Alien objects: Reuven Israel displays his new sculptures at Shulamit Nazarian

There’s something that doesn’t quite add up in Reuven Israel’s work. Stepping around his new sculptures – now showing at Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles, it’s as if you’ve seen them somewhere before. The works look back at you almost as inquiringly as you try to figure them out.
The Jerusalem-born, long-time Brooklyn-dwelling Israel has looked to many different areas for inspiration for his first solo appearance in the city, such as, 'various forms of spacecrafts, antennas, and ritualised structures and objects of the past – temples, pottery, instruments and weapons.' It’s not the form of those things that is recognisable in the work, though. 'Often, when I work on sculptures I’m not thinking of specific places, objects, or events, but rather their implied cultural meanings,' the artist explains, as he unveiled the exhibition, titled 'As Above, So Below'.
To get too much into his specific references would spoil the fun, but he does reveal that Arkady and Boris Strugatsky’s 1971 sci-fi novel, Roadside Picnic, an account of events after a visit by extraterrestrials that is only discovered thanks to the objects they left behind, was on his mind. 'I like for my sculptures to be encountered as autonomous objects, without being linked to a known source. I want them to hint to a utilitarian function, but one that is not specific or decoded,' Israel says. It explains the eerie familiarity his works have. 'Like the objects left by the aliens, with my sculptures the viewer is left to "reverse engineer" the object's implied purpose through form and geometry, all while its unhinged from a specific context.'
This is reflected in the way his sculptures are made, too. Though their polished surfaces appear to be industrially fabricated, with their mass-produced precision, they are in fact totally built by hand, using MDF that Israel cuts, glues, sands and shapes, before embarking on a process of coating with different layers of paints and lacquer, until he achieves their deceptive glossy finish. 'This creates a near perfect surface, which imitates the look of plastic, metal or porcelain.' When his labour intensive process is done, Israel looks forward to standing back and watching the audience react as they try to unravel what’s in front of them – much like the scientists before the alien ephemera in the Strugatskys’ book. 'I want the physicality of the individual pieces to deceive the viewer,' says Israel.
Israel has looked to many different areas for inspiration for his first solo appearance in the city, such as, 'various forms of spacecrafts, antennas, and ritualised structures and objects of the past – temples, pottery, instruments and weapons.' Pictured: At First Blush and Green
Israel revealed that Arkady and Boris Strugatsky’s 1971 sci-fi novel, Roadside Picnic, an account of events after a visit by extraterrestrials that is only discovered thanks to the objects they left behind, was on his mind. Pictured: Installation view
'Like the objects left by the aliens, with my sculptures the viewer is left to "reverse engineer" the object's implied purpose through form and geometry, all while its unhinged from a specific context,' says Israel. Pictured: White Collar
Israel's sculptures are in fact totally built by hand, using MDF that Israel cuts, glues, sands and shapes, before embarking on a process of coating with different layers of paints and lacquer, until he achieves their deceptive glossy finish. Pictured: Group and Red Neck
'I want the physicality of the individual pieces to deceive the viewer,' says Israel. Pictured: Black and Blue (left) and Blackout (right)
INFORMATION
'As Above, So Below' is on view until 28 October. For more information, visit the Shulamit Nazarian website
ADDRESS
17 N Venice Blvd, Venice, CA 90291
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Charlotte Jansen is a journalist and the author of two books on photography, Girl on Girl (2017) and Photography Now (2021). She is commissioning editor at Elephant magazine and has written on contemporary art and culture for The Guardian, the Financial Times, ELLE, the British Journal of Photography, Frieze and Artsy. Jansen is also presenter of Dior Talks podcast series, The Female Gaze.
-
Venerable British car-maker AC goes OTT with the high-output, low-slung AC GT SuperSport
Pitched at all-American fans of the original AC Cobra, the GT SuperSport is a fearsome two-seat roadster with more muscle than ever before
-
The dynamic young gallerists reinvigorating America's art scene
'Hugging has replaced air kissing' in this new wave of galleries with craft and community at their core
-
Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the week
While a few of our editors were in Europe for various showcases and launches, others stayed local, uncovering new cuisines, eccentric exhibitions and glorious gardens this side of the Channel
-
The dynamic young gallerists reinvigorating America's art scene
'Hugging has replaced air kissing' in this new wave of galleries with craft and community at their core
-
Meet the New York-based artists destabilising the boundaries of society
A new show in London presents seven young New York-based artists who are pushing against the borders between refined aesthetics and primal materiality
-
Mystic, feminine and erotic: the power of Penny Slinger’s bodies as landscape
Artist Penny Slinger continues her exploration of the sacred, surreal feminine in a Santa Monica exhibition, ‘Meeting at the Horizon’
-
What is recycling good for, asks Mika Rottenberg at Hauser & Wirth Menorca
US-based artist Mika Rottenberg rethinks the possibilities of rubbish in a colourful exhibition, spanning films, drawings and eerily anthropomorphic lamps
-
Photographer Geordie Wood takes a leap of faith with first film, Divers
Geordie Wood delved into the world of professional diving in Fort Lauderdale for his first film
-
New book celebrates 100 years of New York City landmarks where LGBTQ+ history took place
Marc Zinaman’s ‘Queer Happened Here: 100 Years of NYC’s Landmark LGBTQ+ Places’ is a vital tribute to queer culture
-
San Francisco’s controversial monument, the Vaillancourt Fountain, could be facing demolition
The brutalist fountain is conspicuously absent from renders showing a redeveloped Embarcadero Plaza and people are unhappy about it, including the structure’s 95-year-old designer
-
See the fruits of Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely's creative and romantic union at Hauser & Wirth Somerset
An intimate exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Somerset explores three decades of a creative partnership