LIAT YOSSIFOR
April 28 – June 25, 2022
68projects is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of Los Angeles-based Israeli artist Liat Yossifor in Berlin. The exhibition with new paintings and works on paper by the artist is part of her Berlin Fellowship with the renowned Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e.V.
Liat Yossifor was born in Israel in 1974 and has been living in the United States since 1989. She holds an M.F.A. from the University of California, Irvine and a B.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute. In her work, she explores the effects of cultural change and identity ruptures.
Using a monochromatic palette, Yossifor's gestural brushstrokes explore the tension between figure and ground, action and stillness, sign and symbol. Her paintings are not pictorial, but more physical, akin to sculpture.
Yossifor's new paintings negotiate rough paint handling with lyrical line work as well as natural movements and their deviations. She achieves this by drawing and scoring into thick textural masses of paint.
The poem by Adam Zagajewski, from which the title of the show was selected, consists of lines about normalcy and beauty that are interrupted by descriptions of brutality.
Dark grays dominate this newest series, which also showcases a thickness never seen before within her practice. The thicker the structure, the deeper the markings left within.
The gray for Yossifor is not meant as an aesthetic choice, but rather as an outcome of complementary colors cancelling one another through the intensive process of gestural painting. For us, whatever color and gesture are lost through this process are what we, in turn, can gain by allowing ourselves to consider our own markings in life and moments of erasure.
Born in Israel in 1974, Yossifor has been living in the United States since 1989. She holds an M.F.A. from the University of California, Irvine and a B.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute. In her work, she explores the effects of cultural change and identity ruptures. Using a monochromatic palette, Yossifor's gestural brushstrokes explore the tension between figure and ground, action and stillness, sign and symbol. Her paintings are not pictorial, but more physical, akin to sculpture.