Abshalom Jac Lahav

Abshalom Jac Lahav (born April 4, 1977) (אבשלום ג'ֵק להב) is a New York City–based artist. He is known for his series 48 Jews and The Great Americans, and Foster Paintings which have been shown at museums such as Lyman Allyn Art Museum, The Slater Art Museum, The Florence Griswold Museum, The Longview MFA, Saginaw Art Museum, Richmond Art Museum, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, The Oregon Jewish Museum and Jewish Museum of Florida. His painting style implements well known images of famous people in modern contexts, but still references historical modes of painting and black-and-white photography through its use of monotone imagery. He is also the founder of the Midnight Society, an artist-run curatorial project based in Brooklyn, New York.

In 2019, Lahav became a licensed foster parent. His work in the foster system inspired them to create a body of work focusing on bright blue abstract paintings, immersive vine plant installations, and eccentric sculptures.

Lahav is also a well-known curator, arts writer, and social activist.

Early life
Lahav was born in Jerusalem, Israel in 1977, to Pnina and Moshe Lahav. He lived in Israel before his parents settled in Boston, Massachusetts. He attended undergraduate at Wesleyan University where he was a member of the Eclectic Society.

Education
In 2000, Lahav received a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Wesleyan University, Connecticut. He studied painting at the School of Visual Arts and Cooper Union and received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Brooklyn College, New York in 2008 where he studied under Vito Acconci and Keith Mayerson.

Career
Lahav began his career at the Jewish Museum, New York in an exhibition entitled Art Image and Warhol Connections, showing alongside Deborah Kass, Alex Katz, and Ben Shahn, the exhibition presented works by seven artists who directly responded to Andy Warhol.

His series of paintings 48 Jews and The Great Americans employ portraiture to question basic assumptions about the relationship of historical memory and collective identity. These works have been shown in several museums across the United States. 48 Jews is a series of Warhol-esque portrait paintings of famous Jews that examines the representation of Jews in the diaspora while The Great Americans is a combination of American heroic, pop culture and history painting.

In 2008, Lahav started an experimental painting series on Anne Frank. The series questions the long afterlife of Anne Frank's portrait and explored the intersection of pop culture and art history.

In 2009 Lahav began The Great Americans, featuring 7-foot-tall oil and acrylic portraits paintings of iconic Americans.

Many of Lahav’s series are long-running explorations into identity, painting, and contemporary culture. This is exemplified by his work on Ruth Bader Ginsberg portraits which the artist has been painting for over a decade.

Lahav is a multi-disciplinary artist, involved in painting, installation, art writing, and curation.

His curatorial endeavors include exhibiting work at the Spring/Break Art Show since 2015 where his original project received attention from the New York Times Bill Cunningham. Additional curated exhibitions receive frequent mentions in Hyperallergic, Artnet News, Forbes, Artsy, Observer, and more.

Lahav has also written about contemporary art with articles included in the CT Examiner, Artspiel, and Two Coats of Paint.

Lahav’s social practice includes helping to create Public Art for Racial Justice Education, a group of volunteers in South Eastern CT. Their projects include large-scale murals and educational programs. Lahav is the lead artist for The Great American Project, a series of large-scale coloring book pages which are later reprinted on velvet and transformed into a giant tapestry of under-represented American histories. The GAP has appeared at the Mystic Seaport Museum CT, Mystic Aquarium CT, Westport MOCA CT, Wadsworth Atheneaum Museum, Bruce Museum CT, Florence Griswold Museum, Lyman Allyn Museum as well as libraries and schools.

Selected solo exhibitions

 * Lyman Allyn Museum, New London CT, 2023
 * Slater Memorial Art Museum, Norwich CT, 2023
 * Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme CT, 2019
 * Longview MFA, Longview TX, 2018
 * Saginaw Art Museum, Saginaw MI, 2018
 * Koslowe Gallery, Westchester NY, 2014
 * Richmond Art Museum, Richmond Indiana, The Great Americans, 2011
 * Jewish Museum of Florida, Miami Florida, 48 Jews, 2010
 * Oregon Jewish Museum, Portland Oregon, 48 Jews, 2009
 * Jarmuschek + Partner, Berlin, Germany, 48 Jews: Selections from the Series, 2009
 * Gallery 532 Thomas Jaeckel, NY, NY. The Great Americans, 2009
 * Gallery 532 Thomas Jaeckel, NY, NY. Boundless, 2009
 * Esther Prangley Rice Gallery, McDaniel College's, Md, 2007