Lior Modan's 'Wild Rice' in Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv-born, New York-based artist Lior Morden brings his work home for a first major solo show in his native Israel. Pictured: Banana Ears Searching For a Ginger, 2013

(Image credit: Lior Modan)

By Daniel Scheffler

last updated 26 October 2022

in Features

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.'

&rsquo;Wild Rice&rsquo; opens later this month at Contemporary by Golconda - — ’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&rsquo;s astronaut-like feelings of &rsquo;non-belonging&rsquo;. — 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 &rsquo;Ladies&rsquo; by Ezra Pound and Lord Byron&rsquo;s &rsquo; — *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 — 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

ADDRESS

Contemporary by Golconda
Herzl Sreet 117
Tel Aviv-Yafo, 66555

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Daniel Scheffler is a storyteller for The New York Times and others. He has a travel podcast with iHeart Media called Everywhere and a Substack newsletter, Withoutmaps, where he shares all his wild ways. He lives in New York with his husband and their pup.