Overview

Reuven Israel’s sculptural practice directly engages with form and color, drawing from myriad cultural references that range from religious monuments to science fiction. These sources amalgamate into autonomous abstract sculptures that simultaneously feel familiar—due to the employment of a rich range of signifiers—yet unhinged to any particular context.

 

While they appear to be industrially fabricated, the sculptures are actually the result of a painstaking process that involves hand-cutting, gluing, laminating, and sanding medium density fibreboard (MDF) that is then coated with industrial paints and lacquers. The resulting sculptures play a game of visual deception as the handmade simulates that which is industrially fabricated: Wood disguises itself as metal and plastic, and sculpture takes the form of a seemingly utilitarian object.

 


 

Reuven Israel (b. 1978, Jerusalem, Israel) received his MFA and BFA from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem. He has had solo exhibitions at Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Center for Contemporary Art—Tel Aviv; Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles;  Braverman Gallery, Tel-Aviv; Fridman Gallery, New York; and Museo Civico Floriano Bodini, Gemonio, Italy, among others. Selected group exhibitions include The Museum Imagined at Danese Corey, New York; The Museum Presents Itself 2 at Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Domestic Ideals at Lesley Heller Workspace, New York; The Readymade Centennial at Haifa Museum of Art; Re: Visiting Rockefeller at the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum, Jerusalem; and Senses of the Mediterranean at Hangar Bicocca, Milan. Reuven has received several awards, including the Israeli Ministry of Culture’s Young Artist Award, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s Legacy Heritage Fund Prize, and the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship. In April 2016, the artist completed a permanent public installation at Setter Square, Tel Aviv.

Works
  • Reuven Israel, Aperture 1, 2024
    Reuven Israel
    Aperture 1, 2024
    Baltic birch, MDF, industrial paint and metal hardware
    Open:
    55 ½ x 47 x 3 ½ in
    141 x 119.4 x 8.9 cm
    Closed:
    39 ½ x 39 ½ x 3 ½ in
    100.3 x 100.3 x 8.9 cm
  • Reuven Israel, SSOSS 34, 2024
    Reuven Israel
    SSOSS 34, 2024
    Walnut, aluminum and metal hardware
    39 ¼ x 19 x 24 ½ in
    99.7 x 48.3 x 62.2 cm
  • Reuven Israel, SSSS 28, 2024
    Reuven Israel
    SSSS 28, 2024
    Walnut, maple, bronze and metal hardware
    33 x 13 ¾ x 18 ¾ in
    83.8 x 34.9 x 47.6 cm
  • Reuven Israel, S.S.S.18B, 2023
    Reuven Israel
    S.S.S.18B, 2023
    PVC on painted Baltic birch and brass hardware
    97 x 25 x 20 ½ in
    246.4 x 63.5 x 52.1 cm
  • Reuven Israel, Untitled Folding Object 190A, 2021
    Reuven Israel
    Untitled Folding Object 190A, 2021
    Baltic birch, PVC and brass headwear
    closed: 65.5 x 35.25 x 1.75 in
    open: 107.25 x 35.25 x 24.5 in
  • Reuven Israel, More Half Truths, 2020
    Reuven Israel
    More Half Truths, 2020
    MDF, industrial paint and lacquer
    74.25 x 9 x 9 inches
  • Reuven Israel, Untitled Folding Object 70A, 2021
    Reuven Israel
    Untitled Folding Object 70A, 2021
    Baltic birch, PVC and brass headwear
    closed: 52.5 x 15.75 x 1.75 in
    open: 100.5 x 15.75 x 37.75 in
  • Reuven Israel, Twin Peaks, 2020
    Reuven Israel
    Twin Peaks, 2020
    Painted baltic birch and hardware
    closed: 39.75 x 19.75 x 2 inches, open: 39.75 x 31 x 2 inches
  • Reuven Israel, Veil/Vale, 2021
    Reuven Israel
    Veil/Vale, 2021
    Painted baltic birch and hardware
    closed: 39.5 x 39.5 x 2.5 in
    open: 51.5 x 51.5 x 2.5 in
  • Reuven Israel, Two-Face, 2021
    Reuven Israel
    Two-Face, 2021
    Painted baltic birch and hardware
    closed: 22 x 22 x 3 in
    open: 37 x 22 x 3 in
  • Reuven Israel, Untitled Folding Object 14b, 2018
    Reuven Israel
    Untitled Folding Object 14b, 2018
    Oak, paint and brass hardware
    93.75 x 11.5 x 2 inches
  • Reuven Israel, Neck Of The Wood, 2017
    Reuven Israel
    Neck Of The Wood, 2017
    Coppered steel and painted MDF
    86 x 38 x 27.5 inches (218.4 x 96.5 x 70 cm)
  • Reuven Israel, Untitled Folding Object 41A, 2018
    Reuven Israel
    Untitled Folding Object 41A, 2018
    Oak, paint and brass hardware
    112.25 x 15.5 x 70.5 inches
  • Reuven Israel, Back Of The Black Slump, 2017
    Reuven Israel
    Back Of The Black Slump, 2017
    Coppered steel and painted MDF
    98.5 x 26 x 18 inches
  • Reuven Israel, White Collar, 2016
    Reuven Israel
    White Collar, 2016
    Copper coated steel rod and painted MDF
    97.5 x 61 x 61 inches
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