Co-founder of the first location, Mana Contemporary Jersey City, Israeli artist, Yigal Ozeri, recently opened (along with Micha Lang) a 400,000 square foot arts center in a landmark building in Pilsen. The center is home to a diverse assortment of art disciplines such as dance, photography, performance work and sculpture, among others. Specifically, Yigal Ozeri’s “Photorealism in the Digital Age” was an exhibit this previous winter which explored femininity with large-scale cinematic portraits of sparsely clothed young women in the expansive outdoors. Ozeri’s process is long and complex: shooting the photographs comes first followed by digitally working the photographs in Photoshop. Then, the photographs get printed as a guide that Ozeri follows to paint the large scale oil canvas pieces. The outcome is amazingly natural and quite startling. Lucky for us, the “Photorealism” series is one which Ozeri plans to continue. And judging from the looks of the packed calendar for fall, Mana Contemporary Chicago isn’t going anyway anytime soon!
Photo courtesy of: Amusing Planet
Photo courtesy of: Amusing Planet