RAPHAEL PEREZ
Raphael Perez - Born in Jerusalem in 1965, twenty-three years old, lives and works in Tel Aviv, studied art at the College of Visual Arts in Be’er Sheva. His work was shown at Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and he had some solo exhibitions, like in Janco Dada, at A’s Artists House in Tel Aviv, and in many other Art spaces.
In 2010 he was chosen to produce the Israeli campaign of the Ministry of Tourism, and works naivete appeared in the city of London and the United States, where his work was shown on huge billboards, buses, trains, et cetera. He had 30.000 wallets with his paintings printed on them distributed freely in the metro of London. In addition, his naive paintings appeared on 50 Aitoniim England.
The aim was to promote tourism to Israel and the presentation of the state in a positive, upbeat, happy, liberal way. Peretz paints naïve paintings with bright lights of the pamphlet, which, in relation to the European winter, have been hugely successful in promoting tourism to Israel. Perez began to draw the naive style in 1997 under the influence of his work with young children. Over the years, his work in the field, drawing and painting in notebooks and diaries images of childhood. This experience strengthened his love of color and the expressive simplicity of children. Perez is working in the tradition of naive painting. He paints mainly in the urban landscape of the cities of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Safed, and international cities like London, New York, Nice, and Paris.
Practice description of the familiar urban landscape, iconic and well-known Israeli cities
- Tel Aviv, but mostly there are also paintings of Jerusalem, Haifa, Safed, London, New York...
- Description of the idealization of reality - and a desire to beautify the reality.
- Save Frsfktibh- mostly non-breakdown, even remote details.
- The use of repeating patterns Multiple details.
- Warm colors and goats.
- Focus on the outlines and contours.
-Characters flat, lacking volume, repeat themselves - No matter texture, expression, correct proportions, and anatomy.
THE PANORAMIC TEL AVIV OF RAFI PEREZ’S PAINTINGS
Rafi Perez, an artist, living in Tel Aviv, paints urban landscapes of the central places of his hometown. Peretz strolls the city, scrutinizes the commercial and entertainment centers, the architectural, geographic, and historic landmarks, depicting his unique personal point of view. These places are adorned in a festive manner, which renders a sense of belonging, intimate encounters, and a good time. The routine day-life of couples is a way of expressing his private aspiration for family life. His scenes are often the usual activity in public places like a promenade in the park, walking on the seashore, or sailing on the Yarkon River. Tel Aviv of Perez is a town in which young couples and families fill the streets, the gardens, the seashore, the houses, the verandas, namely every corner of the town. The figures in his paintings are almost uniform, having the same homogeneous shape, which intensifies the feeling of a big-town herd.
The motive of the group unit that Peretz’s paintings deal with has been used by a former artist - Yochanan Simon, who painted mostly the Kibbutz life. Simon that lived and worked in the Kibbutz used to express the communal life and the human pattern of the kibbutzniks, where there are all equal. Thus, like Simon, Peretz has contributed to the Israeli society the most important value that it is seeking – the sense of identity and belonging.
As the citizen of Tel Aviv, Perez maps his territory and marks its borders, reminding him of its historical heritage. However, unlike other local artists, Perez seeks to express the existence of its citizens and their deep love for their city. Peretz chose to paint the historical landmarks of Tel Aviv also as a tribute to the well-known artist – Nahum Gutman - who lived, painted, and loved this city all his life. Gutman, as a native, was the first to experience the most constitutive events of the city ( such as the first oil lamp of the streets, the first music concert, the first pavement), and in his works, he restored these unique moments and events, preserving their magic.
Perez, like Gutman, marked the city as the object of his love, and the city, in return, decorates itself so colorful and energetic as one that is asking to become a city that never stops renovating, merging the old with the new – the Bauhaus style with the high-tech glassand-steel buildings. These sights are expressed in Peretz’s works from a non-conventional angle, in rectangular formats, imitating a panoramic view of a city celebrating a century.