Nir Hod: Life and Death of a Star 28. April 2015 - 27. June 2015
Michael Fuchs Gallery presents the latest solo exhibition Life and Death of a Star by the Israeli Artist Nir Hod. The show will mainly concentrate on the latest canvases and sculptures, all created in 2014 and 2015.
Ever since his interpretation of the genius cult, depicted in a series of naively formed children portraits and bronze sculptures, Nir Hod has been internationally acknowledged for his work. Whereby combining the childish schema of Biedermeier epoch and typical attitudes of grown up stars, the artist cleverly subverted the expectations of the viewer.
In Life and Death of a Star, Nir Hod develops from blatant representations to nuanced abstractions, illustrating similar topics. Already in 2007, the artist amplified his tendencies to the reduced graphic, as shown in the „cocaine – lines” that formed part in The Night You Left series. Also the most current works do appeal with a high contrast between the perfectly polished surface and the disruption of that illustrated perfection in rifts, sander marks, ablation and other rough interference in the paint consistency. The viewer literally gets to explore what’s hidden under and breaks through the superficies. The observer stands, within the reflections oft the mirrored canvases in the centre of the artwork and happens to be the new subject of observation. Motifs like beauty, glamour and transience as recurring motives in his works are used again, but expressed in a whole different way.
Particularly the intentionally interpretable titles of the more abstract works enlarge and open the construal around Hods’ preferred thematic complex. His latest works again revolve around the image of Celebrity Artist resp. Celebrity Culture and the motif Memento Mori, the omnipresent death and the escape to ecstasy. Through his works Nir Hod conduces to the baroque tendencies in contemporary art.
Within these works Nir Hod touches more private spheres than ever. Series like The Night You Stayed and The Night You Left reappear in a further context than of drug consumption and club culture- and concentrate more on the moments of solitude. The short moments of being together are irrevocably combined with the intimate phases of loneliness and heartbreak. A fusion, that for decades has served as a base for hundreds of classical music pieces and modern hits. Using this method Nir Hod approaches to American pop culture, in which the most intense moments are the Memento Mori of our days. This is where you find the real glamour: the conscious and therefore enjoyed waste of potential of life. With their intensity, Nir Hods’ visual statements require a reinterpretation of the dualism of glamour of death – death of glamour.