Artist: Eliezer Sonnenschein
Exhibition title: Butterflies in the dark
Venue: Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Date: February 2 – March 11, 2023
Photography: Elad Sarig / all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Dvir Gallery
‘Butterflies in the Dark’ Eliezer Sonneschien’s first exhibition with the gallery and his first ever exhibition which is entirely comprised of paintings. Most of the works, oil on wood were painted between 2020-2022.
The paintings are landscapes, views of the North of Israel, Sonnenschein’s current home and refuge. The north is both beauty and trauma as the artists suffers from PTSD (being a Lebanon’s War veteran). Sonnenschien refers to landscape paintings as a kind of portrait, he says “in my understanding, a portrait is a lingering moment in which the painting looks back at me, into my heart”. This series of paintings deals with the artists gaze and reflection also through references to the myth of Narcissus, offering a different interpretation of it – Sonnenschein’s Narcissus, being born out of rape between Cephissus, the God of the River and Liriop, a nymphe, stares at the reflection of his terrible origins, eventually drowning in the trauma of his past.
Sonnenschein’s work has been exhibited, among others, at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel Museum, Haifa Museum of Art, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001, Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and Martin-Gropius-Bau.
Over the years, he has won the Tel Aviv Museum of Art Prize for an Israeli Artist (2001); the Young Artist Award by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Israel (2000); and the Sandberg Prize for Special Achievements (1994) at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design.
Eliezer Sonnenschein, Butterflies in the dark, 2023, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv
Eliezer Sonnenschein, Butterflies in the dark, 2023, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv
Eliezer Sonnenschein, Butterflies in the dark, 2023, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv
Eliezer Sonnenschein, Butterflies in the dark, 2023, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv
Eliezer Sonnenschein, Butterfly in the dark 6, 2020-2022, oil on wood, 80.6 x 57.9 x 6.5 cm
Eliezer Sonnenschein, Butterfly in the dark 8, 2020-2022, oil on wood, 80.7 x 58.3 x 6 cm
Eliezer Sonnenschein, Butterfly in the dark 5, 2020-2022, oil on wood, 81.3 x 60.4 x 5.1 cm
Eliezer Sonnenschein, Butterfly in the dark 7, 2020-2022, oil on wood, 79 x 58.2 x 6.2 cm
Eliezer Sonnenschein, Butterfly in the dark 9 (Cephissus), 2020-2022, oil on wood, 80.6 x 59 x 6.8 cm
Eliezer Sonnenschein, Butterfly in the dark 10, 2020-2022, oil on wood, 79 x 57.7 x 6.4 cm
Eliezer Sonnenschein, Butterfly in the dark 4, 2020-2022, oil on wood, 79 x 57.7 x 6.9 cm
Eliezer Sonnenschein, Butterfly in the dark 10, 2020-2022, oil on wood, 79 x 57.7 x 6.4 cm
Eliezer Sonnenschein, Butterflies in the dark, 2023, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv
Eliezer Sonnenschein, Butterflies in the dark, 2023, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv
Eliezer Sonnenschein, Untitled, 2016, oil on wood, 122 x 190.5 x 6 cm
Eliezer Sonnenschein, Butterfly in the dark 3 (Narcissus), 2020-2022, oil on wood, 120 x 183.4 x 6.6 cm
Eliezer Sonnenschein, Butterfly in the dark 2, 2020-2022, oil on wood, 181.8 x 120.4 x 6.1 cm