NIR HOD
HOD was born in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1970 and was graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem in 1993. During his studies, he also attended the Cooper Union in New York. He has a wide range of production styles from video to painting and sculpture, and each expression shows a variety of approaches depending on the concept. Particularly in painting, he uses different styles from realism to materialistic abstract. Although HOD describes his activity as “telling the truth through beauty”, it is not an easy task to confront the concept of “beauty” that has been debated for centuries by generations of artists and philosophers. The variety of Hod’s works throughout his career makes this very clear. He has been actively exhibiting his works in galleries and museums in Israel, Europe, Asia, and the United States. He is currently based in New York, and his works are in the permanent collections of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, The Israel Museum and The Jewish Museum in New York, as well as in prominent private collections in various countries.
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Title: The Life We Left Behind
Year: 2022
Medium: oil under chromed canvas with patina
Dimensions: 228.6 x 162.6 cm (90 x 64 in.) -
Title: Echo of memories
Year: 2022
Medium: oil, chrome, acid, dirt on canvas
Dimensions: 228.6 x 162.6 cm (113 5/8 x 64 in.)
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The Life We Left Behind
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Year: 2022“The Life We Left Behind” is considered the most representative work of Hod, with a mirror-like metallic surface. The production process is rather complicated. A chrome film was created on an oil painted canvas, and it covers the surface like plating. It is then degraded and peeled off by using chemical reactions of acid and ammonia. The chrome layer reflects the image and the light gently like a dull mirror, and with the rust-like shadow caused by oxidation. The picture of shadow and light that is different from one with coloring creates a mysterious contrast with the oil painting layer. Standing in front of this artwork, one will inevitably recognize their own reflection shimmering like a heat haze. A glass mirror reflects the superficial surface of someone’s figure. Though for Hod’s work, there is no clear reflection, but instead it throws back the sight at an even deeper part of the person. Hod’s mirror appeals to the viewer’s inner self. As the title of this work “The Life We Left Behind” suggests, there is a past of one’s own that nobody else can see, and it ultimately prompts thoughts about the future.
Medium: oil under chromed canvas with patina
Dimensions: 228.6 x 162.6 cm (90 x 64 in.)
Acquired from KOTARO NUKAGA, 2022
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Echo of Memories
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Year: 2022This work was exhibited at the artist’s first solo exhibition in Tokyo with the same title. It was slightly different from the rest of his exhibits, but this work was given the most symbolic role. In this exhibition, Hod presented a series of paintings based on images of found photos, alongside his representative work, “The Life We Left Behind” series characterized by the chrome mirror surfaces. Found photo is a past reality left by a stranger that revived in the present by being replaced with a painting. It is equivalent to giving new life to the ghosts of the past. Photography is a technique that optically preserves a scene of reality, but it can also be understood as a mirrored projection of the likeness of reality. This work was purposedly placed together with “The Life We Left Behind”, which is also in Ueshima Collection. No doubt it was done intentionally by the artist as two works are mirrors of each other. While “The Life We Left Behind” reflects objects physically, this work, although it does not seem to be reflecting anything, vividly captures spirituality. The approximation of colors and the contrast of composition both form a mental similarity, or in photographic sense, they clearly show the contrasting relationship of the negative and the positive.
Medium: oil, chrome, acid, dirt on canvas
Dimensions: 228.6 x 162.6 cm (113 5/8 x 64 in.)
Acquired from Kotaro Nukaga, 2022