Leonid Balaklav – Hidden Light
Past Exhibition
09.07.2015 - 25.08.2015
Israeli art is created almost exclusively by secular artists. Art done by religious artists is perceived as religious propaganda or Judaic art for tourists.
There is no doubt that the story of the artist Leonid Balaklav is unusual in the Israeli art world, a Jewish Orthodox Israeli-artist, who found his faith again after his immigration from the former USSR, which excels in the local and international art world. Balaklav abandoned the bohemian life in Tel Aviv, in favor of a life of pure art in Jerusalem, which he did not leave since he found his faith.
Leonid Balaklav is a figurative artist whose works are characterized by an almost obsessive search for light – both inner, spiritual light and actual sunlight, which is widely known in the history of Israeli art. It seems that Balaklav cracked the answer how to draw divine light.
In most of his early work, Balaklav sought to study it, to conduct a dialogue with the work of the great masters of European art, like Repin and Caravaggio, but Rembrandt most of all, on which Rabbi Kook have said to have seen the Hidden Light.
In his new exhibition opening at the Engel gallery Tel Aviv, Hidden Light – There seems to be an acceptance in Balaklav’s search after the light.
The exhibition is exhibited parallel to a solo exhibition of the artist (Leonid Balaklav: an Obsessive Portraitist) in the Tel Aviv Museum after winning the Schiff award for realist arts last year.
