Shai Yehezkelli 

 

b. 1979, Jerusalem; lives and works in Tel Aviv.

As an Israeli artist and a citizen of the world, Shai Yehezkelli's works often engage with local and universal identity. They are at once wild and domesticated; they are full of knowledge, but at the same time try to erase the traces of knowledge and acquaintance.

 

Yehezkelli grew up receiving a religious education, and his works surrender hints of Judaism, mysticism, national history in particular, and the written word in general. His artistic process is stratified: he appears to be a disciple of many mentors, and at the same time—undermines the very concept of "influence." The contemporaneity of Yehezkelli's painting is manifested in the striking awareness of the historical burden that falls on those who now engage in painting, and also in the temperament and nature of his practice. His painting relies on the history of canonical painting, Israeli as well as international, while interrupting and disrupting the painterly tradition.

 

In his work on the Flying Cargo truck, Yehezkelli tried to reconstruct his routine in the studio, where he works without a defined plan or sketch, but by taking an intuitive, abstract action—applying stain next to stain, outlining a composition and a line. At an advanced stage in the work, a division was created between the sides of the truck, in reference to the biblical myths of Creation: the first, "abstract" story in which the world was created out of chaos, and the second story in which the Fall occurs. In both, the divine hand is the painting hand.

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Holds a BFA (Summa Cum Laude) and an MFA (with honors) from the Department of Fine Arts, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Lectures on art at HaCubia School of Art, Jerusalem, and the External Studies Program, Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem. His works have been presented in numerous exhibitions in museums and galleries in Israel and abroad, including a solo exhibition at Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Recipient of the Department of Fine Arts Award and an Excellence Award from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design; the Israel Lottery Council for the Arts grant for publication of an artist's book; and the Rappaport Prize for a Promising Israeli Artist from Tel Aviv Museum of Art.