ימים ספורים- Numbered Days

Sometimes the simple thing is simple, and sometimes longing is an illusion. The works of Irad Lavi draw on the Israeli painterly tradition and the Israeli landscape, as well as the tradition of classical painting. They address the tension between the desire to be situated somewhere safe under the sun, and the inability to actualize this desire. Everything falls apart again, squeaks beneath our feet. The earth cannot level out. Lavi’s works dwell within this constant quaking. They contain greediness and demand. Heaven is on the horizon of his paintings, but the path there is obstructed.

Lavi’s works are suffocating and contain a sort of fear of the void. Within the landscape, a void opens passages that are swallowed within the painting. Life would like to be happening there, but it is here. The crooked earth fails to become a plain.