Thu 18 October 2018 | 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Shuki Kook Studio - Ruhama 11, Tel Aviv,

We are pleased to invite you to open an exhibition by Matti Cohen and Shuki Cook: “The Face of Humanity”

Thursday, October 18, 2018, at 20:00
At the Studio Shuki Cook Gallery at 11 Ruchama Street, Tel Aviv
Phone: 03-6816181

The exhibition, “The Face of Humanity,” deals with human essence, “speaks” about communication and presents situations, people, expressions, distress, happiness, woodcuts carved with talent and primacy, etched together as metaphors for our lives …

On a wall Photo:
Boaz Pasternak – “The faces of the people”

Boaz was present in my work process, documenting, discussing, deliberating, at a special angle. Created a very valuable collection of photographs, I am proud to present it as an independent work alongside the exhibition.

The studio gallery is open Sunday through Thursday from 10: 00-17: 00

PR: Lotan Pictures

Shuki Cook:
Joint exhibition – Mati Cohen and Shuki Cook

“Not accepting invites” …
This is how Eli Cohen, two years ago, approached me when I asked to create a sign for my apartment door after a long acquaintance and purchase of his works.
Something floated in my face. Until then, I bought from him a number of characters he created for my home. I loved the random primacy and the uncontrolled instinctive action … The simplicity of the characters captivated my heart. I did not delve into my hands, I just loved it …
In refusing to accept an “invitation” for “commercial” work, I was exposed to something else in his personality. I started researching …
When, a mature and hard day, every morning he pushes a stumbling supermarket cart, loaded with shreds of wood and cardboard boxes, to the corner of Eilat and Ruhama streets. Settles down on the sidewalk, spreads out the “workshop” and displays his works. Images of fish, people, cats, bits of wood he had found, carved with a Japanese knife, rough and uncoordinated. The “painting” on the image is created by burning with an old magnifying glass, which concentrates the sun’s rays. In the past, use the bottom of a bottle …
At the end of the day, he packed his cart and his belongings and went back on foot to his home in the Hatikva neighborhood, tired and happy. In his pocket, money for his livelihood … I do not know how and where his life is going, I try to break through a barrier, on the way to him, so that I will be able to learn this special man and his secrets.
When he has only a basic education, he sticks to the freedom that his work allows him, makes a living by selling his works to passers-by, at a minuscule price that makes it possible … He does what he feels and is sanctified for it. He was happy and proud of what he had done. The choice of freedom leads him and despite his position at the bottom of the socioeconomic hierarchy, he does not work for a living, when, a creator who earns his work! Incidentality leads to creation, the size of the piece of wood, its difficulties, its powers at work, the sun sucking, or not, through the clouds.
The images of the man he created correspond with African or Indian art … Simple, somewhat naive, “primitive” images form his own being, his hands and his imagination, unconsciously telling his mind and feelings about the human race from its unique perspective.
His figures vary in size, in part, in abstract information, in boldness in the body language, in the structure of the mass of the image, in the illustrations and in the expression that is burned in the sun. Asymmetry, proportional distortions, these are “created on the road”.
The characters stand by themselves, when he does not create “groups” or series, there is no talk about a common idea and long term … The creator is separate from his characters at the moment of sale, and they leave there on a journey from the buyer’s understanding.
Picture
I was fascinated by the primacy, and I believed in myself to be created in an idea-based grouping. The idea of ​​creating installations and exhibiting them in the exhibition had been brewing in me for a long time. When a man is closed and hard day … It takes time to open a hole to the person inside. When I succeeded, we embarked on a journey …
When he created dozens of human figures at my request for several months. In meetings every day we talk about people, their behavior, I try to learn whether his insight finds expression in action.
I have bought the works since, conscious of his existence, paying him willingly and appreciatively, glad of my ability to help.
In the studio, I conduct a dialogue with the characters, learn the meanings of their details and create connections and actors. The actors from the collection represent people and situations in the memoir of my life story … sculptures or framed images.
Matty’s work finds its way into a world of naive gaze and abstract action. The man places a mirror in front of humanity, and unintentionally floods thoughts and feelings that are not expressed in words.
The power of his images, allows me to “continue” to create from them.
A fascinating dynamic is created between us, stretching the “gap” between curator and creator to the end. Collaboration to complete a work that crystallizes into an idea and a complete statement in the second and later stages, and without which the initial stage would not have been created at all … When, is the “podka” mother, from which my works are born …
A human connection between two, so different, to a unique statement.
The journey of my life has placed me twice in fragile points of influence, in the ten years of my life, and in my adulthood. Cases in which the desire for freedom and action out of the inner faith led to a path that is nourished like Matthew, from those values ​​in the soul …
The encounter enables both of us to combine abilities into a whole of two creators who are ready to do so. We both chose to create, we walk the path we chose.
The exhibition, “The Face of Humanity,” deals with human essence, “speaks” about communication and presents situations, people, expressions, distress, happiness, woodcuts carved with talent and primal, sun-burned together as metaphors for our lives …
Shuki Cook – Curator and creator of the exhibition

On a wall Photo:
Boaz Pasternak – “The faces of the people”
“Just to take pictures”, Boaz’s “credo”, which examines the world and records fragments from it, FRAMES, in the space, small stories accompany us in their presence, Boaz, turning them a lens and documenting …
A group of tens of thousands of Facebook members goes with them on the way, and sharpens the ability to distinguish and detach life frames from the surroundings, as an artistic and emotional story …
Boaz is present in my work process, documented his work, discourse, deliberation, at his special angle, created a collection of photographs of great value, I am proud to present him as an independent work alongside the exhibition.

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