TEL AVIV.- This is the first comprehensive exhibition in Israel of Michaël Borremans (b. 1963, Belgium), one of the most prominent and challenging artists active today. It encompasses about one hundred of his highly evocative paintings, drawings and films from the last fourteen years.

Borreman's enigmatic, psychologically charged and visually staggering works present sober-looking characters that lack identity or a clear role. They are portrayed in seemingly mundane environments and situations, which are nonetheless mysterious and indecipherable and consequently melancholic and unsettling. A hidden force seems to propel or dictate a narrative which is not entirely realized or fully told. Borremans engages in a fascinating dialogue with past masters (such as Diego Velázquez, Francisco Goya, and Édouard Manet) and cinematic iconography (mainly films by David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick), while infusing his art with a contemporary critical outlook. The exhibition provides the Israeli public with a unique opportunity to view a complex body of work which is both disconcerting and mesmerizingly beautiful. Conveying a sense of disruption and ambiguity, the works invite multiple interpretations.

The exhibition was co-organized by BOZAR, Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, and the Dallas Museum of Art, in collaboration with the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and is supported by the Flemish authorities.

The Tel Aviv venue was sponsored by Cal – Israel Credit Cards Ltd.

With the generous support of Sidney Simchowitz and the Simchowitz family; and Wendy Fisher.

Comprehensive catalogue (English), edited by Jeffrey Grove, and booklet (Hebrew/English), edited by Ahuva Israel.