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Aviv Benn has a short while ago joined Increase Artwork, bringing her expressionistic performs to the system. Her paintings are a visual universe starring symbolic archetypes and fantastical varieties that pop up, reappear, and blend to formulate the dreamlike earth they inhabit. By repeating the similar imagery over various canvases, she informs a narrative that stretches much beyond the boundaries of a singular portray. Weaving new associations alongside one another, she constructs a vivid, interconnecting myth all over her will work.
Aviv in her studio with quite a few parts from her fantastical dreamlike world (Photo: Omer Gaash)
How would you describe the art you build?
Paintings, generally oil on canvas.
Cosmos Inhaler, 2021, oil, spray paint, linocut and wax medium on canvas, 70 x 60cm
Inform us a little bit about the inspiration driving your practice
Any time men and women request me the dilemma every painter dreads, “So.. what is your operate about?” or “Can you notify me about what you paint?” I jokingly say “How substantially the environment sucks.” I guess it’s my way of saying how I deal with existential dread, the uncertainty of remaining, and this current era and its a lot of upheavals. Which is the inspiration guiding my get the job done in terms of topic issue. As a painter, while, I attempt to thrust things forward from a observe/medium-primarily based viewpoint, to make extra surprising function, and to make each individual piece a minimal better than the previous. That’s what evokes me and retains me occupied in the studio.
Not Haste Into A Landscape, 2021, oil, spray paint, oil pastels on canvas, 65 x 65cm
How do you arrive up with the ideas for your artworks?
The themes in my get the job done take decades to investigate, and each individual body of get the job done reveals an additional aspect of a entire world I am setting up little bit by little bit. Each and every collection explores a set of symbols, creatures, and painterly environments that tell a cohesive however summary story. The imagery released in each and every sequence is intuitive and operates as a distorted mirror of our earth. Painting is a medium that defies words (just inquire painters how a great deal they dislike crafting all those artist statements, hehe). There is a thing elusive about it, like making an attempt to try to remember a desire on waking up. So equally I struggle to demonstrate the concepts behind my work, they are manifestations of thoughts and ideas that float in my head for a extended time, setting up up and then turning into illustrations or photos on the canvas.
The Horror of Our Picture Will Unravel, 2022, oil on canvas, 75 x 75cm
How has your follow advanced in latest yrs?
I used to make work really swiftly and very compulsively and impatiently. I would also depend a lot on humour and even incorporate text in my get the job done. Since my operate offers with existential themes, I felt I had to inject humour to make my work easier to course of action and interact with. Slowly I moved away from the textual content and cartoony do the job, and in the past 18 months or so, because moving to London, I have tried using to expend extra time with every piece, make my do the job more elaborate, and enable go of working with humour as a defence system (in my function in any case ha!).
Age of Glass, 2021, Oil, oil pastels on canvas, 75 x 75cm
What’s an normal working day like in your studio?
I like trying to keep a program when it will come to getting a studio apply, which aids me to bring composition to the chaos that is art-building. So I normally get there in the morning and do the job right until the early night, with a person swift split for lunch. I view my studio as a silent and peaceful workspace, in which I can target and paint compared with other artists, I don’t truly “hang” in my studio, I not often invite mates about, and I do not nap or go through in the studio. For me, it is strictly a space to make function.
Aviv’s workstation in her studio
How do you go about earning each get the job done?
I tend to perform intuitively, and almost never sketch prior to generating a new portray. I usually get started every piece with a vibrant abstract ground and react to the styles and gestures that are “established” on the canvas. Then I gradually determine the illustrations or photos during the portray course of action and react to the entire world that is established in front of me on the canvas, until eventually I come to a decision the piece is finished. The symbols and imagery that notify my paintings also produce intuitively, and their reappearance in different canvases generates a narrative that stretches about a sequence of operates.
Sights of Nocturnal Burn, 2022, oil, oil pastels on canvas, 130 x 130cm
What/Who are your essential influences?
As a nerdy painter, I am truly impressed by the perform of other painters, primarily gutsy painters who force the boundaries of the medium and create daring, considerate, and unsettling perform. I feel that portray, additional than any other medium, definitely follows the notion of “standing on the shoulders of giants”, and every single painting is developed in light-weight of or in spite of the loaded historical past of painting. In my possess observe, if I glimpse for inspiration, or if I get stuck seeking to take care of a painting, I come across the solutions in just the perform of painters I enjoy, or stop by a selection in a museum I appreciate, and this typically does the trick. Another key influence is looking at poetry. I appear from a loved ones of writers and my grandfather was an established poet, who would often really encourage me to examine and analyse poems growing up. Many of my titles are inspired by poems and I see them as another “key” to examining my paintings. Prior to starting up a new series I would read poetry that I feel will advise the function in a way I can’t genuinely demonstrate, but feels proper. As soon as a piece is concluded I will take a look at the exact same poems yet again, in purchase to title the perform, which in a way is “completing” the course of action of making.
The Working day Empties Its Visuals, 2021, oil, oil pastels, spray paint on canvas, 127 x 127cm
Who are some Increase Art artists with perform you’re taking pleasure in at the minute?
I genuinely like Sabrina Shah’s work, her expressive and chaotic paintings are persuasive and great in a punk form of way, I also delight in Olga Shcheblykina textured, dim, and humorist creations, and Christine Lyon’s vivid, advanced and intricate bodily function.
Aviv’s is effective displayed in her studio (@enamel_aspiration)
Are you at present performing on any fascinating new tasks?
I am now in the process of finalising a new physique of function and I hope I could reveal extra aspects before long, remain tuned!
