Zavier Ellis is a leading London curator of emerging art. His gallery (Charlie Smith London) shares with Artlyst his favourite works from Volta NY, which runs from 2-6 March 2016, at PIER 90 in the neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, adjacent to The Armory Show, the longtime anchor of Armory Arts Week on Piers 94 and 92.
Yigal Ozeri is best known for his large-scale cinematic portraits of young women in vast transcending landscapes. His near photo-realistic oil paintings convey the spirit of his subjects in a grand array of natural settings: from abundant rain forests to dreary deserts. Thousands of tiny brushstrokes animate his lifelike paintings, giving way to a remarkable realism, distinct beauty, and seductive power. Ozeri seizes fleeting moments and gives them life. As a result, the viewer is compelled to gaze into the allegorical domain between reality and fantasy.
This series of paintings explores portraits of young women posed alone and framed by landscape. Many appear like film stills, caught unawares, unselfconsciously laughing, or moving against the background. Others gaze directly at the viewer in a somewhat challenging and unsettling manner. In some, all that is visible are fragments of the girls’ body – faces, limbs, richly textured garments. In every painting Ozeri captures the vulnerability of the girl’s faces, at the transitional age between youth and maturity.
Yigal Ozeri Gallery Andreas Binder, Munich Booth C9