[Online Exclusive]
Acclaimed New York painter, Yigal Ozeri, presents us with his expertly-rendered paintings of the American diner and a selection of beautiful women. The first is a contemporary take on an archetypal and familiar scenario; the second, a celebration of a glamorous aesthetic set in an Arcadian landscape, which references classical and romantic examples.
Ozeri is a painter in the photorealist tradition, who makes images that record the subject ‘as seen,’ unfiltered by expressive or impressionistic handling. He is interested in a cooly-observed veracity, where the meticulous observation of optical detail makes for a picture of certain, concrete presence. The chosen subject is captured and presented for the viewers’ appraisal - selected, inspected and delivered as something essentially remarkable gleaned from the everyday, physical world.
For an artist steeped in the contemporary, Ozeri pays homage to art history. His diner paintings recall Edward Hopper’s elegiac scenes of urban autonomy. His models in sunny landscapes suggest the nymphs in sylvan settings of Pompeian frescoes, Botticelli’s elegant deities and Lord Leighton’s seductive heroines. Looking at these ostensibly ‘current’ pictures we experience a variety of historical allusions and correspondences, which sometimes are at odds with, and sometimes chime, with modern sensibilities.
The content and composition of these pictures and their attendant seamlessness of execution, fits them deftly into a familiar arena of film, advertising and editorial media. They are implicitly of a contemporary, commercial world. Nevertheless, the fact that they are physical paintings, corporeal and handmade, puts them into a different relationship: they stand in a position of critical contemplation, adjacent to, but separate from, their source. Ozeri’s facility in combining a skilful handling of the oil medium and his manipulation of contemporary iconography allows him to stand with a foot in both worlds, as an enthusiastic participant and also a watchful commentator.
