User:Viceversa.int/Rotem Reshef

Rotem Reshef (born 1964) is an abstract, process-based Action painter based in New York and Tel Aviv.

Artistic tradition and practice
Reshef is a process-based painter, following the tradition of Abstract Expressionist painters such as Jackson Pollock, Morris Louis and Helen Frankenthaler. Her work was also mentioned in reference to Mark Rothko, Christopher Wool and Sam Gilliam. Reshef's practice is characterized by a “Control and Release” technique, in which she pours diluted paint on a horizontal canvas, tilting it and imprint on it to create unplanned and surprising compositions.

Bodies of work and exhibitions
Reshef is known for her "distinctive, sweeping and highly dynamic body of work", including:

“Reef” (2006-2013): A series of blue paintings that allude to sea creatures, corals and underwater surroundings.

“Twilight” (2006-2014): A series of mostly black paintings, some of them include the use of charcoal for the first time in Reshef’s practice.

“Deep” (2009-2017): A body of work that is characterized by “pools” of thin and transparent layers of diluted paint, that form circular “eyes” or “holes” in the compositions. The “Deep” pools are a “punctum” in the painting, they collect the different shades of paint, and can also be seen as their source of origin.

“Life Forms” (2004-2009): A series of paintings that seem to be inspired by the world of biology and micro-organisms. Selected paintings from this body of work were exhibited in the solo show “Orange Sunset” at the “Heder” gallery in Tel Aviv in 2009 (Curator: Gilit Fisher). A catalogue accompanied the exhibition was published with a text by Joshua Simon (currently the director of MoBY - museums of Bat Yam ).

In the following year, 2010, Reshef had another solo exhibition in Tel Aviv, this time at the Zaritsky Artists House, grouping paintings from different bodies of work: “Flow” (2004-2014) and “Imagine” (2003-2014).

The exhibition was accompanied with a catalogues, with a text by the curator Ron Bartos.

In 2014 Reshef started creating her series of “Imprints”, altering the wet paint with plastic sheets that cover it until it dries, encouraging an ongoing process of change, in which the composition is set free.

Since 2016 Reshef has explored the form of painting installation, in which unstretched scrolls of paintings create a three-dimensional, overlapping experience for the viewing audience. Her first Installation exhibition, opened in ArtSpace TLV gallery, presented about 44 meters (142 feet) of painting scrolls, hung from the ceiling to the floor, and surrounding the gallery. The exhibition was accompanied with two catalogues, “Control l Release” and “Imprints”, with texts by the New York-based critic and artist, Stephen Maine, and by the Los Angeles and Tel Aviv-based exhibition curator, Sagi Refael.

Reshef's work from 2014 "Shir La'Shalom" (Song for Peace) was featured on the cover exhibition catalogue, "Aiming for Touch(down)", published to accompany the same titled show at P8 gallery, Tel Aviv, in February 2017. "Shir La'Shalom" is an iconic song in Israeli culture, and it is also known for being found printed in a folded paper drenched in blood, in Yitzhak Rabin's jacket, after he was assassinated. In 2017 Reshef participated in a New York City group exhibition "In My Garden" alongside artists such as Julian Schnabel, Mary Heilmann, and Lynda Benglis. Reshef's works are found in private collections in USA, Israel, Europe and Australia.

Education and early career
Reshef is a graduate of Hamidrash School of Art, Beit Berl (1988), and holds a Master's degree from Reinwardt Academy Amsterdam (2004). Reshef was a recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarship (1987) and participated in the Inaugural Exhibition of The Museum of Israeli Art, Ramat Gan.

Solo exhibitions
 * 2017 	- Time Traveler, University of La Verne, California (upcoming)
 * 2016 	- Phantom Stream, dual exhibition, Kibbutz Be’eri Gallery, Israel
 * 2016 	- Control l Release, Art Space TLV, Tel Aviv, Israel
 * 2015 	- Making a Mark, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
 * 2010 	- Breadths of Spirit, Artists ́ House, Tel-Aviv, Israel
 * 2009 	- Orange Sunset, The Heder Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel

Group exhibitions
 * 2017 	- 9xArtist Walls, ArtSpace, Tel Aviv
 * 2017 - In My Garden, West Village, New York, NY
 * 2017	- Aiming for Touch(down), P8 Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
 * 2016 	- Collective Memory, Travelling exhibition, New York-Glasgow-Dublin
 * 2016 	- Secret Art 8, Mani House, Tel Aviv, Israel
 * 2016	- Plaster 4, Art for Physicians for Human Rights, Tel Aviv, Israel
 * 2016 	- Iran Iran, Kaye College' Gallery, Be'er-Sheva, Israel
 * 2015 	- Artists for Levinsky library, ArtSpace, Tel Aviv, Israel
 * 2015 	- Scope Miami Beach, Miami, FL
 * 2015 	- Italia Docet | Laboratorium, Venice Biennale, Italy
 * 2015 	- Artist Wall, Art Space TLV, Tel Aviv, Israel
 * 2015 	- Summer Time, Art Space TLV, Tel Aviv, Israel
 * 2015 	- The 30th Annual Tallahassee International Exhibition, FSU Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, FL
 * 2015 	- Refresh, Florentin45 Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
 * 2015 	- The 53rd International Exhibition, San Diego Art Institute, CA
 * 2015 	- 9xArtist Walls, Art Space TLV, Tel-Aviv, Israel
 * 2014 	- Emergence 2014, Gallerie Myrtis, Baltimore, MD
 * 2014 	- A : / > fomat, Art Space TLV, Tel-Aviv, Israel
 * 2014 	- Nature Vs. Media, [during Sundance], Park City, Utah
 * 2013 	- A Picnic and Smokes, QF Gallery, East Hampton, NY
 * 2012 	- A special project of art & fashion, @60” & MCM, Art Basel Miami, Miami, FL
 * 2010 	- The International Artists at Home and Abroad Exhibition Series – November & December, the Broadway Gallery, New York, NY
 * 2010 	- Fresh Paint, The Heder Gallery Artists, Tel-Aviv, Israel
 * 2010 	- 4th International Arte Laguna Prize, Venice Arsenale, finalists exhibition, Italy
 * 2009 	- Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone, the 4th Floor, Tel Aviv, Israel
 * 2009 	- Painting-Law, The Heder Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
 * 2006 	- Inaugural Exhibition, Susan Eley Fine Art, New York, NY

Recognition

In 2014 Reshef was awarded Honorable Mention at LICC London International Creative Competition.

In 2010 Reshef was awarded First Prize at Art&Business category in the 4th International Arte Laguna, Italy.

In 1987 Reshef was awarded a promising young artist scholarship from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.

Residency Programs

2015 SVA's Summer Residency Program, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY.