IIan Averbuch: Thoughts

May 1, 2014 - June 7, 2014

On May 1 Nancy Hoffman Gallery opens Ilan Averbuch’s exhibition, “Thoughts,” of drawings and sculptures related to large public works. The show, which continues through June 7, includes a selection of the artist’s drawings and sculptural maquettes, produced as studies for monumental public projects. The premise of public projects is to create large objects/sculptures; sometimes in the outdoor world, at others inside, always requiring a relationship to a particular environment, which calls for scale, durable existence and a bold presence.

The juxtaposition of three-dimensional maquettes with two-dimensional drawings provides a dual experience: intimacy while viewing small-scale models; expansiveness while viewing the drawings. The drawings bring the viewer into a full-fledged three- dimensional experience in two dimensions, and invite the viewer to muse on the concept of scale, in what the artist calls “wide open spaces.” It also reveals the context for the sculpture, the angle and perspective from which it will be viewed, the materials, the surrounding environment, the challenges of each site.

Averbuch’s “Thoughts” brings the viewer into the artist’s “studio,” revealing the stage before a monumental project commences when the artist is considering questions that influence his art making, incorporating the criteria for each site. This stage involves contemplation, study, making of mixed media drawings depicting the proposed sculpture at the site. Along with many drawings and articulated ideas on paper, Averbuch makes small-scale sculptures trying out materials, color and addressing the relationship to the ground on which the sculpture stands. For the first time, Averbuch opens the door to this private process, and for the first time he makes these works available to the public as objects unto themselves. The life of the object continues and transforms as viewed in the gallery and in one’s home. On the “site” itself in heroic scale, and in the gallery or home in intimate scale, the sculpture communicates a world of “thoughts.” He writes:

“Most of my visual ideas happen first internally in the imagined form, and then I let them out, and examine them from the outside as physical and visual entities in drawings and maquettes. I experience some of the most cherished moments when ‘the baby’ is still entirely mine and the hands and noise of engineers, fabricators, assistants and bureaucrats are not yet in the picture.”

After years of building large works in Washington, Utah, Kansas, Colorado, Florida, Arizona, Connecticut and in countries including Germany, Switzerland, Israel and India, what remains in Averbuch’s studio are the intimate manifestations of thoughts, attempts to imagine and understand what a large public work would look like “in situ,” and what it would convey.

The artist has created many commissions for the out-of-doors, among them: Camelback Transit Center, Valley Metro Rail, Phoenix, Arizona; University of Connecticut at Storrs; Fire Station #2, Tierra Verde, Florida; Ganapati, Inc., Calcutta, India; Gezer Park, Leawood, Kansas; HP Corporation, Yehud, Israel; Lavon Industrial Park, Lavon, Israel; Oregon State Data Center, Salem; Rose Garden Arena Complex, Portland, Oregon; Sound Transit, Seattle, Washington; City of Stapleton, Colorado; City of Tel Aviv, Israel; Tephford Park, Tamarac, Florida. Among current projects in development are: Downtown Remote Operations Facility, City of Raleigh, North Carolina; Harvard H. Ellis Technical High School, Danielson, Connecticut and Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel.

The artist received a B.F.A. from School of Visual Arts and an M.F.A. from Hunter College, both of New York. He also studied at Wimbledon School of Art, London. He received a grant from Pollock-Krasner Foundation and awards from Mid-Atlantic Art; D.A.A.D. (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst), Berlin; and Rhodes Family Award for Outstanding Achievement in Fine Art, School of Visual Arts, New York.

Ilan Averbuch’s work has been shown at the Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Art in the Park, New York; Bronfman Centre, Montreal; The Brooklyn Museum, New York; DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Garden, Lincoln, Massachusetts; Fort Tryon Park Project, New York; Het Apollohuis, The Netherlands; Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York; Hunter College, New York; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Jamaica Art Center, Queens, New York; The Jewish Museum, New York; Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York; Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; List Art Center, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island; Lodz, Poland Historical Museum, Lodz, Poland; Palo Alto Cultural Center, California; P.S. 1, Long Island City, Queens, New York; Robert Moses Plaza, Fordham University at Lincoln Center, New York; Socrates Sculpture Park, Astoria, Queens, New York; Tefen Museum Sculpture Garden, Israel; Tel Aviv Museum, Israel; Tel Hai Art Center, Israel; Tel Noff Sculpture Garden, Israel.

The artist’s work is represented in numerous public collections, among them: Bar-Ilan University, Israel; Brock University, St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada; Bronfman Centre, Montreal, Canada; Florida International University, Miami; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Nevada Museum of Art, Reno; Omer Industrial Park, Israel; Open Museum, Tefen, Israel; Prudential Insurance Company of America; Newark, New Jersey; Runnymede Sculpture Farm, Woodside, California; Tel Aviv Museum, Israel; Tel Hai Art Center, Israel.

Ilan Averbuch resides in New York City.

For further information and/or photographs please call 212-966-6676 or e-mail Nancy Hoffman Gallery at info@nancyhoffmangallery.com

Yours sincerely,

Nancy Hoffman