Amir Tomashov
Fragments of a Future Past
Fragments of a Future Past
Amir Tomashov
Curator: Hadas Glazer
Litvak Contemporary, December 2024
Catalogue editor: Orit Ephrat-Moscovits
Design: Studio MiKa
English translation and Hebrew editing: Maya Shimony
Installation photography: Youval Hai
Reproduction photography: Amir Tomashov
Measurments are in centimeters - height x length
Litvak Contemporary
Shvil Ha’mifal 3 st., Tel Aviv 66535, Israel
+972-3-7163897
LITVAKCONTEMPORARY.com
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Fragments of a Future Past
Amir Tomashov
Curator: Hadas Glazer
In the realm that stretches between destruction, memory, and place, Amir Tomashov collects remnants. Discarded objects, old pictures, and trash become material evidence of social and political processes – of what used to be and what is yet to come.
In Fragments of Future Past, Tomashov presents several series that add up to what we may call “an index” of a dystopian future: In his work, the disaster is perceived as a cyclical process, reflected in buildings and sites that have been radically transformed through acts of destruction and construction. His aesthetic style, characterized by perceptive and precise realist drawing, offers a critical look at the costs of globalization, gentrification, and the climate crisis through an architectural lens.
Tomashov’s practice is serial in nature, and he tends to work on several ongoing series over many years, adding new works each year. This exhibition features works from five series, including two new
ones that are distinct in their aesthetic and shift away from his recognizable clinical, architectural, and meticulous style.
The exhibition is based on two guiding principles: the use of found objects as the painting support –charged materials imbued with their own history and character; and the use of generic images culled from social media like Instagram and Pinterest, stock photos, and mass-produced paintings.
In the series Reforgotten, Tomashov works on old oil paintings and tapestries depicting landscapes, portraits, and still life – artworks-souvenirs, probably sold in city squares and tourist shops, likely of Chinese origin. He appropriates these paintings, erasing and redrawing them, embedding heaps of garbage, rubble, and debris at the heart of the image. His work subverts the kitschy narrative into a dystopian prophecy, introducing questions about artistic value, appropriation, and consumer culture.
The series Still Waiting focuses on portrait drawings based on stock photos – generic, staged images devoid of any authentic emotion. These works mark a shift in his work from architectural representation to the representation of trauma through human eyes. The drawings were made on plywood and boards, and the holes and grooves on their surface seem to rupture and pierce the image. These surfaces convey the tension between the generic beauty ideal and the pain and roughness that simmer beneath, alongside the realization that the gaze has opened towards a dark future.
In other works in the exhibition, which are a part of his older ongoing series, Tomashov paints on logs of wood, book covers, and old drawers. These pieces demonstrate lateral thinking that brings to mind archaeological excavations, examining the skeleton of buildings in the aftermath of dramatic destruction and transformation.
Tomashov’s critical lens, both seductive and sober, defies contemporary culture. Combining meticulous craftsmanship, generic aesthetics, and a dark vision, he highlights the disparities between the glossy beauty we consume and the reality that remains hidden – piles of trash, devastation, and the fragments of consumer culture.
Tomashov dismantles and reassembles, asking how the urge to beautify and conceal exacerbates the crisis and threatens our future. His works do not offer answers to these questions, but rather foreground the consequences of our choices as a society, wishing to reevaluate our morals in light of the images we produce and consume.
Space:Zero no.2, 2021
graphite on paper
106 x 156 cm
Space:Zero no.4, 2021 graphite on paper 86 x 156 cm
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Space:Zero no.1, 2021
graphite on paper
106 x 156 cm
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Space:Zero no.3, 2021 graphite on paper 106 x 156 cm
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Ink and synthetic paint on ready made
58.5 x 48.5 cm
Reforgotten no.3, 2024
Still Waiting no.5, 2024 graphite on a found cabinet door
62.5 x 58.5 cm
on a found cabinet door
Still Waiting no.2, 2024
Graphite
45 x 42 cm
Sketch 241, 2010
graphite on cardboard
48 x 36.2 cm
Untitled no.2, 2024
graphite on plywood
53 x 42 cm
46 x 76 x 10.5 cm
Still Waiting no.1, 2024 graphite on wood platform
Still Waiting no.4, 2024 graphite on wood platform 46 x 76.3 x 10 cm
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Still Waiting no.3, 2024 graphite on wood platform
46.5 x 76.5 x 10 cm
no.6, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 26 x 31 cm
Reforgotten
Scaffoldings no.45, 2022
graphite on old book cover
42.6 x 35 cm
Scaffoldings no.35, 2016
graphite on old book paper
47 x 37 cm
Scaffoldings no.46, 2023
graphite on cardboard
38 x 51 cm
Scaffoldings no.44, 2020
graphite on old book cover
47 x 37 cm
Scaffoldings no.27e, 2021
graphite, ink, marker, crayons and collage on cardboard
15 x 23 x 7 cm
Scaffoldings no.47, 2023
graphite on plywood
18.5 x 57 cm
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no.15, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 62 x 72 cm
Reforgotten
Earth as it is in Heaven, 2024
On
graphite on plywood
51.6 x 51 cm
Exposed Landscape no.11g, 2020
graphite on plywood
65 x 50 cm
Unrooted no.26, 2024
graphite on wood trunk slice
42 x 42 x 4.5 cm
Unrooted no.24, 2024 graphite on wood trunk slice 28 x 28 x 4.5
Unrooted no.23, 2024 graphite on wood trunk slice 42 x 42 x 4.5 cm
Unrooted no.30, 2024 graphite on wood trunk slice 42 x 42 x 4.5 cm
Unrooted no.6, 2021
x 4.5 cm
Unrooted no.25, 2024 graphite on wood trunk slice 42 x 42 x 4.5
Unrooted no.5, 2021 graphite on wood trunk slice 42 x 42 x 4.5 cm
Unrooted no.27, 2024 graphite on wood trunk slice 42 x 42 x 4.5 cm
Unrooted no.26, 2024 graphite on wood trunk slice 42 x 42 x 4.5 cm
Unrooted no.28, 2024
graphite on wood trunk slice
28 x 28 x 4.5 cm
Unrooted no.31, 2024
graphite on wood trunk slice
42 x 42 x 4.5 cm
Unrooted no.7 (dyptich), 2021 graphite on wood trunk slice
38 x 38 x 4.5 cm
Unrooted no.29, 2024 graphite on wood trunk slice 28 x 28 x 4.5 cm
Reforgotten no.1, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 60 x 47 cm
Reforgotten no.2, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 21.5 x 26.5 cm
Reforgotten no.3, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 58.5 x 48.5 cm
Reforgotten no.4, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 21 x 18 cm
5
Reforgotten no.5, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 23 x 29 cm
Reforgotten no.6, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 26 x 31 cm
Reforgotten no.7, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 31 x 25 cm
Reforgotten no.8, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 31 x 36.5 cm
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Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 67 x 82 cm
Reforgotten no.13, 2024
9
Reforgotten no.9, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 66 x 123 cm
10
Reforgotten no.10, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 28 x 23 cm
11
Reforgotten no.11, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 62 x 82 cm
Reforgotten no.12, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 41 x 46 cm
13
Reforgotten no.13, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 67 x 82 cm
14
Reforgotten no.14, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 41 x 46 cm
15
Reforgotten no.15, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 62 x 72 cm
Reforgotten no.16, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 21.5 x 17.5 cm
17
Reforgotten no.17, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 34 x 39 cm
Reforgotten no.18, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 54 x 50 cm
19
Reforgotten no.19, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made
23.5 x 17 cm ← 18
20
Reforgotten no.20, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made
25.5 x 17 cm
Reforgotten no.21, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made
20 x 25 cm
Reforgotten no.22, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 59 x 73 cm
Reforgotten no.23, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made
51 x 38.5 cm
Reforgotten no.24, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 20.5 x 12.3 cm
Reforgotten no.25, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made
x 23.5 cm
Reforgotten no.26, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 23 x 29 cm
Reforgotten no.27, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made
x 72 cm
Reforgotten no.28, 2024
Ink and synthetic paint on ready made 44 x 29 cm
cardboard, plaster and synthetic paint in wood drawer
40.3 x 49.5 cm
Post Traumatic Model no.26, 2020
ready made items on mdf
45 x 30 cm
cardboard, plaster and synthetic paint in wood drawer
29 x 52 cm
Post Traumatic Model no.25, 2020
ready made items on mdf
45 x 30 cm
Contingency Plan no.1, 2023
cardboard, plaster and synthetic paint in wood drawer
54 x 54 cm
43.8 x 37 cm
Contingency Plan no.11, 2024
cardboard, plaster and synthetic paint in wood drawer
50.5 x 38 cm
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