Reuven Israel As Above, So Below Reuven Israel As Above, So Below September 14 - October 28, 2016 2 Tales of Love and Deception by Lilly Wei Reuven Israel, while regarding his new work, paused for a moment, then said: “What is important—and what I want my sculptures to create—is a space for fantasy, for imagination.” Too much of today’s art is literal, he continued. Art and life may be proximate, but they are not the same. In As Above, So Below, Israel con- tinues to explore abstract form with unabated avidity and sophistication. He is deeply interested in codes of representation without the figure; the elegance of geometry is his preferred language. Each body of work is gener- ated by the one that preceded it, with the addition of something new to the mix. While these changes might seem minor at times (he prefers evolution to upheavals), there is ultimately a nota- ble, even immense difference, some- times surprisingly so in relationship to the matter-of-fact nature of the shifts. For instance, the antecedents to this show consist of stacked pieces, often larger, horizontal in orientation, rest- ing on the floor, or angled against a wall and braced by it. In the present project, the palette and some of the components are similar, still threaded on a thin copper rod, but the sculpture has been pared down to three essential designations: base, shaft, and finial, or feet, body, head, reminding us that sculpture, for most of its history, has At First Blush, 2016, Copper coated steel rod and painted MDF, 96 x 13 x 13 inches Green, 2016, Copper coated steel rod and painted MDF, 96 x 21.25 x 21.25 inches Black Out, 2016, Copper coated steel rod and painted MDF, 96 x 14.5 x 14.5 inches 4 been figurative. Furthermore, these and Russian Orthodox cathedrals all nine recent sculptures, emphasizing provide him with visual stimulation. the top and bottom, are freestand- Playing on this tension, Israel infuses ing, underscoring their association the work with the language of science with the body, as does his increasing fiction and its vision of future worlds engagement with the base as he pro- ironically derived, in his eyes, from gressed. Israel constantly adjusts the an aesthetic vocabulary rooted in the ratio between elements, tinkering with past. His references are intentionally placement, always fine-tuning their vi- open-ended and difficult to pin down— sual and psychological impact, the top spaceships, javelins, ski poles, ceram- “launched” by the bottom. The ten- ic vessels, and more come to mind as sion between top and bottom has been viewers contemplate the work. ratcheted up in this series as they con- tend with one another, attracted and Israel’s forms are impeccably crafted. repelled, energized by the confronta- What you might notice first is the ex- tion, pushed apart and pulled together. traordinary refinement of his produc- tion, the surfaces approaching some Israel is greatly drawn to extravagant platonic ideal of what surface and form interpretations of geometric shapes should be. All are made of painted MDF that are capacious enough for fantasy (medium density fibreboard) replicat- to flourish. Minimalism and Pop, Mod- ing wood, metal, and plastic, demon- ernist design and architecture (with strating the artist’s delight in his vir- its belief in ideal environments that tuosity and in trompe l’oeil; his credo are socially and spiritually affective), is that deception is central to art. In Islamic mosques, Buddhist stupas, this contemporary version of trompe At First Blush, 2016, Copper coated steel rod and painted MDF, 96 x 13 x 13 inches At First Blush, 2016 (detail) 6 Black Out, 2016, Copper coated steel rod and painted MDF, 96 x 14.5 x 14.5 inches Green, 2016, Copper coated steel rod and painted MDF, 96 x 21.25 x 21.25 inches 8 Black and Blue, 2016 (detail) l’oeil, what seem to be precise, appreciating its denotation. The work mass-produced objects are illusions. is more accurately described as black In reality, everything (except the cop- and white (a phrase that itself denotes per rods) is painstakingly, delicately clarity and the unequivocal—the latter wrought by hand—cut, laminated, a notion the artist might debate as an sanded, colored with industrial paint impossibility) rather than black and and lacquer, then polished to an im- blue, if considered quantitatively. The maculate finish, aglow with a potent title is inexact, he points out approv- visual allure. ingly. It is also about the “mirroring” of forms, although that mirroring, too, is His titles, prompting discourse, are inexact, and linked to his sense of rup- idiomatic expressions based on col- ture and play. Additionally, its upright or, giving them a new context, their poles, like double antennae, seem to meanings recharged, rebooted. They signal the cosmos. Yellow Belly (2016), stress the role of color in works that meaning coward, a kind of snake, and are as much about painting as they more, is named for its lemony cup- are about sculpture (similar in cer- like form presented on a two-tiered tain ways to the Californian minimal- base fitted to its diameter, the piece ist John McCracken). Black and Blue culminating in a small, glossy black (2016) usually refers to the bruising cone that suggests a hat or perhaps an- of the skin but Israel, typically, sees it other attempt at cosmic outreach. At another way, as something more de- First Blush (2016) features a plump, scriptive and visual, at the same time beguiling shape that toggles between Black and Blue, 2016, Copper coated steel rods and painted MDF, 96 x 39.5 x 13.15 inches 10 identities;, perhaps it’s a stupa or, fur- ther afield, something deliciously ed- ible. In Red Neck (2016) and White Collar (2016), two of the newest works, the base has become more ex- pansive. Red Neck’s tilted support—its copper rod at a diagonal—consists of mostly red-toned stripes. It appears to be constructed from separate bands but is not. Israel goes to great lengths to persuade the viewer that it is, es- pecially in his detailing of the edges, which seem slightly misaligned. White Collar’s fan-shaped base also suggests multiple parts like a pieced-together puzzle. However, it is made from just two joined sections and is the most as- sertive in the series; it might be read as an abstract painting or as a black tie on the grey ground of a shirtfront. Israel is a formalist, but his brand of formalism hovers over specific things in the world without coming to a standstill. Fluidity of meaning is inher- ent to his practice, full of associative riffs and speculations that are serious, strange, humorous, the range of pos- sible readings crucial to its richness, urging viewers to let their responses wander. Labors of lavish, stubborn love, these utopian objects are steeped in contingency and a kind of magical thinking, mischievous talismans for an uneasy era. White Collar, 2016, Copper coated steel rod and painted MDF, 97.5 x 61 x 61 inches 12 Red Neck, 2016, Copper coated steel rod and painted MDF, 80.5 x 65.75 x 47.25 inches Red Neck, 2016 (detail) 14 As Above, So Below, 2016, Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles (installation view) 16 As Above, So Below, 2016, Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles (installation view) 18 As Above, So Below, 2016, Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles (installation view) 20 As Above, So Below, 2016, Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles (installation view) 22 As Above, So Below, 2016, Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles (installation view) 24 As Above, So Below, 2016, Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles (installation view) 26 Red Head, 2016, Copper coated steel rod and painted MDF, 96 x 9.5 x 9.5 inches Red Head, 2016 (detail) 28 Out of the Blue, 2016, Copper coated steel rod and painted MDF, 97 x 14.5 x 14.5 inches Out of the Blue, 2016 (detail) 30 Yellow Belly, 2016, Copper coated steel rod and painted MDF, 96.5 x 12 x 12 inches 32 RI: It’s true I do work on my sculpture RI: The fact that in many cases my surfaces in a pictorial fashion. Many sculptures are assembled from differ- Excerpts from times even the shapes themselves are ent parts causes a situation, that in a Joshua Neustein Reuven Israel determined by how I wish them to way, I see the piece for the first time In Conversation “take” the coat of paint. In most cases only when I put all the parts together each color is a separate piece that I lat- after painting them. That moment is Paperweight Art Press, Tel Aviv 2014 er assemble with other parts to create very strange to me. I have a very strong the final sculptural work. sense of detachment from the thing I was working on for so long. It is new to Joshua Neustein: Maybe we should you marked. How did the stripes meet JN: I have so many questions about me, like a stranger, that I never really start with, what George Kubler called the floor? As for painting vers sculp- the process and the technique. So the saw before that very moment. “the point of entry” both personal and ture - this is still a lingering issue for process is not carving... juxtapositions, artistic. Personally when did we meet? you, and for me as well. Perhaps that is and the construction is not building a JN: How do you make the sculpture Was it at the exhibition “Flat” curat- one the overlaps in our practices.