‘Subcity #7' forms part of a series dealing with the complex relation between foreground and background when applied to the urban landscape, which the artist represents with a visual trick. Avigail creates a photorealistic architectural background that becomes an abstracted foreground. The viewer’s gaze will quickly recognize the realistic background image but the strong and colourful abstract interference disturbs his/her understanding of it. This pictorial strategy makes us wonder whi…

‘Subcity #7' forms part of a series dealing with the complex relation between foreground and background when applied to the urban landscape, which the artist represents with a visual trick. Avigail creates a photorealistic architectural background that becomes an abstracted foreground. The viewer’s gaze will quickly recognize the realistic background image but the strong and colourful abstract interference disturbs his/her understanding of it. This pictorial strategy makes us wonder which one is the subject of the painting. Thus, the traditional hierarchy of object and background is confused. The acrylic paint, suggestive geometrical forms and masterly selected colours create a composition that is both aesthetically pleasing and conceptually challenging, as is typical of the Israeli artist.

Avigail Talmor is a painter living and working in Tel-Aviv. Her work is deeply concerned with the relationship between the institutionalized and the private space. The tension between safe and threatening environments is key in her paintings, which usually depict isolated architectural structures a…

Avigail Talmor is a painter living and working in Tel-Aviv. Her work is deeply concerned with the relationship between the institutionalized and the private space. The tension between safe and threatening environments is key in her paintings, which usually depict isolated architectural structures and urban landscapes than conjure a desolate and special sense of beauty.

The use of colour is essential in Avigail's paintings. The contrast between dark and light tones highlights even more the ambivalent qualities of those deserted spaces. Furthermore, she uses acrylic paint as main material, which has an artificial and flat texture and dries faster than oil paint, which informs a very particular rhythm to her painting process.

Influenced by photorealism and contemporary painters such as Franz Ackeman or Dexter Dalwood, Avigail's work has a unique presence that makes us think of Ed Ruscha's iconic gas stations series: sublime, isolated and with a flat surface. Avigail applies a similar treatment to the vernacular of Israel, which inevitably adds a political aspect to her works, even if that is not her primary intention.

Avigal graduated from her BA at the Wizo-Canada Academy of Design (Haifa) in 1997 and from the MFA at the Utrecht School of the Arts (Netherlands) in 2000. Also known as Abigail Talmor.