Naomi Mendel

My work explores the moment in visual perception that precedes interpretation -- the moment when the world overwhelms the gaze with a barrage of disparate impressions that the mind will try to bring together into meaningful, conceptualized images. My paintings let the viewer’s gaze linger in this moment of indeterminacy, lose itself in a disassembled world.

In my artistic process, I rely crucially on photography. I paint on the basis of one or more photos of my subject. This allows me to blend impressions from different perspectives into one painting. A photograph represents not only objects in the world but also captures the gaze that perceives them, at one moment in time. Focusing on a still photograph allows me to slip into abstract observation -- seeing a scene as colors, shapes and texture rather than discrete objects. Thus my approach to my subject is first of all formalistic. Since the aim is not to achieve an accurate imitation of the photograph but a scene falling apart into its atomic components, the process of making one painting takes several months and has the character of untying a knot or deciphering a riddle.

In my paintings of reflections on kitchen sinks, pots and utensils, I am fascinated by the materiali...

Born in Jerusalem in 1981, Naomi Mendel is a graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design (Jerusalem, 2006) and studied at Hugeschool voor de Kunsten (Utrecht, 2005). Naomi presented her solo exhibition at Tel Aviv's Heder Gallery of Contemporary Art and has participated in group exhibitions in Israel and abroad, including with the Feinberg Projects Gallery in Tel Aviv and the UDK Gallery in Berlin. She earned a scholarship from the Rabinovich Foundation and from the ministry of culture and participated in the Artist Career Development Program held by Artis, Artport & Asylum Arts. Her works are featured in collections worldwide, including the Igal Ahuvi and Dubi Schiff Collections in Israel and the Hershman Collection in San Francisco, California.
Naomi is represented by Keren Bar Gil.
Lives and works in Tel Aviv

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