 Black Boots, 2006 Gideon Rubin Rokeby presents the first solo exhibition in London of Israeli born artist Gideon Rubin. Gideon Rubin is fascinated by the course of time; figures hover in and out of the picture plane, are embedded within layers of paint or are obscured their features lost or their faces turned away. Gideon paints as if in an attempt to rescue his chosen individuals from history or resurrect long forgotten histories. In recent years old abandoned toys and early twentieth century photographs and books have captivated Rubin. The discarded toys hold the marks of time, lost limbs or eyes suggesting a history or previous life now forgotten. Photographs of young Victorian children dressed in their Sunday best outside indecipherable facades or bleached World War II magazines act as other sources for his work. Forgotten lives are revived in Rubin's paintings, which are executed in bold think brush strokes only to be scraped back, eliminated and then repainted, this process of repeating observed and imagined characters takes place again and again so that numerous histories and lives are entrenched within a canvas. Scraped back a final time only the most essential brushstrokes remain in the final canvas, suggesting in the simplest yet most expressive terms, a life passed, a secret unearthed or a memory resurfaced. Gideon Rubin was born in Tel Aviv, Israel and lives in London. Following four years at the School of Visual Arts in New York he continued his education at the Slade, London graduating in 2002. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions in Tel Aviv and America and in group exhibitions in England, Switzerland, France, Portugal, Spain and Germany. This is his first solo exhibition in the UK. Exhibition: 4 April - 8 May 2007 Gallery hours: Tues-Fri 11 am - 6 pm, Sat 11 am - 4 pm, Late night Tuesday 11 am - 8 pm Rokeby 37 Store Street GB-London WC1E 7QF Telephone +44 (0)20 7168 9942 Fax +44 (0)7813 144 919 Email rokeby@rokebygallery.com www.rokebygallery.com |
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