Guy Shoham

Born in Tel Aviv in 1971, Guy Shoham is an abstract artist whose paintings raise questions about authenticity and fakery, reality and reflection, construction and destruction. After completing a BA in Fine Art at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem, he moved to London, where he received an MFA with distinction from Chelsea College of Art in 2002. In 2003, Guy received a scholarship to attend the Drawing Year at the Royal Drawing School, London.

Guy Shoham’s Inspiration

Guy is known for his large-scale oil paintings inspired by memories of and events from his family timber yard, built by his grandfather in the 1930s in Tel-Aviv and destroyed by a fire following the patriarch's death. Planks, off-cuts and wood laminates, formal and symbolic representations of his childhood, have become the building blocks of his art practice. These elements are playfully put together to produce a rich and multilayered vocabulary of painting.

Practice

A certain grappling with the tension between remembrance and imagination manifests in Guy's paintings through a delicate exploration of abstraction and realism and kitsch and modernism. To that effect, he renews the traditional medium of oil paint by adding a glistening, gossamer sheen and elevates "the discarded" - painting from a library of collected, abandoned objects - to the desirable by emphasising illusory glamour and luxury.

Press and Projects

Guy continues to live and work in London and exhibits his work regularly in the UK and beyond. He has had solo shows in Geneva, Vienna, Tel-Aviv and London, and his work is held in private collections across the globe.