YIZHAK ELYASHIV & RUTH SHOUVAL| Drift
April 22 - May 28, 2016
April 22 - May 28, 2016
Barbara Davis Gallery is pleased to announce Drift, a two-person exhibition featuring Yizhak Elyashiv and Ruth Shouval. A preview will take place Thursday, April 21, from 6:00 – 8:00pm. The exhibition will open Friday, April 22, with an artist’s reception from 6:00-8:00pm. This exhibition is on view through May 28, 2016.
Yizhak Elyashiv’s latest body of work explores the elusive state of the landscape, drawing inspiration from the abstract structures that shape an observed space. These spaces are formed by the abundance of water embedded in the fields and the lack of water present in the desert. His artistic interactions with the landscape are like those taken by a farmer or a settler, they are homage to and a metaphor for the state of survival. In this body of work, the act of drawing from observation is combined with the conceptual processes of gesture, measurement, and mapping. Some of the prints and drawings include activities and movements that are imported onto the landscape: text, counting systems, tracking time, stitching, piercing, embossing and other actions. By transferring these activities onto the observed field, Elyashiv becomes a participant in the shaping and molding of a place.
Ruth Shouval utilizes the symbol of the circle to illustrate the patterns of life, in a way that is at once contemplative and profound. The circle, which universally symbolizes the notion of totality, wholeness and the infinite, is used in Shouval’s work as a vessel to communicate the beauty that emerges when one is able to ‘let go’. As she creates the print of the circle, the paper is slightly manipulated and crumpled, allowing for the work to transform and evolve into a concept random and beyond her control. In her practice, Shouval deliberately seeks ways to let the process occur organically, while simultaneously avoiding complete spontaneity. This intricate balance between restraint and release is unveiled through her recurring subject matter, as the circles appear to gradually drift and disperse throughout the exhibition.
About the Artists:
Yizhak Elyashiv received a BFA from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in 1990 and MFA from RISD in 1992. He began teaching art at Rhode Island College in 1995 and has been a member of RISD’s faculty since 2001. Elyashiv’s prints and drawings have been exhibited and collected by the Israel Museum, British Museum, Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Yale University Art Gallery, RISD Museum, Brooklyn Museum of Art and Cleveland Museum of Art, among others. He has earned numerous grants and fellowships, including a MacColl Johnson Fellowship from the Rhode Island Foundation in 2007, a Howard Foundation fellowship for visual arts (Brown University) in 2007 and a drawing and printmaking fellowship from the RI State Council on the Arts in 2011. His prints have been published by the Tamarind Institute, Island Press, Washington University at St. Louis and Wildwood Press.
Click here to view more examples of work by Yizhak Elyashiv.
Ruth Shouval lives and works in Houston, Texas. She studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts in Jerusalem, and received her MAE from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1996. She became a member of the CE RISD faculty in 1996 and remained there until 2015. She also attended the Glassell School of Art in Houston from 2004 to 2007. In 2012, she was selected to participate in PrintHouston Next, a national biennial of contemporary print juried by Dena Woodall, curator of prints and drawings at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH). Shouval's exhibitions include the Galveston Art Center, the Museum of Printing History (Houston, TX), Washington Printmakers Gallery (Washington, DC), Sol Koffler Gallery (Providence, RI), Sarah Doyle Gallery (Providence, RI), Barbara Davis Gallery (Houston, TX), amongst others. Her public art installations include the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence and the Kolter Elementary School in Houston. She was recently awarded first place at PrintTX 2015, a juried biennial exhibition in Houston.
Click here to view more examples of work by Ruth Shouval.
Drift opens Friday, April 22, with an artist's reception from 6:00 - 8:00pm. Artist will be in attendance. This exhibition is on view April 22 through May 28, 2016. For more information, please contact Barbara Davis Gallery at 713.520.9200 or info@barbaradavisgallery.com
Yizhak Elyashiv’s latest body of work explores the elusive state of the landscape, drawing inspiration from the abstract structures that shape an observed space. These spaces are formed by the abundance of water embedded in the fields and the lack of water present in the desert. His artistic interactions with the landscape are like those taken by a farmer or a settler, they are homage to and a metaphor for the state of survival. In this body of work, the act of drawing from observation is combined with the conceptual processes of gesture, measurement, and mapping. Some of the prints and drawings include activities and movements that are imported onto the landscape: text, counting systems, tracking time, stitching, piercing, embossing and other actions. By transferring these activities onto the observed field, Elyashiv becomes a participant in the shaping and molding of a place.
Ruth Shouval utilizes the symbol of the circle to illustrate the patterns of life, in a way that is at once contemplative and profound. The circle, which universally symbolizes the notion of totality, wholeness and the infinite, is used in Shouval’s work as a vessel to communicate the beauty that emerges when one is able to ‘let go’. As she creates the print of the circle, the paper is slightly manipulated and crumpled, allowing for the work to transform and evolve into a concept random and beyond her control. In her practice, Shouval deliberately seeks ways to let the process occur organically, while simultaneously avoiding complete spontaneity. This intricate balance between restraint and release is unveiled through her recurring subject matter, as the circles appear to gradually drift and disperse throughout the exhibition.
About the Artists:
Yizhak Elyashiv received a BFA from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in 1990 and MFA from RISD in 1992. He began teaching art at Rhode Island College in 1995 and has been a member of RISD’s faculty since 2001. Elyashiv’s prints and drawings have been exhibited and collected by the Israel Museum, British Museum, Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Yale University Art Gallery, RISD Museum, Brooklyn Museum of Art and Cleveland Museum of Art, among others. He has earned numerous grants and fellowships, including a MacColl Johnson Fellowship from the Rhode Island Foundation in 2007, a Howard Foundation fellowship for visual arts (Brown University) in 2007 and a drawing and printmaking fellowship from the RI State Council on the Arts in 2011. His prints have been published by the Tamarind Institute, Island Press, Washington University at St. Louis and Wildwood Press.
Click here to view more examples of work by Yizhak Elyashiv.
Ruth Shouval lives and works in Houston, Texas. She studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts in Jerusalem, and received her MAE from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1996. She became a member of the CE RISD faculty in 1996 and remained there until 2015. She also attended the Glassell School of Art in Houston from 2004 to 2007. In 2012, she was selected to participate in PrintHouston Next, a national biennial of contemporary print juried by Dena Woodall, curator of prints and drawings at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH). Shouval's exhibitions include the Galveston Art Center, the Museum of Printing History (Houston, TX), Washington Printmakers Gallery (Washington, DC), Sol Koffler Gallery (Providence, RI), Sarah Doyle Gallery (Providence, RI), Barbara Davis Gallery (Houston, TX), amongst others. Her public art installations include the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence and the Kolter Elementary School in Houston. She was recently awarded first place at PrintTX 2015, a juried biennial exhibition in Houston.
Click here to view more examples of work by Ruth Shouval.
Drift opens Friday, April 22, with an artist's reception from 6:00 - 8:00pm. Artist will be in attendance. This exhibition is on view April 22 through May 28, 2016. For more information, please contact Barbara Davis Gallery at 713.520.9200 or info@barbaradavisgallery.com

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