Boaz Vaadia: Sculpture, Prints & New Reliefs

B OA Z VA A D I A : S C U L P T U R E , P R I N T S & N E W R E L I E F S

Boaz Vaadia Sculpture, Prints & New Reliefs Jim Kempner Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of sculpture and prints by internationally acclaimed, Israeli-born artist Boaz Vaadia. The show will feature a selection of the artist’s figurative sculptures, new reliefs, a series of prints, and two large outdoor pieces in the gallery’s sculpture garden. Boaz Vaadia passed away on February 25th, 2017 after battling cancer. He remained at work in his studio until the final weeks of his life, overseeing the evolution of this exhibition. Boaz Vaadia: Sculpture, Prints & New Reliefs will open on March 16th and continue through April 30th. There will be an opening reception on Thursday, March 16th, from 6-8 pm.

Boaz Vaadia moved to New York in 1975 after receiving the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship. At that time, SoHo was a hotbed of young artists converting warehouses into lofts. The bluestone sidewalks of SoHo were being torn up and replaced with concrete. Vaadia collected these displaced slabs of bluestone for material. The used slate shingles were collected from various sources, including directly from roofing companies and dumpsters. The acquisition of these materials actuated his lifelong relationship with slate and bluestone. When asked about Boaz Vaadia and his work, the legendary gallery owner Ivan Karp declared him as “one of the handful of living artists who have successfully challenged 5,000 years of figurative sculpture to produce a consistent body of work of singular identity.”

Using a hammer and chisel, Vaadia hand-carved layers of stone in the manner of ancient arrowheads. Individual layers of stone, stacked vertically into stratified human and animal forms, mimic the natural layering formation of stone. Vaadia’s wall reliefs, his newest body of work dating from 2014- 2017, will be featured in the exhibition. Three bronze reliefs will be shown along with four unique slate sculptures carved from either black, red, purple, or green slate. Applying his technique to the history of stonework, Vaadia’s reliefs challenge an ancient subtractive method of sculpting.

His meditative figures of men, women, and children, void of specific characteristics, represent universal human beings. They are often shown in domestic situations, revering the beauty of ordinary people. The exhibition includes Benayahu & Yoas, a new bronze edition, along with Maakha & Rehavam, Ba’al-zevuv 2nd, and Shimshon, large-scale, bronze figures set on or against glacial period boulders excavated from the bedrock of Brooklyn and basalt columns from Washington state. Vaadia began casting his stonework into bronze sculptures in the late 1980s, which allowed him to reach broader audiences and granted him the flexibility to make variations of compositions within his body of work. Haza’el was the first bluestone sculpture Vaadia used to document his process. Using his forklift as a tripod, Vaadia captured the sculpture at each stage in its assembly, showcasing the multiplicity of compositions within the sculpture and the natural beauty of stone. A selection from this photographic series will be displayed alongside a bronze version of the sculpture.

Boaz Vaadia’s recent museum survey at Grounds for Sculpture covered over 45 years of work, and was accompanied by an extensive catalog titled “Boaz Vaadia: Sculpture.” His work is sited in many public locations, including the Time Warner Center, New York, NY; Philharmonic Center for the Arts, Naples, FL; Chicago Symphony Sculpture Garden at Ravinia, Chicago, IL; Carol Franc Buck Sculpture Garden, Reno, NV; Independence Park, Tel Aviv, Israel; Main Street Square, Houston, TX; and Point Leo Sculpture Park, Victoria, Australia. Vaadia’s work is included in numerous museum and private collections throughout the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; the Jewish Museum, New York, NY; the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Japan; Hakone Open Air Museum, Japan; the Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, FL; the Tel-Aviv Museum, Israel; The Israel Museum, Israel; the Open Museum at Tefen, Israel; the Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL; the Vero Beach Museum of Art, Vero Beach, FL; the Baker Museum, Naples, FL; the Flint Institute of Arts, MI; and the Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, WI. For more information, please contact gallery director Dru Arstark at dru@jimkempner.com or associate director Sarah Bielicky at sarah@jimkempner.com.

Ba’al-zevuv 2nd, 2007.

Bronze, bluestone, and boulder.

41 x 70 x 70”. Edition of 5.

Woman (Relief), 2015.

Green slate.

20 x 8 x 4 1/2”.

Boy (Relief), 2014.

Purple slate.

16 3/4 x 6 3/4 x 3 1/4”.

Boy with Dog (Relief), 2015.

Red slate.

18 1/4 x 8 x 3 1/2”.

Cat, 2007.

Bluestone and boulder.

33 x 39 x 21�.

Man on Horse (Relief), 2016.

Slate.

19 1/2 x 19 1/2 x 3�.

2 Grazing Sheep, 2014.

Slate and bluestone.

7 x 13 3/4 x 12 1/2�.

Mother & Son (Relief), 2015.

Bronze.

22 x 11 x 4 3/4�. Edition 7.

Mother & 2 Children (Column Relief), 2015.

Bronze.

23 1/2 x 14 1/2 x 6�. Edition 7.

Family of Four (Relief), 2015.

Bronze.

28 1/2 x 18 1/2 x 5�. Edition 7.

Maakha & Rehavam, 2013.

Bronze, basalt and bluestone.

65” high X 64” wide X 44” deep.

Approx with chips: 65 x 90 x 80”. Edition 5.

Shimshon, 1998.

Bronze, bluestone, and boulder.

80 x 34 x 29�. Edition 5.

Ah’av & Ovadyahu, 2006.

Bronze, bluestone and boulder.

26 x 35 x 23”. Edition 7.

Benayahu & Yoas, 2017.

Bronze and bluestone.

22 x 18 x 10�. Edition 7.

Haza’el, 2011.

Bronze and bluestone.

41 x 41 x 29”. Edition 5.

Haza’el #2, 2011.

Archival print on paper.

15 3/4 x 12”. Edition 9.

Haza’el #6, 2011.

Archival print on paper.

15 3/4 x 12”. Edition 9.

Haza’el #10, 2011.

Archival print on paper.

15 3/4 x 12”. Edition 9.

Haza’el #13, 2011.

Archival print on paper.

15 3/4 x 12”. Edition 9.

Haza’el #16, 2011.

Archival print on paper.

15 3/4 x 12”. Edition 9.

Haza’el #17, 2011.

Archival print on paper.

15 3/4 x 12”. Edition 9.

Haza’el #28, 2011.

Archival print on paper.

15 3/4 x 12”. Edition 9.

Haza’el #31, 2011.

Archival print on paper.

15 3/4 x 12”. Edition 9.

Haza’el #32, 2011.

Archival print on paper.

15 3/4 x 12”. Edition 9.

Haza’el #37, 2011.

Archival print on paper.

15 3/4 x 12”. Edition 9.

Haza’el #40, 2011.

Archival print on paper.

15 3/4 x 12”. Edition 9.

Haza’el #42, 2011.

Archival print on paper.

15 3/4 x 12�. Edition 9.

JIM KEMPNER FINE ART Jim Kempner Fine Art specializes in contemporary paintings, sculpture, photography, and works on paper, with a special emphasis on contemporary master prints and outdoor sculpture. Our inventory appeals to the established as well as beginning collector. We work closely with art advisors, designers, corporations and museums to expand and enrich their varied collections.

Located in the heart of Chelsea, the gallery’s three story modernist-inspired structure designed by architects Smith & Thompson boasts one of the few outdoor sculpture gardens in New York City, and is included in a number of books about contemporary architecture.

Our inventory includes work by Donald Baechler, John Baldessari, Louise Bourgeois, Christo, Chuck Close, Richard Diebenkorn, Jim Dine, Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler, Spencer Finch, Jane Hammond, David Hockney, Howard Hodgkin, Jasper Johns, Deborah Kass, Alex Katz, Ellsworth Kelly, William Kentridge, Jeff Koons, Robert Mangold, Robert Motherwell (Jim Kempner Fine Art represents the Dedalus Foundation, Robert Motherwell’s print archive, in New York), Sol Lewitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Longo, Elizabeth Peyton, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Ed Ruscha, Paula Scher, Sean Scully, Frank Stella, Donald Sultan, Wayne Thiebaud, Andy Warhol and others.

Among the contemporary artists whose work we represent are Robert Attanasio, Christopher Beane, Stanley Casselman, Long Bin Chen, Eduardo del Valle and Mirta Gómez, Rinaldo Frattolillo, Gianfranco Gorgoni, John Grande, John Henry, Charlie Hewitt, Jay Kelly, Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, Jerry Mischak, David Mitchell, Craig Norton, Greg Parker, Robert Petersen, Randy Regier, Tom Slaughter, Pal Svensson and Boaz Vaadia.

Formerly a private dealer, Jim Kempner opened his gallery, Jim Kempner Fine Art, at its present location in the fall of 1997. Dru Arstark has been the gallery director since 1998 and Sarah Bielicky has been the associate director since 2011. Jim Kempner has published prints by Rinaldo Frattolillo, Charlie Hewitt, Robert Indiana, Paula Scher, Bernar Venet, in addition to Gianfranco Gorgoni’s photographs of Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. Other publications include Ligorano/Reese’s Line Up portfolio, Untitled 2001 silkscreen, and the DEMOCRACY lightbox, made in collaboration with gallery director Dru Arstark, under the name Madness of Art Editions. Additionally, he has published his first editioned print, Apocryphal Now, in 2014.

501 West 23rd Street New York, NY 10011 212-206-6872 info@jimkempner.com jimkempnerfineart.com Jim Kempner Fine Art

@jimkempnerfineart

@JimKempnerFA