Jack Jano – Foundation Elements
Past Exhibition
12.02.2015 - 26.03.2015
Jack Jano is a local artist; an artist who plows, plants, reaps, and builds the meaning of the place. His is an endless exploration in fire, in water, in air and in earth.
In the exhibition, Jano’s works are spread across the gallery, forming installations and groupings that recount the story we all share through the eyes of a visual artist, who with his artistic language touches on the burning and burnt areas of the place in which we live.
Jano is an artist who lives on the mountain. In the life on top of the mountain, each action leads to a transformation in the local landscape, whether it is a new home, or a planted tree, a new sculpture standing on the mountain, or a figure in the window. Everything is in flux.
In this exhibition, Jano takes us on a journey to the elements comprising his work, like a moment of silence in his artistic language, which delves into the layers of the Hebrew culture:
The white city, smoke rising from the windows along its deserted streets – fire;
A house on top of which rests a rusted iron dome with splatters of sky-blue gouache paint, and which stands in the source of life – water;
The transparent city made of iron mesh surrounded by a wall of wire – air
The village built on the mountain and connected at its core to the ground – earth;
And the fifth element, a boat made of rusted iron that moves on opaque black liquid (burnt oil), and on its sail the word “ואהבת” (Thou Shalt Love) was seared with fire. This is the only piece in the show that contains writing, the topmost element in our existence here, if we see this place as the place in which we want to live as its dwellers, not as wayfarers.
The nomadic spirit is deeply engrained in his soul, and as a young artist Jano used to travel the world. After his graduation from Bezalel he created and exhibited art and couscous performances and installations in London. There he met Joseph Beuys, the performance artist, who was intrigued by Jano’s artworks. Beuys wanted to maintain the connection through letters exchange that will become a collaborative work; letters were indeed exchanged, but the connection with a German artist whose language was foreign to Jano faded. He continued to New York, where he collected wood waste which he transformed into colorful self portraits, exhibited at the OK Harris Gallery. The artist Dennis Oppenheim who saw and was impressed by Jano’s portraits showed them to his friend Andy Warhol, who was also impressed by the works of the Israeli artist who creates sculptures out of wood waste. Warhol offered Jano to create his portraits and the portraits of the people in his circle, an on offer which Jano refused.
His wanderlust did not stop, and Jano traveled further to India, to Osho’s ashram in Pune. When it was his time to meet Osho face to face, Osho sent Jano back to the land of Israel, telling him “go back to your country, the place from which you came and to which you will return is the land of all enlightenments”.
This exhibition at Engel Gallery Tel Aviv is displayed at the same time as the artist’s solo exhibition in Ramat Gan Museum.
