In his new project at the Herzliya Museum of Art, Ben Ben Ron chooses the (men’s and women’s) toilets as an ex-territorial display space within the museum. Ben Ron invades the intimate space of the toilets, encumbering the viewer with revealing, expressive visual wealth.The bathrooms transform from a clean and sterile site to a damp underground space, like a bad memory or violent baggage lying at the depth of the subconscious threatening to burst forth.Simultaneously, another work is presented in the form of a tormented wolf-man akin to an ancient picture of a figure from the Dark World.

Bejerano’s work Ofek 1 (One Horizon) addresses the two poles of this exhibition: on the one hand, it was composed using a “low,” decorative and childlike technique that involves cutting and pasting thousands of paper shreds; on the other hand, it involves “high” themes and poignant social criticism. Referring to the apocalyptic scene featured in this work, the artist recalled the images etched into collective consciousness during the attack on the Twin Towers. (“The black pealing flesh of the night resembles the thousands of pieces of office paper that fluttered through the air during the collapse of the towers”). The name of this work relates to the name of the Israeli satellite “Ofek 1,” a symbol of Israel’s advanced technological power; it thus charges the nocturnal scene with additional meanings, related to a future annihilation. This work concludes a four-year period during which Ben Ron created works composed of layers of colorful paper shreds. The violent and morose narratives in these works stand out in contrast to the technique, which alludes to summer camp handicraft projects or occupational therapy sessions.

A central work of Ben Ben-Ron´s many series of paintings created in different styles, is a large scale semi-realistic canvas, which traps within it a dominant theme linking his works: through the heavy, wild underbrush there is a glimpse of a mysterious human event – the actual existence of which is doubtful – taking place deep in the shadowy depths of sublime nature. Ben-Ron deals with humankind´s attempts to mark the borders of control, he freezes the moment before it dissipates and is swallowed up by some larger entity. A kind of modern-day Mt. Sinai swollen with contradictions: human technology in the form of a red jeep contains within it a sexual act – a sort of male ability to hold a female figure within it, a violent scene takes place between two ragwort bushes, and in the distance there are tree trunks crowded and threatening like the Asmargard forest of awe and loss – all these create an atmosphere that is not only mysterious, but also frightening and ridiculous. The combination of details and acts that illogical and inexplicable in the context they are shown, create a grotesque mood of an absurd world.

Despite the eclecticism that defines them, all the works discuss the borderline between control and its loss: in the small black and red acrylic paintings Ben-Ron freezes the quiet before the storm/destruction/failure, placing them like frames in a promo announcing what is to come. The act dramatizes the artist´s omnipotent fantasy of control (in paintings as well as in reality), together with the release from fantasy and the attempt to control, this time in the illusion he himself has created.

The series of abstracts also touches on this subject: it shows a panoramic look at controlling caprices. The discussion of border and its breach exists in the control of the color and material, the desire to break out of the frame of the painting.

The debate on the border of control attains an additional aspect in the general context of the exhibition, the male ability or virility in the face of its human fragility and limitations: the noticeable abundance in the mass of works and techniques strengthens the sense of emptiness and loneliness reflected un them as a sort of blend of death force and life force, a mix of restraint and disintegration in a single moment of suspension.

Bejerano marks the borders of form, he knows that beneath the surface, under the illusion of control and safe existence, lurks the truth of nature greater than him (both as man and as human). Ben Ron bravely utilizes that illusion as a layer of protection from that same nature, by turning the illusion itself into a value. (Written by Moran Godes)

Surreal happenings bear signs of the present; a fake ideality, violence and destruction, an optimistic vision collapsing into reality; the old residing side by side with the new.

An all-encompassing painting: both future, past and present, it is naïve in its ambition. The mind can sustain reality – the heart brings ruin; a punk-impressionism.

A preservation of tents frozen at the feet of a shattered wall; the Temple Mount on fire, and Chagall’s fiddler floating above a Mediterranean shtetl.

Jerusalem covered with graffiti, scribbled over; men of dark complexion, in shiny overalls, proceeding like a herd through a wadi, ejected. A waste mountain; a tower of Babylon, with Haredi Jews ablaze on its roof; a gazelle, iconic in shape, surrounded by female bodyguards, looks organic, crowned and made-up; fragments of broken Buddha statues.

Watch the works here

Shagal #2   170x120cm   Oil   2011 /

Punkimpressionism  180x130cm  Oil  2011 /

Afrika  180x130cm  Oil 2011 /

After(W)all  170x120cm  Oil 2011 /

Buddha’s Son  180x130cm Oil 2011 /

100 Gates  130x180cm Oil 2011 /

Shagal#1  170x120cm oil  2011 /

This no love song    130x180cm  Oil  2011

Shagal#3  170x120cm  Oil  2011 /

BloodyDeer  50x60cm  Oil  2011 /

Grave yard     180x130cm    Oil  2010 /

“72 vergines”   130x180cm  Oil on canvas  2009 /

“End of a hunting day”   180x130cm  oil on canvas 2009 /

“Eve”   180x130cm  oil on canvas 2009

“Refugees”  oil on canvas 180x130cm  2009

“How to take an airplane down”  Oil on canvas 180x130cm  2009

“Plan for home” Oil on canvas 180x130cm  2009 /

Oil on canvas 180x130cm  2009 /

“Mogli”   Oil on canvas  50x60cm   2009 /

“tarzans”   oil on canvas 130x180cm  2009 /

“Biomecanic” Oil on canvas 130x180cm  2009 /

Oil on canvas 50×60  2009 /

Oil on canvas  180×130 cm  2010 /

Oil on canvas  180×130 cm  2010 /

Oil on canvas  180×130 cm  2010 /

Oil on canvas  170×100 cm  2010 /

Oil on canvas  170×100 cm  2010 /

Oil on canvas  50×60 cm  2010 /

Oil on canvas  50×60 cm  2010 /

Untitled #1  Oil on canvas 180x130cm 2010 /

Untitled #2  Oil on canvas 170x100cm 2010 /

Untitled #3  Oil on canvas 170x100cm 2010 /

Untitled #4  Ol on canvas  170x100cm 2010 /

Posters Project 2002-4   (In Association with Ami Faychebitch)

This series of posters was installed on public billboards in Tel-aviv. Each poster was shown for 3 months.

The idea was to challenge the eyes of people with visuals which are mysterious, annoying and different. For example,

the poster of Sadam Hossain was hanged on 40 billboards in Tel-Aviv two months before the war in Iraq, in order to

check People reaction to a smiling picture of the “Islamic media demon”.

Exhibition Overview (out side windows) – “One dollar each” sign \

Exhibition overview  (Inside) /

WORKS /

Acrylic on canvas   170x170cm  2005 /

750x100cm (150cm width each part )  Acryl on canvas  2005 /

600x100cm  (150cm width each part )  Acryl on canvas  2005 /

Acrylic on canvas   40x50cm   2005 /

Mona   Acrylic on canvas  40x50cm   2005 /

Acrylic on canvas  40x50cm   2005 /

Acrylic on canvas  40x50cm   2005 /

Acrylic on canvas  40x50cm   2005 /

Acrylic on canvas  40x50cm   2005 /

Acrylic on canvas  40x50cm   2005 /

Acrylic on canvas  40x50cm   2005 /

Carpet 100x170cm  oil  2011 /

Carpet # 10    Oil on canvas   100x100cm    2010 /

carpet # 13  Oil   50×80 cm  2011 /

Paintings Sweatshop / China /

carpet # 21  Oil   50×80 cm  2011 /

carpet # 9  Oil   90×60 cm  2011 /

Carpet #1    Oil on paper   50x70cm   2006 /

Carpet #2   Oil on paper   50x70cm   2006 /

Carpet #3    Oil on paper   50x70cm   2006 /

For more Carpet Paintings press here 

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