RISHON LEZION.- This exhibition focuses on the reciprocal relations between permanence, structure, and calculated action, and between change, intuition, and unbridled forces, and explores these relations in the art of Yaacov Agam and of Uri Kloss, Ronen Sharabani, Shirley Wegner and Guy Zagursky.

The works included in the exhibition give expression to the tension between calculated processes and between emotional, impulsive action. The confrontation with the limits of matter and cultural boundaries raises questions about constraint and liberation from constraint, and about paradigms and their shattering, as part of the attempt to explore creative freedom, change and becoming.

In order to create an experience of observation that involves movement, freedom, and constant becoming, Yaacov Agam paradoxically establishes a series of rules based on fixed and precise relations between colors, forms and angles – what he describes as “an inner organic law that constitutes a solid reality and unity despite constant metamorphosis.” 

The point of departure for Uri Kloss’ works is the study of creative processes. He uses digital tools to deconstruct a familiar image – shutters – and uses its parts to create a series of “free” geometric forms, which he paints on canvas. This series of paintings points to the relations between realist images and their free, undeciphered renditions – between traditional artistic technique and contemporary visual forms created by digital means.

Ronen Sharbani’s work Disconnection features a figure that moves repetitively as it attempts to extricate itself from the tangle of urban structures that surround it. This work is concerned with the struggle between the need to be part of an ordered, protective society defined by clear limits, and the longing for freedom, for rupturing boundaries and for finding one’s personal voice. The installation Houses invites viewers to approach and immerse themselves in the dialogue between the human figure and the growing accumulation of reflected buildings.

Shirley Wegner’s powerful photographs center on processes of construction, deconstruction and destruction. Working in her studio, Wegner engages in the meticulous construction of an imagined apocalyptic arena, while conscripting our mechanisms of sight and perception to create an illusion of a location in space. The viewers move between the illusion and its deconstruction, attempting to decipher her artistic process.

Guy Zagursky’s totem poles call to mind uncultivated, primeval cultures, who saw totem poles as a gate to the forces beyond reality. The poles are constructed using geometric forms that play with spatial relations, while their seductive colors offer a counterweight to the massive materiality of the wood. The concern with totems in the current age calls to mind the quest for balance between collectivity and the desire to free oneself of its demands. Zagursky’s installation Cosinus φ presents weather vanes designed to capture the direction of the wind, yet they are standing still, appearing to be “stuck.”