ABOUT
Biography
Michal Lazarovitz lives and works in Tel Aviv. She is a multidisciplinary artist and engages in painting, drawing, sound, video works and large scale installation. She studied art at the Midrasha School of Art, the Beit Berl Academic College, as well as painting at the studio master class of the artist Maya Cohen Levy in Tel Aviv.
Completed studying for a master's degree (in honors) in the Multidisciplinary Program of the Faculty of the Arts at Tel Aviv University.
She completed the Post-Graduate Fine Art Program Studies of the Beit Berl Faculty of Arts, HaMidrasha (2017-2019).
She also obtained a BA in Nursing from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an MA in Health Systems Management, Tel Aviv University.
Currently, Michal is focused on the combination of painting, drawing, video and instillation, all of which she creates in her studio. Recently, the artistic practice she has adopted is to take tragic subjects and turn them into spectacular images.
Artist statement
My artistic work includes painting, drawing, digital drawing, installation and video art.
In the past two years, the main axis of my works has been dance or movement, a type of primal, primeval movement. A movement that is both disturbing and organized, intended to generate an energetic shift that transcends the existing order. In some of the compositions, this movement includes tragic natural phenomena, which in my practice I turned into spectacular phenomena (such as the installation “Death Spiral”). In my paintings, the sense of movement is emphasized through the hands that paint and the use of liquid colors that “galvanize” the paint (water colors, ink, and enamel). In my videos (animation films), I use high-energy rhythmic movement to draw the audience into a captivating show that examines the potential of what the body can do when pushed, and what it can create through dance.
In my work, I explore the notion of equilibrium, playing with the idea of balance through a cycle of erratic physicality and intense moments of stillness. These works are inspired by the chaos and restored order that humans experience throughout their lifetime.
The final positioning in the studio space connects the various components: drawings, paintings, digital drawings, sound, and video. The video is sometimes ready-made, downloaded from the Internet and manipulated in various ways, and although it does tell a story, it also serves as a drawing (among other things it has lines and sometimes circular movements). There is a dialog between two consciousnesses: the video and the various drawings, a dialog that shifts back and forth, like a pendulum.
The various drawings have an abstract dimension and sometimes a figurative one. I project the video on various transparent, large surfaces made from Mylar (which is a semi-transparent material), or other surfaces that, among other things, disperse the projected video throughout the space. Transparency and permeability to light are very important characteristics for me in representing the materiality in my works, whether in paintings or in the effect of screening on this surface.
I penetrate the world of the senses through multi-layering, materiality, the sketching screens and sound.
Sometimes I draw on the Mylar surfaces and also paint images in various materials such as enamel, acrylic, ink, watercolors, marker pens and colored pencils, and sometimes I employ a practice of layering drawings one over the other, a multiplicity of screens. In the studio, the drawings—both manual and digital—and the various videos are in a constant process of becoming. I construct a world of lines and then aim to dismantle and fragment them. The positioning of the various physical and electronic screens in space balances the original planning with happenstance, joining them and creating layers.
Another practice is involvement with science and cooperation with scientists. For example, in the video “Death Spiral” I cooperated with computer scientists from Ben Gurion University, who helped apply an optical flow algorithm for following points of interest in the video. This helped create a visualization of following the tracks of a massive amount of ants and also sampling individual ants. The fascinating video, created one layer after another.
As a child, I discovered in a public library the book “Noriko-San, Girl of Japan”, which was accompanied by authentic photographs of Noriko and her daily life. The book went with me for years. As far as I was concerned, it was an unattainable world, as far away from Israel as possible: the clothing, eating with chopsticks, the wooden tub. Along with its foreignness and exotic nature, I felt that the story was very universal, that it speaks to myself, too. To this day I am attracted to old Japanese movies. One of the movies that influenced me was “Woman in the Dunes”, directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara. The drawings are influenced one way or another by the Japanese aesthetic.
Education:
2019-2021 M.A. (with honors), The Interdisciplinary Program in the Arts,
The Yolanda and David Katz Faculty of the Arts, Tel Aviv University.
2017-2019 Completed the Post-Graduate Fine Arts Program at HaMidrasha, the Faculty of the Arts of Beit Berl
2015-2017 Studio master class of the artist Maya Cohen Levy
2014-2015 Drawing and painting at the Avni Institute of Art and Design,
and participation in the sculpting workshops of the artist Sasha Serber at Beit Yanai
Before that – BA in Nursing from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an MA in Health Systems Management, Tel Aviv University.
Solo Exhibitions
2022 – “Gilgamesh and the women”, N.D Gallery of Contemporary Art, Ramat-Gan. Curator: Ronit Roth Haddad
Select Group Exhibitions
2022-2023 - "Reshamin 8", Israel drawing biennale, Chief curator: Irith Hadar and curator Meydad Eliyahu
2022 – Levinsky Art SaleOnline, Curator: Ravit Harari
2021 – " Emergent Behaviour", “Death Spiral”, On-line Exhibition, Tel Aviv-Yafo and Israel, Dafna Falk
2019 – " What the matter want", “Missup”, Givon Art Forum, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Nicola Trezzi
2019 – "4th OF JULY", Hamidrasha School of Art, Post Graduate Program Final Show, Hamidrasha Gallery, Hayarkon 19, Tel Aviv, Nicola Trezzi
2018 - “Life Owners”, Hamidrasha Faculty of Arts, Beit Berl
2017 – “From the Print Media,”“HadarAvoda,” Tel-Aviv
2017 – “Border”,Tmu-na Theater, Tel-Aviv
Publications and lectures:
2021 - Lecture at the "Interdisciplinary Art Conference" at Tel Aviv University, "Dance and Propaganda in Replay": At the installation by William Kentridge
CONTACT
CV
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