Winner of the 2017 Osnat Mozes Painting Prize for a Young Artist

This year’s winner of the Osnat Mozes Painting Prize for a Young Artist is Yonatan Zofy

The prize committee’s statement

The uniqueness and intricacy of Zofy’s drawings, despite their apparent simplicity,are manifestedin his ability to unite ostensibly contradictory aspects and perceptions of drawing into a coherent whole. His drawings—in pencil and graphite combined with other media such as Canola oil—are marked by a compressed, concentrated, and precise look. They are underlain by an enigmatic quality, and at the same time—bya touch of humor and wit. The affinity with artists who have focused on the physical-material aspect stands out in his work, and is evident in the intense and autonomous presence of the graphite and in the paper cuts.

Another conspicuous aspect of Zofy’s work is the inquisitive conceptual approach informing his perception and act of drawing, alongside the examination and expansion of the boundaries of the medium, yet without relinquishing the image (a cushion, a broken window) and the traditional representative function of drawing. All these are supplemented by a poetic-linguistic dimension, embodied in the titles of the drawings (Eztaztuv, Drawing the Paper to Sleep).

Zofy’sworks are mysterious. Time andagain theysucceed in concealing their mode of execution, a practice which turns them into riddles, inviting the viewer to examine them from up close.

For all the above, we have decided to confer the 2017 Osnat Mozes Painting Prize on Yonathan Zofy.

Prize Committee: Deganit Berest, Netally Schlosser and Yitzhak Livneh

Curatorial Guidance: Irith Hadar