Sigalit Landau at Dvir Gallery

Artist: Sigalit Landau

Exhibition title: Haletant et éclatant

Venue: Dvir Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

Date: March 3 – April 16, 2022

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Dvir Gallery

Dvir Gallery is delighted to announce the first solo exhibition by Sigalit Landau “Haletant et éclatant” [Gasping and Glistening] in Brussels starting on the 3^rd of March 2022.

“Haletant et éclatant” is a dialogue between the many aspects of Landau’s multidisciplinary practice where her experimental, vibrant gestures in her works on paper and plaster sculptures meet the precise but organic craftsmanship the artist developed in her series ‘Salt works’.

From 2004 the artist begins her series Salt Years. In the desert landscape of the Dead Sea, she plunges various inanimate objects in the waters whose salinity crystallise them. She explores this process with an array of objects such as Shoes (Adam, 2018; Unborn, 2016), coats, dresses but also nooses, crutches and musical instruments (Flute 3, 2020; Wave, 2020). Hints at the absence of a person to whom they belong while becoming living beings. Transformed by the salt which changes their color to a glimmering white and thickens their surfaces with layers of salt, the objects lose all relation to their original purpose and become symbols of this loss. On the backdrop of the Dead Sea where Israel, Palestine and Jordan share a border, these objects are acting as an ‘archeology of the now’, transmuted into analogies of hope, love, and a future coexistence between the three bordering countries.

Sigalit Landau’s interest in the body is also present in the Neon heaters, which are part of the series she created using small heaters that were used throughout the 20th century in Israel. The heaters, when connected to electricity create a yearning for warmth as well as casting reddish auras in the surrounding area. Landau introduces a textual aspect to her work by replacing the heating elements with hand crafted neon words bringing notions of intimacy and domesticity, such as “home-sick” in bright pink, red, orange and blue.

Drawing has always been a part of the artist’s language and constitutes a pillar of her practice. Landau implements and experiments with a variety of techniques, from Indian ink (Blood Moon, 2015; Dimdumim, 2015), to markers and acrylic paint (Pot Girl, 2018), from charcoal and watercolors (A Split Night III, 2020) to dyes on canvas (Midnight Sun, 2015).

Balancing the monochromatic aspect of Landau’s sculptural work after the consistently white Salt Years, she began to develop in 2020 her series Masks. These oval sculptures, such as Untitled 7 and Untitled 14, of identical shape and size allow Landau to further develop her practice by exploring new materials, specifically plaster of Paris and burlap, on which she applies pigments. A technique requiring rapidity whilst putting emphasis on the intensity of gesture with a performative aspect.

Sigalit Landau (b. 1969, Jerusalem) is an interdisciplinary artist who works with installation, video, photography, and sculpture. Landau graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem in 1994. After several years in Europe and in the United-States, she returned to Tel Aviv where she currently lives and works. She has had many solo exhibitions in major institutions around the world such as the MoMA, Museum of Modern Art, New York City, The Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Koffler Centre of Fine Arts, Toronto, Maison Hermes in Ginza, Tokyo, Kunsthalle Budapest, MACBA, Barcelona and the Documenta X, Kassel. She represented Israel in the Venice Biennial in 1997 and 2011. Her works are part of major collections such as MoMA, Museum of Modern Art, New York City, Center George Pompidou, Julia Stoschek Collection, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, The Jewish Museum New York City, The Brooklyn Museum, Magazine 3 Stockholm, MACBA, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona.

Sigalit Landau, Haletant et éclatant, 2022, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Brussels

Sigalit Landau, Crutches, 2020, stilts coated in salt crystals, 20 x 133 x 10 cm

Sigalit Landau, Haletant et éclatant, 2022, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Brussels

Sigalit Landau, Copper Birthday Girl, 2018, copper wreath coated in salt crystals, 7 x 29 x 30 cm

Sigalit Landau, Haletant et éclatant, 2022, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Brussels

Sigalit Landau, Full Moon, 2015, canvas, dye, 190 x 190 x 5 cm

Sigalit Landau, Haletant et éclatant, 2022, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Brussels

Sigalit Landau, Kid’s Shoe, 2016, shoe coated in salt crystals, 10 x 18 x 11 cm

Sigalit Landau, Haletant et éclatant, 2022, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Brussels

Sigalit Landau, Untitled (7), 2019, plaster of Paris, pigment and burlap, 103 x 75 cm

Sigalit Landau, Untitled (14), 2019, plaster of Paris, pigment and burlap, 103 x 75 cm

Sigalit Landau, Haletant et éclatant, 2022, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Brussels

Sigalit Landau, A Split Night III, 2020, charcoal and watercolors on paper, 73 x 110 cm

Sigalit Landau, Haletant et éclatant, 2022, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Brussels

Sigalit Landau, Dimdumim, 2015, Indian ink on cotton paper, 60 x 45 cm

Sigalit Landau, Neon Heater X6, 2012, heater, neon, 28 x 20 x 95 cm

Sigalit Landau, Haletant et éclatant, 2022, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Brussels

Sigalit Landau, Annabelle, 2021, Shoes coated in salt crystals, 37 x 13 x 13 cm

Sigalit Landau, Diba, 2016, fishing net coated in salt crystals, 68 x 63 x 28 cm

Sigalit Landau, Haletant et éclatant, 2022, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Brussels

Sigalit Landau, Wave, 2020, violin coated in salt crystals, 63 x 25 x 9 cm, vitrine : 4 x 14 x 74 cm

Sigalit Landau, Haletant et éclatant, 2022, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Brussels

Sigalit Landau, Bride Without Flowers, 2018, veil coated in salt crystals, 68 x 40 x 35 cm

Sigalit Landau, Haletant et éclatant, 2022, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Brussels

Sigalit Landau, Lonesome with Child, 2018, painted monotype on paper, 76 x 57 cm

Sigalit Landau, Jean, 2018, shoes coated in salt crystals, 26 x 17 x 12 cm

Sigalit Landau, Haletant et éclatant, 2022, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Brussels

Sigalit Landau, Jean, 2018, shoes coated in salt crystals, 26 x 17 x 12 cm

Sigalit Landau, Flute 3, 2020, wooden flute coated in salt crystals, 3 x 42 cm

Sigalit Landau, Haletant et éclatant, 2022, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Brussels