz movement in the past decades has caused me to seek out the founding generation of the kibbutz where I was born. I sought members who were born during the first years of the establishment of the kibbutz and who were nurtured on the ideology of their parents and who have lived their entire lives in Kibbutz Geva. Over the years they experienced high and low points, moments of joy and of sorrow in the life of the kibbutz. During their lifetime, they were witness to the changing values of the younger generations which have brought with them fundamental changes in the kibbutz lifestyle. After choosing a childhood photograph from the personal photo albums of the founding members still living in the kibbutz, those members were positioned to pose for a new photograph in a replicate, however mirror composition, as their childhood picture. These two mirror images were framed together to form a unique picture. The result is an unspoken dialogue, spanning 80 years, between the children of long ago and the elders of today, between the generations, between the naivety of the period of youth and the experience of a lifetime, between the pure idealized vision of kibbutz life and the reality of today, and which conveys the crisis being experienced in the way of life in the kibbutz. alonishay@gmail.com www.photo.blueweb.co.il
• YOAV PELED My Back Yard Over the course of a few months I photographed 30 couples in my backyard, most of which I did not know from before. During the photo shoots I did not give any directional guidance to the couples. The project was inspired by my personal curiosity towards couples’ relationships who are in a “class” similar to mine, and if through the lens I was able to draw conclusions regarding relationships. www.yoavpeled.com yoavphotography@gmail.com
• NAAMA SARID-MALETA‘ I was born in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1977. I'm an Architect and a photographer who lived a few years in Madrid, Spain, and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. This series of women portraits was taken in the model's house – their own personal private space. The camera penetrates their life for a second, giving an intimate view on their style, their objects, and sometime exposing them totally, touching the skin. The photos are a statement about how the women perceive themselves; their childhood fantasies, broken dreams, but also a sort of pried; being complete with who they are, expressing their body and sharing their inner fragile world. The photos have to do with emotional space, lovely sadness and spiritual loneliness. In kind of primitive magic, they uncover what is real, hidden underneath all what we think is real. The work sometime feels more like a painting than a photo; make the world feel almost uncanny because they show you unsuspected potentialities. The titles have an important part, completing the work. They are often short and explosive and often declamatory poems celebrating the body's existence, adding another layer of information to the work. All the works in the series are made with Hasselblad camera, with the intention to return to traditional photography, a very honest and real way of portraying the world documenting moments that never happened and are now happening in her lens. Naama.sarid@gmail.com http://naamasarid-maleta.tumblr.com/
• ILANA GRAF I am an artist & illustrator. I was born in Israel . I work, create and raise my family in Rehovot. I was graduated from an art school in Israel "The Midrasha". Today I am a member of the Israeli Association of illustrators, and of the Israel Designer Craftsmen’s Association (The association is a member in the international "World Crafts Council" organization). I love to draw and paint from early childhood. I am inspired by shapes from nature: animals, birds, fish, and flora, and also from people and dancers. I like to work on paper. I use water-colors, ink, mix-media and digital. In the last years I make also screen-prints and etching, and I am taking part in an artist's group in the printmaking workshop in Tel Aviv. My works have been shown in many various art exhibitions and special projects in Israel and abroad. I also make illustrations and covers for books and magazines in Israel and abroad. ilanagraf@gmail.com http://ilanagraf.wix.com/ilanagraf
• IRIT RABINOWITS Portrait of the artist as a super hero During my childhood I experienced a recurrent dream in which I am walking around in a virtual reality as an avatar, a super hero, breaking perceptions of gender and gravity and flying freely to wherever I can save the environment and amend all evil in the world. The portrait represents the same perfect character making things right and performing rescues when it encounters everyday reality of loneliness and helplessness. rb.irit@gmail.com
• ORNA EIZENBERG It was not my intention to become a painter but it happened-gradually and then very forcefully. Two subjects seem to appear the most in my work - pieces of nature that appeal to me strongly and old objects which I find full of history and soul. I was always looking for techniques that would enable me to be as true as I could to the character and nature of the subjects and finally arrived at techniques that include several layers, each opening and revealing the layer underneath – as it really happens in life – the paint on the wood peels off, the fabric disintegrates, the plaster falls off, the iron gets rusty and I do my best to create these affects. Painting is my world. Painting is not just putting colour on canvas. It enables investigation of both technical issues and issues concerning what one learns about himself, his loves, memories and dreams. orna_eizenberg@yahoo.com http://cafe.themarker.com/user/256662/
• ELLA BARSKY I am fascinated by the ambiguity of expressions and body language. The body plays an important role in my work. It is the site of interaction between inner feelings and outward appearances. Through the emotions expressed by the portrait I try to evoke a multiplicity of meanings, judgments, and empathy from the viewer. ellabarsky@gmail.com
• YVONNE HELMRICH The Images displayed are from my solo Exhibition "Others". Why "Others"? I never liked to be in a crowd of people. I used to watch from far away or walked around the edges of the crowd. The documentation of "Others" started with people walking around me when I was sketching. At some point I made up my mind to be part of the role of "Others" by looking at the world through my paintings. Like in real society there are feelings mixed with movements and randomness. You can compare the study of people like movements of molecules within the material. They move freely and at the end come together as a group. The oil works displayed are based on pencil sketches or photos made outdoors, but in the transition to the studio something changes. Inside the studio for example, people are missing limbs or becomes one with the shadows. On purpose I do not criticize or judge the passion in human relations in society. The people are uniform and get equal light and colors in the paintings. Through the paintings I learned to be part of "Others". yvonne.helmrich@gmail.com http://www.wooloo.org/exhibition/entry/197584
• GIDEON SMILANSKY Born in Israel in 1977, I am an active founder-member of the ‘Alfred Gallery’ co-operative art group in Tel-Aviv, both as artist and curator. I have studied visual art and film studies at the Beit-Berl College School of Arts (Hamidrasha) between 1999-2005 achieving merit award & scholarships in both departments. In my portrait and nude painting project I invite people to my studio and draw from observation. Interaction with the subject in front of me, creates a dialogue of expressions, enhancing the ‘here and now’ of the moment of creation. These works stem from classical sketching, draftsmanship and painting techniques, subverted by a series of thematic and physical diversions to arrive at the finished paintings. My work embodies an imagery poised on the verge of explicitness, and yet, like the contours of an unreachable horizon, avoids becoming set and stable. The figures are pensive, unraveling slowly and invite the viewers to enter a space which enables them to stop and become engrossed. My paintings aim to establish an intersection, where on the one hand my observation, dismantling, hesitation and inspiration is deposited to the canvas, while on the other side there is the viewer’s perspective, who is invited to take part in the process of weaving the experience of reality putting it back together. www.gideonsmilansky.com gidizm@gmail.com
• DINA ZAIFER (LOUZON) Painting for me is a way to get in touch with feelings, the meaning of life and beauty. Mostly I enjoy painting my family, especially my grandchildren, because my feelings are there. I am looking for points of meaning, and I transfer them using colors.
zidina@walla.com
• ETTI CHECHOVER This body of works is the result of Etti being by her mother's side in the retirement home, where the pain of old age exist in its more powerful form. During her visits, she witnessed the withering of the body and soul and the drastic transformation from vividness and activeness to the fading and loss of vitality. Etti chose figures, through which she's expressing the sights and feelings she experienced during her confrontation with old age, using painting and other mixed techniques. mannic01@gmail.com
• MEGI ROME Born and raised in Tbilissi, Georgia. Around the stimulation of countless richness in Ballet, Theater, Poetry and Literature, Ancient history and colorful inspirational breathtaking landscapes. Modern cities on the one hand and Villages scattered around, have not changed much from the Middle Ages. My art is a product of my life, adventures, experiences and dreams, containing elements of a strict framework versus freedom. My paintings are filled with love and compassion of our troubled world, People who surrender to their fate or those who are searching for their dreams. My paintings are my love for you. www.megiromeart.com megiromeart@gmail.com
• SIGAL RON I paint people as a way to say something about human conditions. The portraits are not specific characters but more prototypes of humans! michaelsigal3@gmail.com
• MEIRAV GOLAN Painting people from collapse world in pastel and oil.
The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that technological processes and modernization corrupt the moral standards of nations and cultures. Indeed, preservation of the past is the central theme of my works. This theme is expressed both by the realistic-conservative technique and by the specific painting subjects I have chosen over the past nine years. These represent my interpretation of contemporary art, in which ancient cultural characteristics, the foundations of a rich and diverse world, are becoming extinct. In my works, I like using bold, strong, dominant and even contrasting expressive colours. Many people see my works as expressionist – a movement that placed the artist in the center of the work of art by using strong, aggressive, loud colours that enable the expression of emotions. Art itself is expressive. The work of art is no longer seen as objective but as representative of the artist's inner, rich world – his/her subjective world… My paintings convey colorfulness in two ways: 1. the use of strong, warm and contrasting colours in two main techniques – pastels and oils – seem to be reviving that which is dying 2. the use of ethnic-oriental models, that seem to become extinct in a flat and alienated world The preservation of the past in important for the future – and to those who know who they are and where they are going, as Maimonides ("the Rambam") wrote to his son. Although most of my paintings are realistic and concern oriental models, I have other series such as charcoal drawings, paintings of dancers, still life and more. Though the most prominent feature in all of them is power and bold colours… Meiravg21@gmail.com
• NETA GOREN I am self-taught. I have been painting, drawing and sketching ever since I can remember; I am forever learning from looking at art by old masters and fellow artists. I use oils, graphite and colored pencils, and occasionally acrylics and water colors. I paint on different surfaces as I come across them. Different objects draw my attention, sometimes it is still life, other times it is portraits or landscapes. My painting style is semi-figurative but sometimes abstracted to rely solely on texture and tonal variations. My work is in private collections in Israel, Netherlands, Italy, Canada, Germany, Italy and the US. Aesthetics are important to me, I am lured by shapes and colors and I’m passionate about the underlying arrangements in nature. I paint as often as I can and do it mostly indoors. www.netagoren.com netagoren222@gmail.com
• AYELET BERMAN People are a main issue in my art work. Interrelations between people are of a great interest for me as an artist as well as a sociologist. Sometimes, they are with family or friends, as a part of community, and some other times, they are lonely people in a faceless crowd. I believe most of us experience these two kinds of existence intermittently. Never starting with drawing or sketching, I place people in the space by brush strokes and oil colors on canvas. For me, painting is moving myself to another place and time, staying in a parallel universe for a while, and getting back with new forces to everyday life. bayelet@zahav.net.il
• GUY GEVA As soon as I was exposed to the world of Buddhism, it was obvious that It wouldn't be long before I started painting the topic. In this series I tries to convey the Buddhist message that the Buddha ("the man that is aware of the feelings of those surrounding him") is present within Every man. I try to do it by combining Buddhist motifs with Tel-Avivian characters (Homeless people, working class people, or just passes by on the street). The paintings are full of symbols such as Lotus flowers that symbolize wisdom, rings Of light that symbolize man's holiness and combining the characters in the surrounding Nature which symbolize the bond that exists between all living creatures in the world. The series is intended to induce calmness and serenity at the viewer, and during the Work process, as I paint I'm empties my mind from thoughts in order to reach a state of meditation. g_soky@yahoo.co.uk
www.guygevaart.com
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