New York City-based Israeli artist Yigal Ozeri is best known for his large-scale cinematic portraits of distinctive young women in rich, prodigious landscapes. With tinges of pre-Raphaelite aesthetics, Ozeri brings an ethereal and uninhibited sensibility to his paintings. His portraits denote art historical foundations in romanticism, while also offering contemporary notions of sensual feminity.
Rooted in Carl Jung’s concept of anima, Ozeri’s depictions of a revitalized connectivity to nature prompt a confrontation of subconscious effeminate identity and reinstate the beauty of innocent authentic experience. His photorealistic oil paintings convey the spirit of his subjects, giving way to seductive power. As a result, the viewer is compelled to gaze into the allegorical domain between reality and fantasy.
The candid imagery from a New York story is invigorated with honesty, representing a significant evolution in the artist’s practice—one of the most dramatic shifts in his approach to painting thus far; stepping away from his signature motif of distinctive young women in lush natural landscapes and focusing on capturing the chaotic pulse of New York City’s urban terrain.
Ozeri has shown extensively around the world including solo exhibits in Spain, China, The Netherlands, France, Germany and Mexico. His work is featured on the cover and included in the book Photorealism and the Digital Age. He is currently in a traveling museum show titled 50 Years of Hyperrealistic Painting that was showcased in a number of venues including Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid and Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao. He is also in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, the Jewish Museum in New York, the New York Public Library, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and the Albertina in Vienna, among others.
