Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

ART:

Real, raw Israel on display at downtown gallery

Exhibit focuses less on politics, more on life

Israeli Art NOW

Leila Navidi

Works by Adi Nes, like “Samuel and Saul,” are included in the exhibit “Israeli Art NOW” at the Naomi Arin Contemporary Art Gallery in downtown Las Vegas.

Click to enlarge photo

"Hagar" by Adi Nes

Click to enlarge photo

A gouche on cardboard painting by Gideon Rubin

If You Go

  • What: “Israeli Art NOW”
  • When: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, through Feb. 14
  • Where: Naomi Arin Contemporary Art, 900 S. Las Vegas Blvd.
  • Admission: Free, 880-3878

Beyond the Sun

Adi Nes is one of Israel’s most well-known and well-respected photographers, and his elaborate narrative stagings of contemporary figures capture the composition and drama of historical paintings.

Among his best-known works is a re-creation of da Vinci’s “Last Supper” composed of Israeli soldiers. The image is part of Nes’ Soldiers Series, which used beautiful models to portray Israeli soldiers in daily life: sleeping, eating, bonding. The works, often homoerotic, deal with youth, masculinity and humanity, and are a sharp contrast to past portraits of rough and resilient Israeli soldiers.

Naomi Arin first presented Nes’ work in Las Vegas last year for an Israeli Independence Day celebration. She brings his work back to town in “Israeli Art NOW” at Naomi Arin Contemporary Art (formerly Dust).

The exhibit features several contemporary Israeli artists who are gaining international attention — Nir Hod, Gideon Rubin, Maya Gold, Khen Shish, Michal Rovner and Ori Gerscht — and may be particularly surprising to anyone expecting direct references to Judaica, the Israeli-Arab conflict and other political tensions.

“Israeli Art NOW” focuses mostly on universal urban ills, such as homelessness, drug use and the facade of luxury through the contemporary realm, or as Arin says, “idealized Israel vis-a-vis the contemporary reality of its urban life.”

“Being brought up Jewish in America, there is nothing more idealized than Israel,” Arin says. “I lived there for a year. It is that absolute, beautiful, spiritual, extraordinary place. I’m trying to bring it to contemporary reality. There is a certain amount of pathos, obviously, that comes from living in a war territory. But just because you’re living in a politically charged place, doesn’t mean the work has to be about politics and the Arab Israeli conflict.”

The exhibit features three photographs from Nes’ Biblical Series, which portrays Tel Aviv street people in deeply moving portraits in a classical style that creates Biblical heroes out of the destitute. Two bearded, soiled men cling to each other and comfort each other in “Samuel and Saul,” their intense faces and struggle illuminated. The photograph and two others are on loan from the Jack Shainman Gallery in New York.

The trio of photographs make for an interesting contrast with Hod’s paintings. Hod is known for capturing sadness and beauty through heroes, sexuality, death and glamour in photorealistic portraits and scenes, and his works in this exhibit represent iconic objects familiar in a decadent society: “The Night You Left,” lines of cocaine painted in oil on black mirror, and “Luxury,” a canvas wrapped in black, crinkled, torn and taped plastic with silver flimsy letters spelling “luxury.”

Gideon Rubin’s paintings are less provocative. He captures soft scenes and portraits or people in broad brush strokes, avoiding detail, including faces, but creates a familiarity upon which the viewer can build.

The exhibit is a collaboration between Arin and Tel Aviv curator Omer Shan.

Kristen Peterson can be reached at 259-2317 or at [email protected].

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy