Rechov Hakov Shim Israel - Manhole Cover Monoprint Print

Born - New York 1960 My work is in both public and private collections and has been shown globally. It has received many grants including the Massachusetts Cultural Council and Puffin Foundation, as well as corporate sponsorship from American Express, Bank of America and Hewlett Packard. I have worked on and created large scale projects for public and private space, as well as, design work including products for the home. Products have been sold in museum stores such as Centre Pompidou in Paris, France. Currently products for the home can be purchased through Society 6. I have been a sponsored artist with New York Foundation for the Arts since 1995 with two projects "Silent March" and "The Y Project". It wasn't until my late twenties that I realized art would be my life's work. The pivotal act that cemented this decision was a series of five manhole cover prints titled, "Mandela: a man and his Freedom", from Basel, Switzerland. As a multi-disciplined, self-taught conceptual artist, my work is mostly social commentary or politically motivated, weather working in paint, installation/multimedia, or printmaking. My aesthetic is clean-lined, refined, organized and precise. Unlike the rest of the work, my paintings are more traditional studio works, done in a time of meditation or self-reflection. I use simple geometric shapes, painted in a cool, saturated palette. A white field is used as negative space to form the compositions, in which I reach for harmony and serenity. I find active engagement with the world through the placement of temporary art in public space or by creating on-site work. I often use familiar objects in installations in thought-provoking ways. Viewers are sometimes placed in an uncomfortable situation in order to question and re-examine their ideas or assumptions. My hope is to cultivate positive change over time through projects like Military Un-Intelligence, using landmines or guns of war in Holy Ghost or T-shirts in T-shirt Tirade or underwear in Underneath it ALL. New York Foundation for the Arts is my umbrella organization and I have created two projects with them: "Silent March for HIV Prevention" and "The Y Project." Silent March uses shoes belonging to people with HIV and AIDS, promoting non-discriminating AIDS awareness. I state, AIDS makes no choices, You Do. This project came at a time when I felt people needed to understand the devastating affect of AIDS through an identifiable medium.