Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Tal Shochjat was born in Israel in 1974
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2000-2002 Photography Teacher, Ironi Hey High School, Tel Aviv, Israel
Curator of the Art Gallery, Hamidrasha Art College, Beit Berl, Kalmaniya
2009 Photography Teacher, Hamidrasha Art College, Beit Berl, Kalmaniya
1999-2002 Art and photography workshops, and private individual tutoring
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2012
In Praise of a Dream, National Museum of American Jewish History, Philadelphia, PA
2011
In Praise of a Dream, Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York, NY
2008
Sometimes It’s Cold In The Morning, Rosenfeld Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
The style seems to me to recall the graphics of Sharir, but I have no evidence that there was any direct influence.
Tal Shochat: Rimon
(Pomegranate)
2010, C-Print, 47.25 x 50 inches
See more of her work here
Please stick your neck out and comment on this approach to the photography, of isolating the tree in an idealized fashion.
Asher
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2000-2002 Photography Teacher, Ironi Hey High School, Tel Aviv, Israel
Curator of the Art Gallery, Hamidrasha Art College, Beit Berl, Kalmaniya
2009 Photography Teacher, Hamidrasha Art College, Beit Berl, Kalmaniya
1999-2002 Art and photography workshops, and private individual tutoring
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2012
In Praise of a Dream, National Museum of American Jewish History, Philadelphia, PA
2011
In Praise of a Dream, Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York, NY
2008
Sometimes It’s Cold In The Morning, Rosenfeld Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
The style seems to me to recall the graphics of Sharir, but I have no evidence that there was any direct influence.
Tal Shochat: Rimon
(Pomegranate)
2010, C-Print, 47.25 x 50 inches
"...visitors will be transported to a utopian garden rich with flowering trees. Shochat's series of photographs captures these trees – plum, fig, cypress, palm and others – in the height of their beauty and fertility. Outside of the constraints of time and space, Shochat's is a garden that blooms eternally.
Using a rigorous process, Shochat begins with scouring an area for a particular type of tree. Once she's found her ideal specimen, she watches carefully and judges when the tree has reached the height of its maturity. Only then does she return with a black backdrop and, after carefully cleaning the branches and leaves, photographs the tree in this idealized and de-contextualized setting. In this sense, each tree becomes the most perfect expression of itself and the entire collection is one that could never exist in nature. In the words of curator and art critic Ktzia Alon, it is a "hypnotizing, fiercely beautiful series."
Beyond the garden scene of these works, Shochat's series also speaks to the fundamental shift in values that has taken place over the last few years in relationship to the natural world. The Earth's power has been exhausted by its privatization and the expropriation from the hands of the many for the benefit of the few. In Praise of a Dream preserves the power and the beauty of these trees and presents them to a larger audience through the gallery space.
Shochat's photographs gain additional relevance in light of the activities currently happening in Israel and particularly the desire for a government with greater focus on the needs of its citizens. Against the backdrop of this protest, Shochat's trees stand out in their simple intensity. These trees serve as a reminder of ideals worth fighting for and they make a profound statement with a simple icon: the tree.
In Praise of a Dream is Shochat's second solo exhibition at Andrea Meislin Gallery. She is a noted photographer and teacher in Israel and has had solo shows at Rosenfeld Gallery, Tel Aviv, Herzliya Museum of Art and Haifa Museum of Art. Her work is in important collections including The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, and The Shpilman Institute of Photography, Tel Aviv"
Using a rigorous process, Shochat begins with scouring an area for a particular type of tree. Once she's found her ideal specimen, she watches carefully and judges when the tree has reached the height of its maturity. Only then does she return with a black backdrop and, after carefully cleaning the branches and leaves, photographs the tree in this idealized and de-contextualized setting. In this sense, each tree becomes the most perfect expression of itself and the entire collection is one that could never exist in nature. In the words of curator and art critic Ktzia Alon, it is a "hypnotizing, fiercely beautiful series."
Beyond the garden scene of these works, Shochat's series also speaks to the fundamental shift in values that has taken place over the last few years in relationship to the natural world. The Earth's power has been exhausted by its privatization and the expropriation from the hands of the many for the benefit of the few. In Praise of a Dream preserves the power and the beauty of these trees and presents them to a larger audience through the gallery space.
Shochat's photographs gain additional relevance in light of the activities currently happening in Israel and particularly the desire for a government with greater focus on the needs of its citizens. Against the backdrop of this protest, Shochat's trees stand out in their simple intensity. These trees serve as a reminder of ideals worth fighting for and they make a profound statement with a simple icon: the tree.
In Praise of a Dream is Shochat's second solo exhibition at Andrea Meislin Gallery. She is a noted photographer and teacher in Israel and has had solo shows at Rosenfeld Gallery, Tel Aviv, Herzliya Museum of Art and Haifa Museum of Art. Her work is in important collections including The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, and The Shpilman Institute of Photography, Tel Aviv"
See more of her work here
Please stick your neck out and comment on this approach to the photography, of isolating the tree in an idealized fashion.
Asher