Humanoid (human like)

Boris Yuhvetz and Miriam Yuhvetz

21.07.2016 - 19.08.2016

On Thursday July 21, 2016, Alfred – A Cooperative Institute for Arts and Culture, will open a double exhibition titled ‘Humanoid’, which will feature the works of Boris Yuhvetz and Miriam Yuhvetz.

This exhibition will be the sixth in the annual theme of 2016 – The Humane. The annual series will be divided into two sequences of exhibitions that attempt to examine the possible content of "the humane" as it is perceived today: 'the relations between the human and the divine' and 'the relations between the personal and the general'. Both sequences attempt to stress the concept of The Humane. All of the exhibitions stand alone, artistic and curatorial, but share a common concept.

Humanoid

Boris and Miriam Yuhvetz, father and daughter, will exhibit new works created especially for the exhibition, mostly gouache (Boris) and acrylic (Miriam) paintings of various sizes, along with an installation composed of small sculptures.

Humanoid is a term derived from biology, and relates to a figure with unique human characteristics. The term refers to creatures from various fields such as robots, hybrid creatures of popular mythologies, aliens in various works of science fiction, and gnomes, trolls and the like in works of fantasy.

The exhibition presents two surprising perspectives on the human image, one personal and the other cosmopolitan. Both attentive forecasts predicting the future, through humor and in search for the humane.

Boris Yuhvetz: "From an early age, I had a feeling that I was surrounded by humanoids. As a small boy, I watched the Soviet Union recovering from World War II. As a young man, as I watched the impossible politics of Europe of the twentieth century, extreme personalities like Hitler and Stalin, seemed like they were not ordinary human beings. I saw them as human-like creatures that influenced the masses, who seemed humanoids as well, capturing them in the enchantment of murderous ideologies.

Then I found interest in science fiction films, which began to be shown in the Soviet Union during the sixties, presenting monsters and other humanoid creatures. The humanoid as a concept grew into more aspects: artistic and literary, at that time I began to think seriously about art."

Miriam Yuhvetz: "The use of the word humanoid produces perhaps an expectation to see something mechanical, technological, cold and aloof. My intention is to create a colorful figurative experience that will primarily cause people to smile. I look for the connection between the computer and its human extension, where I try to identify the elusive boundaries between man and machine. I try to embed relaxing contents into that threatening concept, to treat it as a playful thing and thereby blocking the idea that the world is being taken over by humanoids.

Boris Yuhvetz has a master's degree in Fine Arts of the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, exhibited in museums and galleries in Israel and around the world, his works are in the collections in Israel. He immigrated to Israel in 1974, was a member of the Russian avant-garde group "Leviathan" (whale). lLives and works in south Tel Aviv for over forty years.

Miriam Yuhvetz, born in 1975, graduated "Thelma Yellin" high school for arts, and has bachelor's degree in visual communications from Shenkar College. She has exhibited in group exhibitions in various galleries in the country.