Riccardo Crespi gallery presents Solar, a solo exhibition showcasing new work by the Israeli artist Gal Weinstein.

Gal Weinstein’s works can be distinguished by the use of diverse techniques (painting, installation, video) and different materials: from steel wool to MDF, rust to marble, carpets and bleach. The everyday materials used in the works contrast with the significance of the themes and the images selected.

In this exhibition Weinstein plays on the ambiguity of natural phenomena both physical and metaphorical – that moves from the macro at first glance to the micro when looked at in depth.

The main work, settled in the lower space of the gallery, is a large installation, Marble Sun, inspired by Nahalal, a Moshav, the first collective farming settlement, established in 1921 and designed by Richard Kauffmann, as an image sculpted in the Israeli collective memory. Moving from the symbol of the sun's rays, that are also an essence of the original design, Weinstein recreates the plan of the village with a floor installation composed of over 400 marble pieces and other kinds of stones – materials that are associated with the cold and tombstones.

Mars is known as “The Reddened Planet”. This fact became part of the reason to draw an image of Mars in steel wool - in order to be able to redden it, by rusting it. The Sun is a star and Mars is a planet in the Solar System: here, one is realized with stone and the other in rust.

In the painting Lighthouse, made of steel wool and wool, Weinstein depicts a giant column of smoke in the sea, a signal for help and of human presence in a desolate place, as a metaphor of the loss of reference points. While in the series Twister the artist’s interest is in the difference between the didactic presentation of the phenomena and the phenomena itself, pointing out the gap between knowledge and experience.

The exhibition is completed by the video Bad Spirit in which the artist stages a whirlwind in his studio with the obvious help of an electric screwdriver: the resulting image appears as both destructive and romantic, while calling attention to the manipulation involved in its creation rather than to the frightening effect of the real phenomenon.

Gal Weinstein was born in 1970 in Ramat Gan. He lives and works in Tel Aviv.

Selected exhibitions: 2013 Everywhere But Now, The 4th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, curated by Adelina von Fürstenberg; WYSIWYG, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, curated by Anat Danon Sivan; Moby Dick, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, curated by Dalit Matatyahu; Israel Now – Reinventing the Future, MACRO, Rome, curated by Micol Di Veroli; Le Pont, MAC - Musée d’Art Contemporain de Marseille, curated by Thierry Ollat; Unnatural, Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, curated by Tami Katz-Freiman; Collecting Dust, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, curated by Tami Manor 2012 The Mediterranean Approach, SESC Pinheiros, Sao Paulo, curated by Adelina von Furstenberg; Unnatural, Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, Florida; The Mediterranean Approach, Musée d'Art Contemporain, Marseille; Spring 2012, The Middle East Center for the Arts (MECA), NJ 2011 Demonstrating Presence, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, curated by Sabine Schaschl; Details, Keitelman Gallery, Brussels; Além Fronteiras - Beyond Frontiers, the 8ª Mercosul Biennial, Porte Allegre; The Mediterranean Approach, 54th Venice Biennale, Palazzo Zenobio, Venezia; The Museum Presents Itself. Israeli Art from the Museum Collection, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, curated by Ellen Ginton 2010 Beside, Each, Other, Galleria Riccardo Crespi, Milano, curated by Gabi Scardi 2010 Prespectives of Contemporary Drawing, Isabele Hurley Gallery, Malaga; The Calm before the Storm, Winzavod Art Center, Moscow; Natura & Destino, Galleria Riccardo Crespi, Milano, curated by Gabi Scardi; The Fourth Biennale for Drawing, The Jerusalem Artists House, Jerusalem

Riccardo Crespi Gallery
Via Mellerio,1
Milan 20123 Italy
Ph. +39 028 9072491
info@riccardocrespi.com
www.riccardocrespi.com

Opening hours
Moday - Saturday
From 11.00am to 1.00pm and from 3.00pm to 7.30pm

Related images

  1. Gal Weinstein, Rusted Planet, Mars I - from the series Places That I Will Not be Invited To, 2012, steel wool on plywood, 120 x 180 cm, Courtesy galleria Riccardo Crespi and the artist
  2. Gal Weinstein, Lighthouse, 2012, steel wool and wool on plywood, 160 X 360 cm courtesy Galleria Riccardo Crespi and the artist
  3. Gal Weinstein, Rusted Planet, Mars II - from the series Places That I Will Not be Invited To, 2012, steel wool on plywood, 120 x 180 cm, Courtesy galleria Riccardo Crespi and the artist