i-s-kalter-zona-mista-london

ZONA MISTA Ilderton Wharf Rollins Street London SE15 1EP Solo Exhibition: I. S. Kalter Preview: Thursday, February 10, 2022, 19:00 | Through March 6, by appointment ZONA MISTA is pleased to announce the opening of I. S. Kalter’s debut solo show in London. The exhibition has no title. It presents two series of paintings that were created simultaneously by I. S. Kalter in Tel Aviv - Yafo. The scale of these works was considered in advance to fit the size of one suitcase. Every piece in the show is covered with industrial paper. These works of art must remain covered forever. "Compassion Circle", the first series of “paintings”, is composed out of four wall sculptures. It started from a sentence I. S. Kalter came up with: “My "paintings" hang like garbage stuck on the fence in the wind. They could have continued flying, however, they got stuck like nylon garbage bags on the fence in the wind”. Although covered with glued industrial paper and a warm palette of furniture lacquer, the works in "Compassion Circle", in fact, conceal oil paintings. Each “painting” in the exhibition consists of a simple framing device made of a cheap diamond fence surrounding the gallery walls. The fence is large, vertical, cut and torn. Almost at eye level of each fence, an oil painting on canvas is hung. Every covered canvas is 30x40 cm, a size common for small landscape paintings. They look dirty. The artist says each painting has about thirty thin layers of paint made in the technique of wet on dry. This is a work that took him about three months, yet I. S. Kalter decided to cover the oil paintings with glued industrial paper and furniture lacquer, a technique of papier-mâché he invented during his six months stay in Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, in 2019. After living for a month in Paris, I. S. Kalter was involved in a bicycle accident. When he arrived at the ER, the doctor gave him a brace and wrote him a prescription for tramadol (a drug manufactured by Teva pharmaceuticals and sold as a popular street drug in the Gaza Strip). High and without any prior planning, he invented a compound of industrial paper - a material he first used in his twenties, when he worked as a bartender. He simply noticed that this stuff just sticks to everything. "Human Victim Identification", the second series of “paintings” is composed out of four wall sculptures. The qualities of this series lie in the desire of I. S. Kalter to create a convex surface for painting with a non-standard characteristic and high durability. The shape of the new surfaces, and their low level installment in space, may be perceived as an injured, bleeding bodily architecture of organs. Made with pipes, this series is cylindrical, elongated, light, rough, opaque yet hollow. The pipe is - a parable for transition, evolution, progress or devolution - a symbol of dark matter that constantly passes through. From East to West, in the depth of the ocean, under the ground or inside the walls. Ceci n'est pas une pipe. I. S. Kalter (b. Ishai Shapira Kalter, 1986) lives and works in Tel Aviv - Yafo. Since 2017 the artist has been running the nomadic exhibition space ‘Ventilator’. He received his MFA from Hunter College, New York, NY (2017) where he studied under the guidance of Prof. Thierry de Duve. I. S. Kalter received his BFA from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, IL (2013), in the framework of which he also attended The Slade School of Fine Arts, London, UK (2011). His recent exhibitions were hosted by venues such as Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, IL (2021); Institut Français, Tel Aviv, IL (2021); CCA - The Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, IL (2020); RawArt Gallery, Tel Aviv, IL (2019); Art-O-Rama, Marseille, FR (2019); The Lobby, Tel Aviv, IL (2019); Art Basel, Basel, CH (2019); Placement Produit, Paris, FR (2019) among others. I. S. Kalter received several fellowships, grants and scholarships and participated in residencies including Cité Internationale des Arts, The Bruce and Ruth Rappaport Grant, Artis Exhibition Grant, The Jean and Albert Nerken Scholarship Fund, Asylum Arts Research Grant, and more. His works were published in Spike Art Magazine, Artviewer, KubaParis, Tzvetnik, Point Contemporain, Columbia Uni. Journal for Literature and Art, HaAretz and more. Upcoming shows include Mishkan Museum of Art, Ein Harod, IL (2022); and Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmund, DE (2022). zonamista.co.uk ishaishapirakalter.com