Draft:Erez Aharon

Erez Aharon, an Israeri painter and artist. , was born (24 January, 1974) in Rishon Lezion, Israel, and still lives there today.

Aharon began studying painting and drawing in 2007 at the "Midrasha" in Beit Berel. From there he continued for two years of painting studies with Israel Hirschberg at "Jerusalem Studio School", and at the end of 2009 he went to Umbria, Italy, for a semester of landscape painting studies. Returning to Israel, he continued to study figurative painting in a master class with Aram Gershoni, at the "Station" studio in Tel Aviv.

In 2012 he presented a solo exhibition - "Beginnings" - at the “Hayek Center for Contemporary Art” in Jaffa. The text accompanying the exhibition reads: "The painting derives its power from an immediate connection between the painter and his object. A person looks at an object and paints. An intimate connection between a person and the world that eliminates reality processors such as a camera or a computer... The symbolic dimension is only one of the dimensions in a painting that does not give up the pictorial and immutable commitment his compromising to the object and to himself". Aharon said about this exhibition: "It is acceptable to go back to icons like Rembrandt, Velasquez, Chardin and so on, but I believe that it was the teachers from whom I learned directly that faithfully distilled the entire tradition before them, and I look at it through them" says the painter. "It's also a kind of alignment and farewell to my teachers, farewell and gratitude. A kind of silent gesture."

In 2016, he presented his first solo exhibition "Eruv " at the Gordon Gallery in Tel Aviv, where he is still represented today. Jonathan Hirschfeld writes about Aharon's works on the gallery's website: "A lone oat tied to the wall. A dry leaf or two side by side. A pine cone rests like a butterfly impaled on felt in the museum bins that catalog and sort the members of its species. A cocoon of red wool, corporeal and bleeding - perhaps in imagination, in reality sterile, neutered, a sheep - away from the herd. Erez Aharon brings the world to the studio with samples. He translates nature into specimens. He deals with reproduction under laboratory conditions."

In 2020, Aharon curated the solo exhibition of Tsuki Grabian, "America", at the Maya Gallery, Tel Aviv.

In 2022, Aharon presented the exhibition "Thread of Thought" at the Gordon Gallery in Jerusalem. In the introduction to the artist's book that came out with the exhibition, Dr. Nava Sibilia Sade wrote: "For Aharon, the craft of painting is a process, which is done in a state of solitude, when the artist stays with himself, in his body, in front of the canvas, the colors and the brushes. Aharon's personal style: unlike his teachers, he paints with broad brushstrokes and does not dwell on details, such as fine hairs... and seeks to maintain a kind of generalization in his works. This generalization gives the images a metonymic dimension, a symbolic-representational meaning that expands beyond the concrete meaning of the image itself."

In 2023, Aaron presented another solo exhibition at the Gordon Gallery in Tel Aviv. The exhibition called "The Wandering Jew" took on a topical symbolic dimension when it opened during the October 7th War, and represented the public mood as well as the concrete situation of many of the evacuees during this period. Jonathan Hirschfeld wrote in the text accompanying the exhibition: "According to the legend, the Jews who were exiled from their country and live as adaptable strangers everywhere, bear the punishment of Cain in their wanderings... These are the Jews: they have no home and are strangers everywhere... The plant probably got its name because It has the qualities of adaptability and nomadism... This is a plant that at the same time has simplicity in it... the edge of the plant... but also some royal prestige that is reflected in the intense purple color of its leaves. Erez Aharon's paintings isolate these leaves, make them a laboratory find, assume them on a neutral background and optimal lighting. They are "realistic" but function almost like an abstract painting with one purple-green spot in the heart of a bright, empty and dim surface. Their shadow reminds us that this is a space and that there is volume and illusion here. These paintings of the Wandering Jew.. They are a haiku poem, a kōan, the appearance of the leaves on the white background brings to mind a crack, a break, maybe even a mezuzah, and they constitute a new stage of refinement and refinement within the entirety of Aaron's work."

In March 2024, Aharon's solo exhibition, "Wondering Jew", will open at the Gordon Gallery in Manhattan, New York.

Many more of his works are displayed in important collections in Israel and around the world

Over the years, Aharon has taught at the station studio, the kibbutz artists' workshop, the Atelier, a private master class, and lead landscape painting workshops in Israel and abroad.

Solo Exhibitions
2024 - "Wondering Jew" - Gordon Gallery, Manhattan, New York, USA

2023 - "The Wandering Jew" - Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv

2022 - "Thread of Thought" - Gordon Gallery Jerusalem

2018 - "Fresh Paint" Art Fair, Tel Aviv

2016 - "Fresh Paint" Art Fair, Tel Aviv

2016 - "Eruv", Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv

2015 - "Crossroads", 45 Florentin Gallery, Tel Aviv, with Dana Packman

2015 - "Beginnings", Hayek Center for Contemporary Art, Jaffa

Group Exhibitions
2016 - Group exhibition, Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv

2015 - Summer exhibition, Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv

2014 - "The Station" Gallery, Tel Aviv

2013 - Opening of the "Station Gallery", Tel Aviv

2012 – "With Painters", Haik Center for Contemporary Art, Jaffa

2012 - "Behind the Forest", Florentine Gallery 45, Tel Aviv

2012 - "Windmills", Kfar Sava Municipal Gallery