Arik Weiss (b. 1974, Montreal, Canada, lives and works in Tel Aviv) is a graduate of the post graduate program at the ‘HaMidrasha’ - Faculty of the Arts, Beit Berl college, he has completed an M.F.A. in visual communication at the Pratt Institute college, NY. Broadcast designer and Art director, working with TV channels, Ad agencies and production companies. Has presented his work in group exhibitis at the Tel Aviv Artist’s studios gallery in Tel Aviv, the graduate exhibition at the ‘Hayarkon 19’ gallery, Tel Aviv, The 2019 ‘Fresh Paint’ art fair and at the The Artists Residence Herzliya gallery.
__
My work attends to the creation of myths. Using digital processing, I construct images sourced from internet archives or those that I myself produce. Images are also deconstructed in space by projections on glass and mirrors. These processes create visual compounds that highlight the fabrication behind familiar images. The production mechanism of these digital images involves studying their DNA and changing its inherent properties. In this manner a new image is created offering a new reading of the myth at its center. In the series Pools (2016), I worked with online-sourced scans of images of American leisure resorts in the 1950s that present idyllic scenes of the family vacation. Here, I transformed the surface of swimming pools by inserting new images that replace them and reveal the illusion at their heart.
The images I work with are related to my work as a broadcast designer. As an art director and designer of promos, graphic packages for television series, tv commercials, video clips and movies, I use various visual sources, mostly internet-based, to communicate and create idyllic images.
At the center of Praying Astronauts (2018) is a photograph taken by NASA showing the original Apollo 1 crew praying around what seems like a miniature model of the spaceship. I dismantled the image into three parts by projecting it onto a mirror from where it is reflected on a wall and on a sheet of opaque glass. The deconstruction and reconstruction of the image in space removes it from its original context and strips it of its mythic dimension. I seek to expose the gap between an event and the lingering mnemonic image that makes it a myth.
exhibitions
2018 | ‘Sunrise’ group exhibition | Tel Aviv Artist’s studios Gallery, Tel-Aviv | Curator: Lia Tzigler and Jasmine Vardi
2019 | ‘Fresh Paint’ art fair | Expo center, Tel-Aviv
2019 | Post graduate final show | 17 Hayarkon gallery, Tel-Aviv | Curator: Nicola Trezzi
2019 | ‘What the matter wants?’ group exhibition | Givon Art Forum Gallery, Tel-Aviv | Curator: Nicola Trezzi
2019 | ’The Final Frontier’ group exhibition | The artists residence Gallery, Hertzlia | Curator: Ran Kasmy Ilan
publications
2019 | Jerusalem Post | Arts & Entertainment
__
arik.weiss@gmail.com