Imaginary Spaces: Works by Elad Kopler and Itamar Freed by Litvak Contemporary

Mana Contemporary 888 Newark Avenue Jersey City, NJ 07306

Imaginary Spaces: Works by Elad Kopler and Itamar Freed

The formation of a creative artist is a complex process whose sources cannot be deciphered and whose results cannot be anticipated. Art expands and breaks through boundaries all the time – never resting on its laurels. It embraces new media and produces infinite connections and combinations; occasionally, it abandons traditional tools only to revive them at unexpected times. - The Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design’s Artistic Mission. Litvak Contemporary is pleased to present Imaginary Spaces: Works by Elad Kopler and Itamar Freed at Mana Contemporary from April 30 - May 14, 2017. Contemporary Israeli artists Itamar Freed and Elad Kopler, both graduates from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, exemplify the renowned institution’s artistic mission. Through the use of very different mediums, each artist creates multilayered fictitious landscapes that are timeless and unplaceable, leaving the viewer unsure of what is real and what is manufactured. Freed’s photography provokes questions regarding the character of natural and artificial creation, and the uncanniness of gestures that elude the strict definitions of either. These questions are at the same time ancient and utterly contemporary. His work ranges from portraits of nubile young women in foliage to naturalistic scenes that combine multiple locales together into one image. By combining images taken in nature with staged environments, Freed creates a third fictitious place that only exists in the photographic frame. The raw material of Freed’s photography includes the wilderness, museums, zoos, botanical gardens, and his own studio. The encounter between the three territories – the wild, the cultured, and the staged – creates a deceptive sensation and incites questions about aesthetics, politics, culture, borders, and specifically about what is real and what is artificial. In a similar manner, Elad Kopler’s work is also preoccupied with creating imaginary spaces. Kopler’s paintings feature urban landscapes that appear to have been severely damaged or partially destroyed. The desolate, vertical and horizontal outlines of buildings assimilated into vestiges of nature point to traces of a lost culture. These compositions, which cannot be encompassed in a single glance, allude to the history of landscape painting. Yet, unlike Romantic paintings where the sublime is associated with a sense of awe, Kopler’s works instead provoke a sense of anxiety. In his painting, Kopler explores the possibility to obliviate perspective and coherency from a two-dimensional space without losing its ability to convince. He strives to find sublime beauty that is unbound by the rules of painting and creates a fictional expanse with a vague sensation of a lost culture.

About Elad Kopler Elad Kopler was born in 1974 in Ramat-Gan, Israel. He received his B.F.A from the Hamidrasha School of Art Beit Berl College in 2004, and he received his M.F.A from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in 2006. Kopler’s work has been showcased in solo and group exhibitions including the Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa; Petach Tikva Museum of Art; Tavi Dresdner Gallery, Tel Aviv; Habres & Partner, Vienna; and Biet Berl Academic College Gallery, Tel Aviv. Kopler has been the recipient of many awards and recognitions, amongst them are the Award Scholarship, Hamidrasha School of Art Beit Berl College; Award for Excellence, Bezalel Academy of Art Design; America-Israel Cultural Foundation; Young Artist Award, Ministry of Science Culture & Sport; and the Rappaport Prize for Young Painter, Tel Aviv Museum of Art in 2012. Kopler’s works are kept in collections worldwide including the Bank Ha’poalim Collection (Israel); Philip Hofer Collection, NY (USA); Sam & Yael Bacharach, NY (USA); and numerous private collections. Kopler has a forthcoming solo exhibition at the Nahum Gutman Museum of Art, Tel Aviv opening September 2017.

About Itamar Freed Itamar Freed was born in New York in 1987. He received his B.F.A from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in 2012 and is currently pursuing his M.F.A at the Royal College of Arts, London. Freed’s work has been showcased in solo exhibitions in the Ramat-Gan Museum of Art, Israel, and Feinberg Projects Gallery in Tel Aviv. His works were also shown in “NordArt 2016”, International Art Exhibition, Büdelsdorf, Germany, Musrara Gallery, Jerusalem, the Bezalel Gallery, Jerusalem. Freed has been the winner of the 2016 Clore - Bezalel Scholarship & a full Grant for a Master’s degree at the Royal College of Arts, London and the 2012 “EPSON” first prize for excellence in the art of photography. Freed’s works are in private and public collections worldwide including the Lauren and Mitchell Presser Photography Collection, USA, the Clore Collection, London, UK, the Estée Lauder Collection and other private collections in Israel and abroad

Elad Kopler

Untitled, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, 70x56 inches For inquiries please click here

Untitled, 2016 Acrylic on canvas 63x50 inches For inquiries please click here

Untitled, 2015 Acrylic on canvas 63x49.5 inches For inquiries please click here

Untitled, 2016 Acrylic on canvas 20.5x36 inches For inquiries please click here

Untitled, 2015 Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas 56.25X48.2 inches For inquiries please click here

Untitled, 2016 Acrylic on canvas 51x39 inches For inquiries please click here

Untitled, 2016 Acrylic on canvas 50x63 inches For inquiries please click here

Untitled, 2015 Acrylic on canvas 67x79 inches For inquiries please click here

Untitled, 2016 Acrylic on canvas 47x31.5 inches For inquiries please click here

Untitled, 2015 Acrylic on canvas 70x63 inches For inquiries please click here

Untitled, 2015 Acrylic on canvas 71x79 inches For inquiries please click here

Untitled, 2016 Acrylic on canvas 58x40.5 inches For inquiries please click here

Elad Kopler Born in Ramat Gan, Israel, 1974. Lives in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Education

2007

2005-2006 M.A., Bezalel Academy for Art and Design, Tel Aviv 2000-2004 B.E.D., Hamidrasha School of Art, Biet Berl Academic College 1997-1998 Architecture and Design, Ort, Tel Aviv

When Despair Becomes Plausible, Tavi Dresdner Gallery, Tel Aviv Passages, Hamidrasha Gallery, Biet Berl Academic College

Selected Group Exhibitions 2016

Solo Exhibitions

Modernism 2016, Rosenbach Contemporary, Jerusalem; curator: Nogah Davidson

2016

VOLTA NY Art Fair 2016, Pier 90, New York, USA.

Druchim, Alma Center for the Arts, Zichron Yaakov, Israel; curator: Sarit Shapira

2014

Eminent Domain, Feinberg Projects, Tel Aviv

Tishaa Ktarim, Soka Gallery, Tel Aviv; curator: Orly Dvir

2013

Elad Kopler: Temperatures, Rappaport Prize for a Young Israeli Painter, Tel Aviv Museum of Art; curator: Tal Lanir (catalogue)

2011

Black Clouds, Habres + Partner Gallery, Vienna After the Heat Wave, Tavi Dresdner Gallery, Tel Aviv

2008

Dark Matter, Litvak Contemporary, Tel Aviv; curators: Howard Rutkowski, Mary Dinaburg 2014

Select Art Fair, Miami Art Week

2012

Other Space, Feinberg Projects, Tel Aviv

2011

The Coming Community, Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa; curators: Yeela Hazut, Lee Veinberg

Twilight, Biet Berl Academic College Gallery, curatorial team guided by David Ginaton Ship of Fools, Kibbutz Be’eri Gallery, Kibbutz Be’eri; curator: Ziva Yelin

Mehilot, Beit Kaner Gallery, Rishon Le’Zion, Israel; curator: Galit Semel Akhshav: Contemporary Israeli Painting, Stein Rose Fine Arts, NY

No Man’s Land, The Artists’ Studio, Tel Aviv; curator: Vered Gani “Artist Room” Project, Artplus Hotel, Tel Aviv; curator: Dana Golan

2009

2015

Placing Time, Theatrical Exhibition in the Public Space; curators: Yael Tsabari, Hila Cohen Schneiderman

2010

International Sculpture Triennial, Poznan, Poland

100 Years of Bezalel Art Academy, Ben Gurion Airport

2009

Crisis of the Genre, International Sculpture triennial, Poznan, Poland

Graduate’s Program exhibition, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Tel Aviv

2008

Postpop, Israeli Cartoon Museum, Holon; curator: Yuval Caspi (catalogue)

Bezalel-Glasgow, Bezalel Gallery, Tel Aviv

In Silence, Rothschild Gallery 69, Tel Aviv; curator: Noam Segal

Bezalel in Istanbul, Istanbul Biennial 2005

Young Artist Award Winner Exhibition, Haifa Museum of Art; curators: Tami Katz-Freiman, Tal Yahas

2007

2006

Artik 7, America-Israel Cultural Foundation Award Winners, Ramat-Gan Museum (catalogue)

Summer Exhibition, Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv

Etchings, Scratches and Scars, Petach Tikva Museum of Art, Petach Tikva, Israel; curator: Drorit Gur Arie

2004

Graduates Exhibition, Hamidrasha School of Art, Beit Berl, Israel

White, Tavi Dresdner Gallery; Tel Aviv

2003

Wounded, Hamidrasha Gallery, Tel Aviv

NOIR, Bienth Gallery, Tel Aviv; curator: Ben Zur

2002

A Day Will Come: Artists for Arab– Israeli Coexistence, Umm El-Fahm GalleryRosenfeld Gallery, Tel Aviv

Secret Art, Bank Hapoalim, Tel Aviv Under the Sun, Gilit Fisher Gallery, Tel Aviv

Scholarships and Awards

By the Way, The Heder Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

2012

Rappaport Prize for a Young Israeli Painter, Tel Aviv Museum

7 Sculptures, Tavi Dresdner Gallery, Tel Aviv

2007

Young Artist Award, Ministry of Science, Culture and Sport

Above and Beyond, The Kibbutz Gallery, Tel Avivv

2006

Award for Excellence, Bezalel Academy of Art Design

Shoshelet, (Dynasty), Sapir College, Sderot, Israel

2005-2007 America-Israel Cultural Foundation 2004

Excellence Award Scholarship, Hamidrasha School of Art, Beit Berl Academic College

Itamar Freed

Green Parrots, 2014, Inkjet print on archival paper, 43.25X43.25 inches, Ed. 1/5 For inquiries please click here

Golden Wreath Wattle, 2015 Inkjet print on archival paper 43.25X65 inches Ed. 2/5 For inquiries please click here

Untitled, 2017 Inkjet print on archival paper 43.25X55 inches Ed. 1/5 For inquiries please click here

Girl II, 2016 Inkjet print on archival paper 65X43.25 inches Ed. 1/5 For inquiries please click here

Burning Tree, 2016 Inkjet print on archival paper 65X43.25 inches Ed. 1/5 For inquiries please click here

Red Flowers, 2016 Inkjet print on archival paper 23.5X35.5 inches Ed. 2/5 For inquiries please click here

Red View, 2014 Inkjet print on archival paper 39.4X59 inches Ed. 4/5 For inquiries please click here

Man & Crows in The Olive Grove, 2013 Inkjet print on archival paper 39.4X59 inches Ed. 3/5 For inquiries please click here

Woman & Crane, 2014 Inkjet print on archival paper 43.25X43.25 inches Ed. 3/5 For inquiries please click here

The Swamp, 2017 Ed. 1/5 Inkjet print on archival paper 39.25X59 inches Ed. 1/5 For inquiries please click here

Bird watching, 2017 Inkjet print on archival paper 43.25X65 inches Ed. 1/5 For inquiries please click here

Jungle, 2017 Inkjet print on archival paper 43.25X65 inches Ed. 1/5 For inquiries please click here

Itamar Freed Born in Manhattan, NY, 1987. Lives & works in Israel / London

Education 2016 – ongoing

Selected Group Exhibitions M.F.A - Royal College of Arts, Photography Program, London, United Kingdom. (20162018)

2007-2012 B.F.A - Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Department of Photography, Jerusalem

2017

BFAMI 70th Gala, Christie’s Auction House, London, UK

2017

Private Moment in Public, Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, Israel

2016

NordArt 2016, International Art Exhibition, Büdelsdorf, Germany Musrara Mix, Musrara gallery, Jerusalem, Israel

Prizes & Awards 2016

2012

Winner of the 2016 Clore - Bezalel Scholarship & a full Grant for a Master’s degree at the Royal College of Arts, London “EPSON” first prize award winner for Excellence in the Art of Photography, Israel

ArTi Art Fair at Tiroche”, Herzelia, Israel Bread & Roses, Castiel Gallery, Tel Aviv 2015

Journey between the Stars, Musrara gallery, Jerusalem

Solo Exhibitions 2017

VOLTA NY Art Fair 2017, Pier 90, New York, USA.

2015

No Time, Ramat-Gan Museum for Israeli Art, Israel Birds of Paradise, Gitler &____ Gallery, New York, USA

2014

Birds of Paradise, Feinberg Projects Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel

NordArt 2015, International Art Exhibition, Büdelsdorf, Germany

2014

The International Photography Festival, Israel

2013

Bread & Roses, Castiel Gallery, Tel Aviv Surface Currents, FEINBERG PROJECTS Gallery, Tel Aviv Memory, Indie Gallery, Tel Aviv Promising artist of 2013 (Exhibition) Calcalist , Tel Aviv Inventory, Spaceship Gallery, Tel Aviv

2012

OBJECTS, Spaceship Gallery, Tel Aviv

Collections

UNDER, Bezalel Gallery, Jerusalem

The Lauren and Mitchell Presser Photography Collection, Clore Collection, The Estee Lauder art collection, and additional private collections in Israel and abroad