Internationally celebrated, Israel-born artist Izhar Patkin has lived in the United States since 1977, first coming to prominence in the mid-1980s with his iconic Black Paintings, an inventive visual adaptation of Jean Genet's play The Blacks: A Clown Show. As a painter and sculptor, Patkin works in a narrative form, often drawing upon historical and cultural material to make complex visual metaphors. He imaginatively uses materials to achieve novel effects. For an exhibition in 1994 at Holly Solomon Gallery in New York City Patkin included six paintings depicting man’s expulsion from the primal garden. In his works on paper exploring the history of the Mendelssohn family, a Jewish family in Berlin around 1769 well-known for their cultural and artistic contributions, Patkin developed a trademark technique of stenciling, cutting, weaving, folding, and bending the paper.
Patkin's major mid-career museum survey "The Wandering Veil," was shown at MASS MoCA in North Adams, the Tel Aviv Museum, and The Open Museum in Tefen, Ireland. His work has been included in exhibitions at Centre Pompidou, The Stedelijk Museum, MoMA PS1, Kustverein Stuttgart, among others. His work was also featured in the 1990 Venice Biennale and the 1987 Whitney Biennial.
Courtesy of the Jewish Museum
1955
Born: Haifa, Israel
The artist currently lives and works in New York, NY
Exhibitions
2013
MASS MoCA Retrospective, North Adams, MA (solo)
2012
The Dead Are Here, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, CA (solo)
2011
Paul Clay, Salon 94 Bowery, New York, NY
2010
Material/Immaterial, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2010
The Veil Suite,CCJ, Sao Paulo Biennale, Sao Paulo, Brazil (catalogue) (solo)
2010
Violins, CCJ, Sao Paulo, Biennale, Sao Paulo, Brazil (solo)
2009
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2007
BoysCraft, Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, Israel
2007
The Messiahs glass, Chapelle de la Vielle Charite, Marseille, France (solo)
2003
Host Culture,Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel (catalogue) (solo)
2003
Judenporzellan, Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel (solo)
1998
Judenporzellan, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1998
Refusalon, San Francisco, CA (catalogue) (solo)
1998
Mistresses and Wives, Husbands and Other Lives, Salone di Mobile, Milan, Italy(catalogue) (solo)
1998
Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1998
Funny Face , Jonathan O'Hara Gallery, New York, NY
1994
Where Each is Both, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1994
The Exile, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1993
Icons Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, NY(catalogue) (solo)
1992
Chinese Whispers, Blancpain Stepczynski Galerie dArt Contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland (solo)
1992
Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL
1991
Castello di Rivara, Turin, Italy
1991
AnniNovanta, Galleria comunale d’arte moderna, Bologna, Italy
1991
Museo Comunale, Rimini, Italy
1991
Kunstverein Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
1991
Presidential Portraits, Kalisher Five, Tel Aviv, Israel (solo)
1990
Homeless Buddha, collaboration with Nam June Paik, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1990
Blancpain Stepczynski Galerie d Art Contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland (solo)
1990
Palagonia, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1990
Four Piece Suit, The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (catalogue) (solo)
1990
Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
1990
U.S.S.O., Tokyo, Japan
1990
The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI
1990
Hunter College Art Gallery, New York, NY
1989
Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan
1989
Grotesques, M Galleria d arte, Florence, Italy (solo)
1989
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida (solo)
1989
Mulenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania (solo)
1989
Don Quijote Segunda Parte,Romeo Gigli, Milan, Italy(catalogue) (solo)
1988
The Black Paintings, Winnipeg Art Museum, Winnipeg, Canada (solo)
1988
The Perfect Existence in the Rose Garden Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA(catalogue) (solo)
1987
Presidential Wax, Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (solo)
1987
5 Piece Suit, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1987
Funnels and Trumpets, Portrait of the Self as a Breather, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1987
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
1986
Exit Art, New York, NY
1986
New York Studio School, New York, NY
1986
Port of History Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1986
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1986
The Glassell, Museum of Fine Art, Houston, TX (solo)
1986
5 Piece Suit, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1986
The Black Paintings, Limbo Gallery, New York, NY(catalogue) (solo)
1985
Before the Law Stands A Doorkeeper, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1984
Reverse Paintings, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1984
The Fun Gallery, New York, NY
1984
P.S. 1, Long Island City, New York, NY
1984
Indianapolis Museum of Art Indianapolis, IN
1983
Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland
1983
Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn, Germany
1983
Kunstverein Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
1983
The Meta Bride, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1982
Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA
1981
Collage, The Kitchen, New York, NY (solo)
Public Collections
Museum der Modernen Kunst, Vienna, Austria
Manufacture nationale de Sevres, Sevres France
Centre des Monuments Nationaux, France
C.I.R.V.A, Marseille, France
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI
Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL
Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel
The Open Museum, Israel