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Yael Wertheim Soen and Lee Nevo at Semel

Artists: Yael Wertheim Soen and Lee Nevo

Exhibition title: Fear Lining

Curated by: Naama Arad

Venue: Semel, Ramat Gan, Israel

Date: December 29, 2022 – February 10, 2023

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Semel, Ramat Gan

The exhibition brings together a series of paintings by Yael Wertheim Soen and objects by Lee Nevo. The work in this show is not bound to a subject, but rather it underlines overlapping territories and mutual motions. A violent action cuts reality into segments, revealing a disturbed and unstable human experience. The artwork is born out of a desperate attempt to feel a sense of control, even if it’s only an illusion.

The works installed in the space appear wide open, disclosing an inner world, brimming with information and meaning. These works of art are the result of a psycho-physiological process, driven by the inability to contain. As the body overflows, internal organs spill out all over the place. As a result, an analytic action passes all the various ingredients through the grinder of language and gives things a name. Finally, Synthesis comes into being and all the particles reassemble into a new surface. Like a pair of socks rolled and tucked into itself, this new skin is redraped on the body while eliminating all distinctions between inside and out. The protagonists of “Fear Lining” awaken from a realistic dream into a life of constant nightmare. Reality is a drawing made by the mind. Fears take shape inside the imagination. These are dynamics of control and power struggles that eventually lead to the crossing of all boundaries. A desperate attempt to figure out man’s animalistic nature sketches a circle of vulnerability and instability. There, the artwork is uncovered as a space of fantastic pain which holds beauty and sensuality within it. In this presentation art does not offer any hope for redemption or salvation. These are only birthings of objects with the same genetic defect. Artworks beyond the line of sanity.

-Naama Arad

Yael Wertheim Soen and Lee Nevo, Fear Lining, 2023, exhibition view, Semel, Ramat Gan

Yael Wertheim Soen and Lee Nevo, Fear Lining, 2023, exhibition view, Semel, Ramat Gan

Yael Wertheim Soen, Sleeping Children, 2020, Acrylic on paper, 110 x 160 cm

Lee Nevo, North by East West, 2021, Found objects from the artist’s archive, Xerox and inkjet printed on paper, wood, 120 x 120 x 80 cm

Lee Nevo, North by East West, 2021, Found objects from the artist’s archive, Xerox and inkjet printed on paper, wood, 120 x 120 x 80 cm

Yael Wertheim Soen, First Feast, 2020, Acrylic on canvas, 145 X 131 cm

Yael Wertheim Soen and Lee Nevo, Fear Lining, 2023, exhibition view, Semel, Ramat Gan

Yael Wertheim Soen, Scales, 2022, Oil on paper, 70 x 45 cm

Lee Nevo, The Unofficial Office for Removal of Rebellious Moral Issues, 2014, Adjustable monitor arm, magnifying sheets, metal parts, rubber bands, wood, variable dimensions

Yael Wertheim Soen, A tub, 2022, Oil on canvas, 113 x 84 cm

Yael Wertheim Soen and Lee Nevo, Fear Lining, 2023, exhibition view, Semel, Ramat Gan

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