Second nature

Goni Harlap / Ofri Marom

Curator: Ayelet Hashahar Cohen

02.03.2017 - 31.03.2017

On Thursday March 2, 2017, Alfred – A Cooperative Institute for Arts and Culture will open a dual exhibition titled ‘Second Nature’, which will feature the works of Goni Harlap and Ofri Marom.

Harlap and Marom create representations of the local flora, through which they deal with culture and environment, relations between the interior and the exterior, and the cycle of life. The exhibition is curated by Ayelet Hashahar Cohen.

Marom observes seasonal plants and perpetuates them in the act of painting at a crucial moment as they start to wither. She paints weeds that she passes by during her day. With expressive paintings on canvases and wood surfaces, she translates from memory the impressions left by these plants. Plants that cling to uncultivated soil and dusty roadsides. Her works are a testament of the ephemeral, the marginal and the forgotten.

Harlap wraps in rubber common ornamental plants in different stages of their development. Her work produces a cyclical live performance that embodies growth and withering together. Thus she rolls up the fate of the rubber tree, which is flooded with its own juices and embalms itself in life \ death, as a subversive act against the cultural structure, as well as  an artistic action which disrupts the course of nature.

This joint exhibition at Alfred Gallery, takes place between the great dry outdoors and humid places, cultured and modified: places that raise complex questions about life, time, place and identity. Juxtaposing these two bodies of works creates a connection that relates to transient beauty, aging, and the desire to stop and freeze the moment.

Goni Harlap is a sculptor and an installation artist. She lives and works in Tel Aviv.  Has a MFA from Haifa University, BA in Literature and Philosophy from Tel Aviv University, and studied at the culinary school Le Cordon Blue, Paris. Participated in group shows and in Israel and abroad.

Ofri Marom, a painter, lives and works in Kfar Saba. Graduate of Avni Institute of Art and Design, has participated in numerous group exhibitions.