THE ART OF ROCK

by Pippa Kelmenson Photos courtesy of the artist and Dvir Gallery

Israeli born artist Naama Tsabar takes on the world of rock and roll with her fine art.

Naama Tsabar is an Israeli-born, New York-based artist who works with sound to create sensually driven installations, performances, and sculptures. Her works evoke questions about bravado and power in the charged culture and physical spaces of rock and roll. Informed by her experiences in a punk band, Tsabar confronts themes of intimacy, performativity, sexuality, and excess. She examines and subverts the implicit gender roles and associations with virility inherent in musical and social environments. In her Transition series, Tsabar inverts amplifiers and speakers by installing their interior modules as exterior components onto cotton and linen canvases. While visually composed, each canvas is also fully functional with a set sound, volume level, and power source. In this way, the artist magnifies objects and materials that hold a distinct functional purpose, inserting them into an aesthetically minimalist, immersive experience.

Tsabar’s work blurs the boundaries between medium and genre at the intersection of music, art, and performance. Her most recent work is up in the Museum of Arts and Design’s Sonic Arcade: Shaping Space with Sound exhibition.