In the summer of 2017, I participated in the postgraduate students final show of Hamidrasha Faculty of Arts, directed by Miri Segal and Avi Lubin.

At that time, my work dealt with the connections between the art world, politics and economy. I was practicing genealogy maps making, detailing figures in the Israeli Art world (not artists) and their financial, legal and kin relationships. This was a time full of anger and frustration. In the end, I fell in love with painting Shimon Peres, the late politician, who represented the controlling elite of the worlds I was investigating.

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Following the exhibition Boaz Arad, the curator of Hamidrasha Gallery, invited me to take part in a group exhibition (Muzarnidem, 2018) and later a solo exhibition of my works.

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A week after the opening of the exhibition, Boaz chose to take his own life. I was in shock, the exhibition was open for another month, but I couldn’t go there until the exhibition was taken down. After that I went through an unbearable period of Cluster Headaches.



Flags

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For a long period, I couldn’t paint. My work at the studio caused me real pain. The creation was fraught with anger, and the anger increased the pain. It was hard for me to be in that state. My body began to respond with a terrible nausea over each mistake. Any artistic choice involved indescribable suffering, I began avoiding going to the studio, waiting for the painful period to pass.

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A few months later, the artist Michael Kobner told me he is opening an art gallery and asked me to exhibit. I made a decision to try and paint again. I created a regular routine: come to the studio and paint a flag. The flag represents myself and my presence at the studio.

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At first, I drew flapping flags hanging by the “flag’s state of mind”: white flag, black flag, red flag… In time I drew a flag drawn on another flag. The surface and the divisions changed and images began to emerge in the flags - personal flags, at times even erotic, along with a political, combative and forceful presence.

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The works

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I was looking for a way to return to the basic pleasure of applying paint on canvas. As Ido Barel, who tutored me during my studies at Hamidrasha, described his work in the studio as: “simply applying paint.” I felt this was the best cure to the state I’ve been in.

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I use all the knowledge I have about classical figurative painting and use the old techniques to discover new, surprising places. I explore ways to deepen the painting process. I perform gestures of color applying, arranging, and covering. Of the many actions taken in the process, some are visible, some are hidden and some are unconsciously visible.

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I work at home, preparing for the studio time by drawing compositions. At the studio, canvases are spread on the floor with puddles of paint. They dry for a few days till hung on the walls and images appear.

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“A word or system declines and yields to another, not because it has lost the power to reveal, to enlighten, to invalidate the enigma either totally or in part, but for the very opposite reason- because the word or system has been worn out by being manipulated and used, is no longer able to conceal and hide adequately, and can, of course, no longer divert mankind momentarily. Man gazing for a moment through the open crack, finding to his terror that awesome void before him again, hurries to close the crack for a time- with a new word. He seizes the new talisman, like ite predecessor; a proven momentary diversion- and is saved from the terror.”

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(H.N Bialik, Revealment and Concealment in Language, 1915)

GADI KOZICH

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Born in Israel, 1971, living in kibbutz Ein Hahoresh.

2012 Establish the "Ein Hahoresh studio for painting studies" with painter Vered Nachmani.



Education

2015-2017 Postgraduate Program of Fine Art Hamidrasha Beit Berl

2007- 2009 Hatahana studio school Master Class under Aram Gershuni, David Nipo and Ran Tenenbaum.

1997-2000 Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem



Exhibitions

2020, "Clusterbuster", Maya Gallery, Tel Aviv, Curated by Michael Kovner

2018, "Muzarnidem", Group Exhibition, Hayarkon 19 Gallery, Tel Aviv, Curated by Boaz Arad

2017, Hamidrasha Beit Berl Postgraduate Program of Fine Art Final Exhibition, Hayarkon 19 Gallery, Tel Aviv, Curated by Tali Ben Nun

2016, "Art Camp", The Negev Museum of Art, Be'er Sheva, Curated by David Wakstein

2015, "Generation 3.0", Group Exhibition, Contemporary Art Center, Ramla

2012, "Kozich", Solo Exhibition, Hatahana Gallery, Tel Aviv

2012, "Tahanot Ruach", Group Exhibition, City Gallery, Kfar Saba

2012, Group Exhibition, Hatahana Gallery, Tel Aviv

2012, "Behind the Forest", Group Exhibition, Florentin45 Gallery, Tel Aviv

2010, Joint Exhibition with Amir Shefet, Kibbutz Givat Haim Ichud Gallery

2019, "kites", Group Exhibition, Zadik Gallery, Tel Aviv-Yafo