Omer Halperin / Aura 2
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Sommer Contemporary Art is pleased to share the solo exhibition of Omer Halperin – Aura 2, at Sommer Salon Zurich, as part of Zurich Art Weekend. The exhibition features a series of charcoal paintings on paper of vague figures and unknown spaces, calling us to explore the idea of the gaze. The opening reception will take place on Friday, June 11, between 11:00-19:00 at the rooftop apartment at Theaterstrasse 18, 8001 Zurich.

The artist considers her works as paintings, despite the use of drawing methods and charcoal. Her paintings are influenced by the long tradition of classical European painting, and yet they remain intuitive. Much like the sculptor who reveals an image from the marble, Halperin discovers the image from the paper. The artist’s gaze is directed to the paper at all times, and with each layer of charcoal, she seeks to reveal more about the figure or the place hidden inside the paper. The images, that seem to be lost under the charcoal, are now embodied in the figure rising from the ruins. The images become part of the figure as her secrets, her memories, and her incarnations.

The artist never works with a model, an image or a preconception, but uses her inner world – looking inside and out again towards the paper over and over. This gaze becomes a core interest of Halperin, and it continues to resonate through the figures in her paintings. Each figure has its own “eye-print” – a unique pair of eyes that captures the viewers’ gaze, mesmerizes, and calls to direct their gaze towards the others around them, or back inside into themselves.

Her works are often sensed as ambiguous, mysterious, and secretive. The figures’ gender identity remains in question, as does the origin of the spaces, landscapes and objects in the paintings. The spaces, which appear in the works – rooms, corners, walls -, are all interiors, belonging to no one and everyone. They are one of a kind, we know nothing of them and yet they feel familiar to us. Halperin paints on every inch of the paper, thus almost merging it into the room, letting the painting to spread out of its frame.

Omar Halperin (1984), born in Israel, lives and works in Tel Aviv. Halperin has presented solo exhibitions at LVX, Berlin (2020), The Ventilator, Jaffa (2018), The Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Tel Aviv (2017) and Hanut Gallery, Tel Aviv (2016). She has also exhibited in group exhibitions at the CCA (2021), Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv (2020), the Bat Yam Museum of Art (2018), the Miriam Nisenholtz Gallery, Tel Aviv (2018), the Center for Contemporary Art in Arad (2017) and the Gabirol Gallery, Tel Aviv (2017). Tel Aviv Museum Of Art had recently acquired her work to its collection, as part of the 2021 Rappaport prize.