Tel Avivian by birth, and breeding, Lior Modan lives and works in New York City. With a new solo show, 'Wild Rice', he's coming home for his first comprehensive showing in Israel, at Tel Aviv's ex-tahini factory-turned-gallery Contemporary by Golconda.
'As a contemporary artist who is also an immigrant, I am always hovering over a place of non-belonging like an astronaut', said Modan. In this latest show, the works, enigmatic and surprising, find their own worthy sense of place as large-scale deliveries. Often hard to define, the work, according to Modan, is a 'Compost Concert' – presenting various attempts to form a bridge between the image and the painted surface. 'I feel that the works share a physical instability that keep them morphing as you spend more time with them,' he explains.
In Sweat the W, a frozen, ginger mattress leaves its mark inside a rosy, summery painting. Lugete Veneres poses a quote from Ezra Pound’s Hellenistic poetry on canvas with a sample of families of penguins, Marc Jacobs design, torches and even pipes. As for Blue Velvet, dancers revolve over the artist’s face with a surprising mountain view. 'I appreciate,' Modan explains, 'that odd characteristic of artworks constantly changing in their search for a new audience.'
’Wild Rice’ opens later this month at Contemporary by Golconda - an atmospheric, converted tahini factory. Pictured: Blue Velvet, 2015
The works share a physical instability that reflects the artist’s astronaut-like feelings of ’non-belonging’. Pictured: Domestic Prints, 2013
Lugete Veneres (Cry Cupids), takes its name from a number of different poems, including ’Ladies’ by Ezra Pound and Lord Byron’s ’Translation from Catullus: Lugete Veneres Cupidinesque’
The works express the quality of searching for an audience and a home, as nodded towards in this piece, No Forgiveness For the Bad Detective, 2015
INFORMATION
’Wild Rice’ is on view from 24 December. For more information, visit Contemporary by Golconda’s website (opens in new tab)
ADDRESS
Contemporary by Golconda
Herzl Sreet 117
Tel Aviv-Yafo, 66555
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