Press

Based in New York City, Yigal Ozeri is an Israeli artist best known for his meticulously crafted large-scale images of women in lush landscapes. These works have the appearance of photographs, but they are actually paintings. In varying degrees, painters have been using the camera or photograph to inform their work since the medium was invented in the mid-19th century. Typically the use of the camera was disguised or alluded to only in stylistic terms. In the late 1960s, however, artists in California and New York began to deliberately reference the photograph in their works by making the paintings look exactly like a photograph, re-creating sharp precise details, alongside fuzzy, out-of-focus elements. This movement in art was called Photorealism.

 In the 21st century, Yigal Ozeri is taking Photorealism in new directions. In his choice of subject matter, he employs intricate, realistic brushwork to create a narrative that blurs the lines between what is real and fantasy. He uses the medium of digital photography and processes the image on a computer until he arrives at the desired image, which he then carefully creates on canvas using a brush and paint. Brush with Reality offers highlights from the last decade of Ozeri’s works, from his first depiction of Priscilla in the jungles of Costa Rica in 2007 to his latest series that captures people on the streets of New York City. Ozeri has shown his work around the world, with several solo exhibitions in Europe, Mexico, and China.

Yigal Ozeri’s artworks may seem to be photographs but, on closer inspection, they open up a more detailed, intimate emotional perspective of his models.

Israeli artist Yigal Ozeri’s large-scale paintings draw the viewer in with their beauty, detail and sometimes dreamy nature settings. Brush with Reality — the name of the exhibit at the Flint Institute of Arts — is well-chosen.

Ozeri’s artworks may seem to be photographs but, on closer inspection, they open up a more detailed, intimate emotional perspective of his models. Many are beautiful women who revel in their environments — a rainforest, beach, city street. One of their common elements is their self-assertion — “This is me in my place,” they seem to say.

Ozeri is a leading photorealist artist whose works have been exhibited throughout the U.S., Europe, China, Mexico and Israel, where he was born in 1958. His paintings are part of the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Jewish Museum in New York, the Albertina in Vienna, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and the Flint Institute of Arts, where his current exhibition will be available through Jan. 2, 2022.

Ozeri aesthetically captures the most appealing retro elements, from the furniture to the lighting. The chrome accessories reflect pops of neon and bold lines of vibrant colors. Israeli artist Yigal Ozeri’s exhibition, ‘Americana,’ will be showing at Zemack Contemporary Art in Tel Aviv from November 13 until December 25. Ozeri has chosen to focus on the diner as an American icon, an institution whose image is engraved into the fabric of American life. Ozeri aesthetically captures the most appealing retro elements, from the furniture to the lighting. The chrome accessories reflect pops of neon and bold lines of vibrant colors.