ILAN
AVERBUCH
April 16 -
May 17, 2005 |
Ilan Averbuch,
The Bachelor's Coat, wood, stone
and steel, 7.5 feet x 6 feet x 2.5 feet, 2005 |
Ilan
Averbuch is known for his monumental sculptures juxtaposing materials that
are tantamount to a personal signature: wood and stone, glass and lead.
His gallery exhibition three years ago was tri-partite: including a 9x21x8-foot
double-helix called "A Dream of Two Snakes (DNA)," a four part
columnar piece entitled "The Forest," and a five part piece entitled
"The Five Senses," an intriguing comment on the creation of paradise
in the Bible. |
| This
was Averbuch's most massive show to date. Since that time, he has been working
on numerous public commissions of even greater scale: for Valley Metro Rail
in Phoenix, Arizona; for the University of Connecticut at Storrs; for Mediatech
at Nahria Sculpture Garden in Israel; and for the City of Portland, Oregon;
among others. |
Ilan Averbuch,
Book of Stone and Steel,
stone and steel, feet x feet x feet, 2004 |
Ilan Averbuch,
Layers, wood and stone,
8 feet x 4 feet x 4 feet, 2004 |
For
his current exhibition, the artist made a clear decision to scale down,
to create smaller pieces, and to utilize a new kind of stone, blue stone
in his sculptures along with granite, which has been a long time favorite.
Motifs he has examined in the past, the concept of a stairway, a dome set
on its side, are revisited afresh and re-examined in the new works entitled
"Steps," and "The Voice." |
| A
curving cascade of white stone steps sits atop a steel structure, like the
skeleton of a ship's prow. Steps, which normally lead up and down, float
in space horizontally and contrast in color to the warmth of the steel patinaed
like weathered bronze. "The Voice," of blue stone and steel, harkens
back to the artist's fallen domes of copper and wood. Its title and shape
refer to the projection of the human voice through a speaker, or to the
old-fashioned phonograph "noise piece," bringing music to the
world. |
Ilan Averbuch,
Steps, stone and steel,
8 feet x 9 feet x 3 feet, 2004 |
Ilan Averbuch,
The Dress, steel and stone,
feet x feet x feet, 2005 |
Of
this exhibition, Averbuch writes: "The sculptures are large-scale constructions
in stone and steel, or stone and wood. The steel elements are structural
in nature, creating the structure and form to which the stones are clad.
The stones are sometimes blue stones and sometimes granite. The dialogue
the steel and stones create is not unlike the interdependency of bones and
skin. |
|
"The
images that this method creates are poetic. They move between clear image
and abstraction: a dress made of blue stone frozen in movement; a staircase
curving in on itself, leading to nowhere, and creating the feeling of
a skeletal boat; a speaker of an old gramophone, made of intricate steel
structure and large flat blue stones, draws us into the opening like a
butterfly into the opening of a flower. Each one of the works suggests
a different narrative for the viewer to create and complete. This group
of works moves in space as if dancers or actors narrating a story.
|
Ilan Averbuch,
The Voice, steel and stone,
8 feet x 8 feet x 8 feet, 2005 |
Ilan Averbuch,
Crossing, wood, stone and steel,
5.5 feet x 4 feet x 3 feet, 2004
|
"The
drawings, while related to some of the sculptural images, reveal a relevance
to places where the work can be placed. The drawings are intimate dialogues
with particular sites that come from my public art activities. A massive
book of steel and stone sits with its pages open in front of a public building;
a towering vertical sculpture of wood topped by layers of stone stands tall
in front of a row of low-lying horizontal buildings. The drawings suggest
an environment and a place for a viewer and sculpture to interact." |
Ilan Averbuch,
Reflection on Monet, mixed media
on paper, 30 x 44 inches, 2004 |
Ilan
Averbuch's work has been shown at the Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock;
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Art in the Park, New York; Bronfman Centre,
Montreal; The Brooklyn Museum, New York; DeCordova Museum and Sculpture
Garden, Lincoln, Massachusetts; Fort Tryon Park Project, New York; Het Apollohuis,
The Netherlands; Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York; Hunter College,
New York; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Jamaica Art Center, Queens, New York;
The Jewish Museum, New York; Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York; Kunstlerhaus
Bethanien, Berlin; |
Ilan Averbuch, A Book of Stone and Steel,
mixed media on paper, 30 x 40 inches, 2004 |
Israel
Museum, Jerusalem; List Art Center, Brown University, Providence, Rhode
Island; Lodz, Poland Historical Museum, Lodz, Poland; Palo Alto Cultural
Center, California; P.S. 1, Long Island City, Queens, New York; Robert Moses
Plaza, Fordham University at Lincoln Center, New York; Socrates Sculpture
Park, Astoria, Queens, New York; Tefen Museum Sculpture Garden, Israel;
Tel Aviv Museum, Israel; Tel Hai Art Center, Israel; Tel Noff Sculpture
Garden, Israel. |
Ilan Averbuch,
Layers, mixed media
on paper, 30 x 44 inches, 2004 |
The
artist's work is represented in numerous public collections, among them:
The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; Brock University, Ontario,
Canada; Bronfman Centre, Montreal, Canada; Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel;
Kunstlerhaus, Bethanien, Berlin, Germany; Prudential Insurance Company of
America; Newark, New Jersey; Runnymede Sculpture Farm, Woodside, California;
Tefen Museum, Israel; Tel Aviv Museum, Israel; Tel Hai Art Center, Israel;
Tel Noff Sculpture Garden, Israel. |
Ilan Averbuch,
Wheel and Cone, mixed media
on paper, 30 x 44 inches, 2004
|
Ilan
Averbuch resides in New York City.
For additional information, call
Nancy Hoffman Gallery at (212) 966-6676
More
on Ilan Averbuch
ILAN
AVERBUCH's Biography |
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