Sevil Dolmacı Art Gallery is pleased to present Reuven Israel's first solo exhibition in Turkey. More than twenty sculptures and drawings spanning the last ten years, as well as works created especially for the exhibition, will occupy the entire Villa Ipranosyan.

While Israel's works often appear to be machine-made, uniform sculptures, this is an illusion that the artist painstakingly creates. In an age where content is 3D printed and digitally created, Israel bases his work on slow, human effort and taste, with each sculpture made by hand, from the selection of wood and the creation of shapes to color and finishes. Each piece is so meticulously crafted that it looks like a mass production.

The title of the exhibition is inspired by Paul Simon's song "Slip Slidin' Away":

"Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip sliding away..."

Paul Simon's existential lyrics provide an apt metaphor for Israel's work: sculptures in flux are in a constant state of evolution and need never remain static objects. The artist's folding system for each work allows for variable shapes and configurations depending on the space in which it is shown. Israel has also been known to change the configuration of his works during the course of an exhibition, so that visitors have the chance to experience the works from different angles on their next visit to the gallery.

Five sculptures from the UFO (Untitled Folding Object) series (2019 - 2021) will be installed to wrap around the interior architecture of the villa. The artist is more interested in the transitions from two-dimensional to three-dimensional form than in the evocative nature of his works. However, some of the folding works, sometimes depicting a standing figure, an arch or a spiral, take indirect references from everyday life. Indeed, negative space becomes as important as the works and the space they occupy.

Slip Slidin', a new wall work by the artist, is a continuation of her previous kinetic works, such as FAF (Fast And Furious), 2013 and B.E.R. (Bigger Egypt Rumba), 2014, also included in this exhibition. In these sculptures, whether floor or wall-based, the artist invites the viewer to make their own configurations, at times revealing hidden colors and shapes.

In addition to the twisting and folding sculptures, other sculptural works are supported by walls or floors, thus utilizing almost every plane of the gallery architecture. Israel's drawings, including six new drawings on paper based on foldable kinetic works, are interspersed throughout the exhibition. In dialogue with the three-dimensional works, the drawings help us understand the artist's process by transferring different combinations of colors and shapes onto paper. The drawings are the works in which the viewers can most clearly see the artist's questioning of the second and third dimension.

Reuven Israel (b.1978, Jerusalem) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Israel received his BA and MA degrees from the prestigious Bezalel Academy of Art and Design and has recently had solo exhibitions at the Tel Aviv-Yafo Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and the Civico Floriano Bodini Museum in Germonio, Italy. His work has been presented at major international art fairs such as UNTITLED Miami, Expo Chicago, NADA NY, Art Brussels and Artissima. Reuven Israel is the recipient of several major art awards and his work is included in various public and private collections worldwide. He is represented by Braverman Gallery in Tel Aviv and Shulamit Nazarian in Los Angeles.

Curated by Dr. Kathy Battista, Slip Slidin' will take place at Sevil Dolmacı Art Gallery, Villa İpranosyan between May 11 - June 14. The exhibition tour, which will take place on Friday, May 13 at 11:00 with the artist and curator, will be free and open to the public.

Curated by Dr. Kathy Battista, Slip Slidin' will take place at Sevil Dolmacı Art Gallery, Villa İpranosyan between May 11 - June 14. The exhibition tour, which will take place on Friday, May 13 at 11:00 with the artist and curator, will be free and open to the public.