Orit Livne’s thicket, like the skyscapes she paints, resonates with foreign scents, but the darkness of the paint with which she covers the white canvas, is inspired by the thickness of the all so familiar Jerusalem forest. Livne’s paintings grow from double roots, both biographical and conceptual; from blackening for the sake of exposure. The work process in the studio begins with covering the canvas in black, blue, or sepia. Only then does the artist expose the initial whiteness of the canvas, layer by layer, as in an archaeological excavation. By erasing and absorbing the excess oil paint, she separates the broad dabs, setting heaven and earth apart; she polishes the rough skin of the canvas to reveal its bright light. On the one hand, the artist obscures some of the details that sink into the painting, and on the other, she extracts the bright sections that sprout from amidst the layers of paint. According to Victor Hugo, “form is the essence brought to the surface.” Throughout the painting’s layers, in the depth as well as on the surface, Livne’s fascination with the light is evident. Would it be far-fetched to say that it is the fascination with light, with a sliver of light, that drives her work?
At early sunrise as at sunset, from scenes of a walk in the Jerusalem Forest as from past memories of a childhood landscape, Livne’s paintings are impressions initially absorbed in the body, which are subsequently revealed on the white paper. “Only birds of passage know, perhaps — / As they hang between heaven and earth — / This pain of two homelands. // With you I have been planted twice, / With you I have grown, Pines, / And my roots are in two different landscapes.” Like the pine tree in Leah Goldberg’s poem, which is uprooted and replanted, Livne’s painting, too, is a hymn to the light revealed from the darkness; a mark left that cannot be erased.
Judith Anis
CV
1961 Born in Israel
Lives and works in Jerusalem
Education
1981-1985 B.F.A Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem
Solo exhibitions
1987 Meimad Gallery, Tel Aviv, Curator: Ygal Uzeri
1997 “Cave drawings”, Artspace Gallery, Jerusalem, curator: Linda Zisquit
2006 “Real Lies”, Venta Gallery, Jerusalem, curator: Yonatan Amir
2011 “Memory Spaces”, Artists’ House, Jerusalem, curator: Emily D. Bilski
2021 “FALL”, Maya Gallery, Tel Aviv, curator: Michael Kovner
Collective exhibitions
1986 “Three Artists”, Meimad Gallery, Tel Aviv
1987 Ramat Gan Museum of Israeli Art Opening’s exhibition
1988 “Israeli Art”, USA, curator: Marie Evangelista
1994 “Drawing Traces”, Gimel Gallery, Jerusalem
2001 “Traces – Contemporary drawing in Israel”, Artists’ House, Jerusalem, curator: Ilan Wizgan
2005 “Traces – Contemporary drawing in Israel”, Artists’ House, Jerusalem, curator: Dror Burstein
2005 “Obsession”, Agripas Gallery, Jerusalem
2006 “Between Man and Place”, Ssamzie Space, Seoul, Korea
2006 “Monochromatic”, International Poetry Festival, Jaffa
2008 “Manofim Festival”, New Gallery, Jerusalem
2008 “Four Drawing Artists”, Agripas Gallery, Jerusalem
2009 Hanina Gallery, Jaffa, curator: Jonathan Hirschfeld
2010 “Manofim Festival”, Musrara Gallery, Jerusalem
2010 “Dreaming Reality?”, Pyramida Center for Contemporary Art, Haifa, curator: Shirli Meshulam
2015 “What is Memory, 70 Years Later”, Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem
2017“Between Cover and Discover, Jerusalem House of Quality Art Center, curators: Gabi Yair and Bitya Rosenak
2017 “Sky and Earth”, Sarah Herman’s Gallery, Tel Aviv, curator: Anat Michaelis-Levi
2018 “In Shadow”, Koresh Gallery, Jerusalem, curator: Gabi Yair
2018 “On the road to Ithaca”, Artists’ House, Reut, curator: Gabi Yair
2019 “butterfly Structure”, Sarah Herman’s Gallery, Tel Aviv, curator: Anat Michaelis-Levi
2019 “Dress Symbol – Return to Antiea”, Agripas Gallery, Jerusalem, curators: Nomi Tannhauser and Rita Mendes-Flohr
2020 “Pesach’s Haggada”, in memory of Pesach Slabozky, Koresh Gallery, Jerusalem, curators: Nomi Tannhauser, Uri Holbein and Nomi Bruckmann
2021 “MAGIC”, Sarah Herman’s Gallery, Tel Aviv, curator: Anat Michaelis
2022 “Books of Chronicles”, ND Gallery, Ramat Gan, curator: Jennifer Bloch
2023 “Open Frequency”, Wilfried Museum, Kibbuz Hazorea, curator: Shir Meller-Yamaguchi