“Painting through the Lens” by Yigal Ozeri. Yigal Ozeri and his delightful girls Yigal Ozeri paintings in high resolution
Yigal Ozeri incredibly accurately conveys the play of light and shadow, glare and solar “flares”, and thereby masterfully creates the illusion of photography in his oil paintings. The process of creating these amazing hyper-realistic paintings consists of several stages. First, Yigal Ozeri takes photographs of models in natural surroundings.
Further, in his creative workshop, he processes and prints photographs, and only then paints pictures from the photographs. The artist's works are in permanent collections at the Museum American art Whitney, Tel Aviv art museum and Albertina in Vienna.
Personal exhibitions were also held in Bologna, Barcelona, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Paris (France), Munich (Germany) and in other cities and countries. Yigal Ozeri was born in 1958 V Israel . Currently lives and works in New York, USA
New York City based Israeli artist 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 forced to gaze into the allegorical domain between reality and fantasy.
Ozeri has shown extensively around the world including solo exhibits in Bologna, Barcelona, Los Angeles, Toronto, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, France, Denmark, and Munich. His work is included on the cover and in the book Photorealism and the Digital Age.
He is currently in a traveling show titled 50 Years of Hyperrealistic Painting that was showcased in a number of venues including: Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, and Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao. He is also in the permanent collections of: The Whitney Museum of American Art, The McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, The Jewish Museum in New York, The New York Public Library, The Israel Museum in Jerusalem, The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation in Los Angeles, and the Albertina in Vienna, among others. He is represented by Louis K. Meisel Gallery in New York City.
Yigal Ozeri is a hyperrealist artist, born in 1958 in Israel, currently living and creating in New York.
Yigal Ozeri paints his paintings in oil on canvas and is known for his large-scale portraits of women and extensive landscape paintings.
Before starting to create the next painting, Yigal photographs the girls in the intended image, then in the studio, he processes the photographs in programs computer graphics and prints them. After this, the artist begins to paint the picture. He paints pictures in series, like photo sessions.
The characters in his paintings are found in a variety of natural environments: from lush rain forests to deserts.
Moreover, Ozeri captures the fleeting moments of everyday life and gives them life. Yigal Ozery succinctly summarizes his work as follows: “I paint women in nature.”
Although the artist insists that his paintings are "realistic" because they are based on video and photo materials, which depict his characters, but nevertheless his works are also full of Pre-Raphaelism and fantasy.
Ozeri often catches his women in moments of reverie and reverie that seem to blend into their natural surroundings.
Yigal Ozeri has exhibited his photorealistic paintings all over the world including solo exhibitions in Bologna, Barcelona, Los Angeles, Toronto, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, France and Munich. One of his works appeared on the cover of the book “Photorealism and the Digital Age.”
His work can be considered significant for the development of hyperrealism, since few people have been able to achieve such precision in the transfer of images. In addition, even if you look closely at the portraits, it is impossible to notice a single stroke, so they look as if they were printed.
His paintings are a hymn to beauty, an expressive antithesis to the roughness of everyday life.
For over 25 years, talented Israeli artist Yigal Ozeri has been pushing the boundaries of photorealistic painting, creating large-scale oil paintings beautiful women captured in the vastness of sunny landscapes. Unlike modern masters hyperrealism, which by no means always copy everyday reality, Yigal Ozeri is considered a master of photorealism, since the artist works exclusively with photographs and does not draw from life.
The artist works with large group assistants who photograph models in nature. Once the desired result is achieved, reflected in the photograph in the form of the best pose of the model, the right light and other aspects, the work of Yigal Ozeri himself begins. Almost invisible artist strokes turn into stunning ones realistic portraits, harmoniously intertwined with calm landscapes.
Yigal Ozeri currently lives and works in New York; Over the course of a long career, his works have taken part in numerous exhibitions both at home and abroad. In addition, his works are in many prestigious permanent collections around the world, including museums contemporary art in Israel, San Diego, the Whitney Museum of American Art and other equally significant institutions.
"My idea is to create specular reflections reality, which is what photorealists strive for, but to reflect the space between the world high definition(reality) and fantasy. My images should be read as if they were poems or sonnets. To achieve this goal, I pay special attention to the intensity of the light, and I also prefer that the compositions are rich in detail. Essentially, my work is influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais.”
Incredible portraits of girls that go beyond understanding simply shook up the entire global creative community. It seems that Yigal Ozeri achieved the impossible, but is it really possible to realize this on an empty canvas, without combining it with?
But first, let's find out what it is in which the artist draws. This is an artistic movement in painting and sculpture, the main idea of which is the photographic reproduction of reality. In other words - a detailed and complete copying of reality with a brush and paints. In 1973, not so distant in relation to the entire history of world art, art critic Isa Brakhot proposed this term instead of the term “photorealism,” which seemed more rigid.
Thus, Ozeri is not a magician at all, but a very talented hyperrealist artist. He is Israeli by birth, but lives in New York. Yigal creates his paintings in several stages. Of course, drawing girls from life would be very difficult and inconvenient, so first he takes pictures of his models. The photographs are then processed and hung in Ozeri's creative workshop. And only after that pictures are painted from them.
No special ingredients are used to create the paintings: only oil paints and canvas. And, of course, a remarkable talent that allows him to create such realistic portraits. Is it possible without skill to convey such a subtle play of light and shadow, glare, as well as solar flare?
All this creates the illusion of a photograph that has already “deceived” more than one viewer. In addition, many paintings are created in entire series, which once again makes you amazed: “Oh, well, it can’t be!”
Of course, without a “sense of frame” and wide spatial thinking It would be difficult to create such realistic paintings. Yigal Ozeri is part of a narrow circle of artists who work in such a complex direction.
For example, prominent representative, working in the same direction, can be considered the artist Jeremy Geddes (Jeremy Geddes). Looking at his paintings, it’s also hard to believe that this is not the result of work in Photoshop or a photo collage.
But, unlike the full dynamics of Geddes’s paintings, Ozeri’s canvases capture a frozen moment of reality, as if the shutter of a camera has clicked.
Photorealism is a direction in painting that appeared in America in the late 60s. last century. Photorealistic painting is impossible without photography. In photorealism, change and movement are frozen in time and meticulously represented by the artist.
Contemporary artist Yigal Ozeri conveys his subjects incredibly accurately with his brush. His works are so realistic that every time you want to come closer to exclaim, “Yes, this is a photograph!” BUT, coming closer, you see the smallest strokes of paint and understand that this is a canvas, and every hair on the model’s head is painted in oil.
My meeting with Yigal took place at the Zemack contemporary art gallery, where the artist presented his last works. His tall figure and the appearance of “Mr. Hey” (who sings a song about 33 cows and a glass of fresh milk) were surrounded by numerous fans of all ages.
A little later we managed to meet again to chat. My creative career Yigal began as an abstract artist in Israel: “In my childhood there were practically no books on the history of art, and those that were, and those with black and white pictures. When I first visited the Prado Museum in Madrid at age 30, I was struck by the paintings of Golden Age artists such as Velázquez and Murillo. Then it became clear to me that I needed to learn to draw again. I came to realism gradually.”
Today Yigal Ozeri lives and works in New York. The technique in which he has been creating his works for the last 10 years is photorealism. Moving with my family to New York determined new stage in creativity.
I was very interested in the question of how the creative process of a photorealist artist goes, and Yigal described it in detail.
— Creative process step-by-step, it all starts with the model, then I shoot photo and video material, which forms the basis for future paintings. Then I carefully select frames on the computer, which I project onto the wall, thus determining the size of the canvas and, based on the projection, I begin to work in oils with the largest brush. I start with an abstract drawing, it makes up 60-70% of the picture, the next stage is carefully drawn details, with thinner and finer brushes.
— How do you approach choosing a model?
— Olya (Olga Zueva, approx.) I met at a party in New York and, seeing her, I realized that SHE is the beauty of our time, so fragile, and, at the same time, very strong, spontaneous and inexplicable. Such beauty has never been seen in history - it is unique. I'm not shy about doing beauty. The theme of beauty is main topic of my life. When I got to know Olya better, she became even more beautiful to me. Olya is a model, director, actress, cameraman, screenwriter and also a friend of Danila Kozlovsky.”
— Yigal, in your works I see only images of women, but do you paint men?
— The theme of female beauty has a thousand-year history. I think Russian women are the most beautiful women in the world. I haven’t painted men yet, but perhaps for the exhibition that I plan to hold in Russia, I will draw Danila and Olya together - they are a very impressive couple, in my opinion.
— What kind of artist do you consider yourself? Israeli or American?
- Most likely, American. For me, an Israeli artist is David Reeve, who reflects the politics of Israel with painting, Eli Shamir, who depicts the nature of Galilee on his canvases, Rafi Lavi, Nahum Gutman...
— Yigal, what do you think about realism in Russian painting?
— Russian realistic drawing is an academic drawing, it is an expression of the artist’s observations. My drawing is life on canvas, it is digital, precise, complex, technological and, at the same time, free, full of sounds of music and smells. I'm celebrating life!
Yigal Ozeri is a successful realist artist who paints pictures as clearly and clearly as he expresses his thoughts. Feminine beauty for him it is a source of inspiration, and new technologies are tools for experimentation.
Yigal Ozeri’s exhibition “Painting Through a Lens” will run until November 20, 2015 at the gallery of contemporary art Zemack Contemporary Art by the address 68 Hey B-iyar St., Tel Aviv (Kikar Ha-Medina).
Gallery opening hours:
Sun-Thu — 9:30-20:00
Fri – 9:30-15:00
The cost of Yigal's paintings varies from 18 to 85 thousand dollars.
