Bio
Sigal Ben-David's work is an investigation into the role of objects in constructing and deconstructing the narratives around which we organize our lives. Ben David’s rigorously composed images speak of the orders we create that often serve to forge even greater disorders. Found objects reflect a curatorial instinct to preserve, categorize and revalorize. Emptiness lends value to everyday things that we use to structure and define identity. In a world that has been emptied out, opportunities are multiplied for the creation of new meanings. But are these new meanings implied or projected? Perhaps as a result of her upbringing in Israel, her images rigorously examine the role of a home and its absence - in how we structure and define our social and political identity.
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Ben-David treats her work as landscapes - though the word is released from its traditional signification. Rather, landscape is here extended to mean the totality of ways in which we arrange both the natural and artificial aspects of our habitations, and their significance in how we conceive of ourselves.
In her more recent works ("My Playground of Others' Memories", 2014 - 2017; "Nuance", 2018 - Ongoing; and Struc·ture | ˈstrÉ™k(t)SHÉ™r |, 2020 - Ongoing) the landscapes were created in the studio by reconstructing subject matter and substance. Ben-David's images are confronting with the abstract aesthetic structures that underlie the natural and artificial environments, while experimenting with forms, shapes, textures, patterns and substance, through which she generates a dialogue between photography and FineArt, conceptual rigor and playfulness, representation and abstraction. A reminder that what we are looking at is not reality per se, but a reality the artist created.
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Sigal Ben-David was born in 1973 in Israel. She graduated of Camera Obscura School of Art, Tel-Aviv, Israel, majoring in Photography, in 2009. And was a participant in an Art program - Digital Media Major in 2008-2009 at the Kibbutzim Collage of Education, Technology and the Arts, Tel-Aviv, Israel. Recent exhibitions include "Visual Culture", CICA Museum, Seoul, South Korea, Group (2020); "The Essential", LoosenArt Magazine/MILLEPIANI Art Space, Rome, Italy, Group (2018); "Seen And Unseen", Collective Gallery, Woodstock, NY, Group (2018); “Through Compassionate Eyes”, The charter Oak Cultural Center, Hartford, CT, Group (2018); “Memories: From the Experience to the Construction of the Past”, LoosenArt Magazine / MILLEPIANI Art Space, Rome, Italy, Group (2018); Limner Gallery, Hudson, NY, Group (2017); "Wish You Were Here 16", A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Group (2017); "Undetermined Landscape", Two Moon Art House, Brooklyn, NY, Solo (2013); "DOF", Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo, Japan / Group (2011); "DOF", Architects House Gallery, Tel-Aviv-Jaffa, Israel, Group (2011); "Preservation Jar", Artness Gallery, En Shemer, Israel, Duo (2011); "No.Where.Else", France Cultural Center, Nazareth, Israel, Group (2010); Tel Hai Open Museum of Photography, Tel Hai, Israel, Group (2010); "Woman 3000", Garage Gang, Kiev, Ukraine, Group (2010); "Untitled", Ha’Chalalit Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel, Group (2009).
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Sigal Ben-David lives and works in New York, NY.
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CV
Sigal Ben-David
Born in Israel, 1973
Lives and works in New York, NY
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Exhibition
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2020.......Visual Culture | CICA Museum | Seoul, South Korea | Group
2018.......Essential | LoosenArt/ MILLEPIANI Art Space | Rome, Italy | Group
2018.......Seen And Unseen | Collective Gallery | Woodstock, NY | Group
2018.......Memories: From the Experience to the Construction of the Past | LoosenArt / MILLEPIANI Art Space | Rome, Italy | Group
2018.......Through Compassionate Eyes | The Charter Oak Cultural Center Gallery | Hartford, CT | Group
2107.......Under 18 Inches | Limner Gallery | Hudson, NY | Group
2017.......Wish You Were Here #16 | A.I.R. Gallery | Brooklyn, NY | Group
2013.......Undetermined Landscape | Two Moon Art House | Brooklyn, NY | Solo
2011.......DOF | Tokyo International Forum | Tokyo, Japan | Group
2011.......DOF | Architects House Gallery | Tel-Aviv-Jaffa, Israel | Group
2011.......Preservation Jar | Artness Gallery | En Shemer, Israel | Duo
2010.......No.Where.Else | Centre Culturel Français | Nazheret, Israel | Group
2010.......Tel Hai Open Museum of Photography | Tel Hai, Israel | Group
2010.......Woman 3000 | Garage Gang | Kiev, Ukraine | Group
2009.......Untitled | Ha’Chalalit Gallery | Tel-Aviv, Israel | Group
2008.......Array of Pursuits | Loveat Gallery and Café | Tel-Aviv, Israel | Group
Publication
2020.......Into the Clouds: New Media Art 2021 | CICA Press | Gimpo, Korea | Art Book - Paperback, E-Book
2018.......Essential | LoosenArt Contemporary Art Magazine Publication | Rome, Italy | Catalog
2018.......Through Compassionate Eyes | The Jewish Art Salon | New York, NY | Catalog
2018.......Memories: From the Experience to the Construction of the Past | LoosenArt Contemporary Art Magazine | Rome, Italy | Catalog
2011.......Felicja Blumenthal Music Center | An Holistic Approach to Architecture | AM OVED Publ. Ltd | Israel | Book - Hardcover
2011.......Ha’aretz Galeria Magazine | Israel | Press
2011.......Sequester | On The Edge of Darkness Art Blog | Showcase
2011.......DOF | Bait Ve’Noi Architecture and Design Magazine + Reshet Print Production | Israel | Press - June Issue
2010.......White City | Visualkontakt Art Blog | Showcase
2010.......Slaapkamer Magazine | Amsterdam, Netherlands | Press - September Issue
2010.......Felix Domain | FWA Photo - Photography Web Gallery | Showcase
2010.......DIIVAN Magazine | Estonia | Press - August Issue
2010.......Жінка Woman 3000 - International Art Initiative | Exhibition Tour | Press
2010.......Woman 3000 | Garage Gang Publication | Kiev, Ukraine | Art Book - Paperback
2010.......Elements in Pausa | Pausa Gourmet Galilee Inn | Virtual Exhibition
2009.......White City | At Magazine | Israel | Press - February Issue
2009.......New Orleans Post Katrina | Fuel Your Photography Virtual Magazine | Press - June Issue
2009.......Living.Space | Elsewhereness Virtual Magazine | Press - April Issue
2008.......New Orleans Post Katrina | Bait Ve’Noi Architecture and Design Magazine | Israel | Press - November-December Issue
Education
2005-09.......A Graduate of Photography | Camera Obscura School of Art | Tel-Aviv, Israel
2007-09.......Art Progrem - Digital Media Major | Kibbutzim Collage of Education, Technology and the Arts | Tel-Aviv, Israel
Projects
2020-...........struc·ture | ˈstrÉ™k(t)SHÉ™r | a commentary on real-life societal structures, as much as it’s about fleeting, make-believe ones. The structures in my work be found nowhere and everywhere. they [the structures] become ghosts of their previous forms or beliefs, and imply obscure narratives and an idea or matter that’s exhausted and been reincarnated.
2018-...........Nuance | A collaboration with Artist Les St Leon. In French, the word nuance refers to shade, or a subtle difference of tone; it came into common usage as a reference to the blending of colors in 17th century tapestries. Initially, it was used mostly for aesthetics, but it was soon borrowed to analogize, and then describe the meanings of words. it continued to broaden its use, describing the ambiguous degrees of difference in just about anything. This work aims to explore the role of nuance in an increasingly polarized climate.
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2014-17.......My Playground of Others’ Memories | A collaboration with Artist Les St Leon. Examining the concept of memory through a closer look at our habit of accumulating 'things'. An investigation of the relationship between the inanimate objects that we collect and use in our daily lives and the formation of memories, while experimenting with forms, shapes, textures, patterns, and substance.
2017............I Am an Alien | This work, which speaks directly to Ben-David's own experience as an immigrant, is an exploration of the metamorphosis of an immigrant captures the cold doubt as to whether the process of immigration can ever be completed, while reflects on the question of identity, exploring the fraught relationship self, migration and displacement.
2011............Animal Welfare NGO Campaign | A collaboration with Animals Now, an Israeli non-profit organization that is working towards a world free from animal abuse.
2010............East Jerusalem Urbanity and Conflict | A collaboration of architects and photographers. Architectural conceptions and its conflicts with architectural projects. Documanting residential building under construction, own by two Palestinian sisters, in the Sheikh Jarrah-Wadi Joz neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Focusing attention on the political environment surrounding this project.
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2009............Untitled | Exploring the coexistence of opposing forces and elements and the inextricable balance between them. Chance and control, sequence and amputation, decay and embalming, and presence and emptiness are continually in conflict in her work. For Ben-David, these dualities are a metaphor for the transitory nature of life, the uncertainties which are also a complimentary essentials.
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2008............Room | a living space devoid of personal characteristics, which may indicate a monastic way of life, or perhaps provisional residence.
2005-07.......New Orleans Post katrina | Documenting New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. Examining aesthetics in visual chaos. Exploring the intimate living quarters of deserted New Orleans, with the aim to challenge the boundaries between documentary and fine art photography.
2009-16.......ELSEWHERE | A member of a community of independent artists; bringing together Israeli and Palestinian photographers; dedicated to Fine Art and social visualization.
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