Ilana Raviv


Ilana Raviv-Oppenheim is a multidisciplinary artist. Her work spans a variety
of media including painting, drawing, etching, tapestry, and ceramic sculpture.

Biography

She was born in Tel Aviv in 1945 to
Itzhak and Fanya Oppenheim. Moritz Daniel Oppenheim was her great-great-granduncle. He
was considered “the first Jewish painter” in Europe, very well known and
popular in his day. A large exhibition of his works was mounted at the Israel
Museum in Jerusalem. Ilana grew up in Israel, and her art was influenced partly
by such Israeli sights as the Negev, the Sinai, the Galilee, and greater Tel Aviv.
Ilana always knew, and made known, that art was her calling.
From 1980 to 1990, she lived with her family in the
art capital of the world, New York, in order to study, renew herself, and
broaden her artistic vision. During her stay, from 1980 to 1984 she studied at the
Art Students League of New York. Among her teachers were Roberto
Delamonica, Bruce Dorfman, and the American master Knox Martin, who
was active in New York and was her guide, mentor, and inspiration.
Ilana Raviv has exhibited in various museums and
galleries of Israel, the US, Europe, and the Far East. Recently Ilana has
exhibited her works alongside the best known of artists, including Knox Martin,
Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers, Rosenquist, Chuck Close, Marisol, and
more.
Today she divides her time between Israel and New
York.

Work

Influences

Raviv draws her inspiration from works of the ancient
past – primitive wall paintings – and ushers them through the ways
and spirit of masterworks by Titian,
Veronese, Frans Hals, Velásquez, Cézanne,
Matisse, Picasso, de Kooning, Knox Martin, and others.
Ilana Raviv uses extreme metaphors. She has won the
appreciation of art critics around the world. Much of her work focuses on femininity,
on the strata of life from childhood to adolescence and from adulthood to
partnering, and on relations between the sexes.
The great mother figure from Greek mythology is among
the chief topics in her work, as are other characters from the Bible, from
history, and from literature. Her works are built from a variety of flat
designs, contrasts, and shapes, which create different versions and dimensions
of reality.
Raviv describes her works as "a metaphor which creates
and shapes an artificial life on canvas".
In 2008 she received the title of Tel Aviv–Jaffa "Woman
of the Year", representing the arts.
Her work is represented in private collections and in
various museums and galleries around the world. A solo exhibition consisting of
50 pictures by Ilana was presented at the between October 2007 and
January 2008, and another solo exhibition of 100 pictures was presented at . In both museums, she was the first native Israeli
to exhibit. In both museums, the exhibits achieved great success. The State
Russian Museum even asked to extend the term of the exhibit in response to
popular demand. Both museums called her works comparable in quality to those of
the Great Russian artists and the 20th century masters.
Besides the Russian museum exhibits, there is a Holocaust-themed
painting that has figured for many years in the permanent collection of the . In this painting Ilana exposes
the monstrous aspect of the topic more than she trains a direct view on its
consequences. The painting shows the Ten Commandments consumed by flame, with
an emphasis on "Thou shalt not murder." The struggle to survive is expressed
only in the mixture of colors.
Her painting ''A Tabernacle of
Peace – Homage to Zachariah" opened
Israel's 40th anniversary celebrations in New York at the world's largest
sukkah. Later it was displayed for eight years in the main entrance hall of the
Jerusalem International Convention Center.
Raviv is married and the mother of three. In
the course of her life she has displayed her creations at many exhibits,
including a pro bono exhibit to benefit Seeds Of Peace, which aims to inspire and
connect Arab and Jewish youth.

Art studies

One-person shows

ArtSpeak. Christopher Millis, ArtSpeak,. The Riverdale Press. Beautiful Talent, Israel Shelanu. Mary Abell, The Bohemian Tradition and Alternative Spaces, ArtSpeak. The New Explosion: Paper Art, exh. cat., Fine Arts Museum of Long Island, New York, CDS Gallery New York. Claude LeSuer, New Talent's Tribute to Tradition, ArtSpeak. The Village Voice. Bronx Museum of the Arts Satellite Gallery Program, exh. cat.,. Israel Shelanu. “Succoth Mural Celebrates Israel’s Independence”, The New York Times. Real Estate Weekly. Carol Polsky, “Is Heavy-duty Harvest Hut World’s Largest Sukkah?”, New York Newsday. “World’s Largest Sukkah Unveiled”, The Jewish Press. Jewish Community News. The New York Jewish Week. The Queens Jewish Week. Hadoar. The Riverdale Press. Les Krantz, The New York Art Review, An Illustrated Survey of the City's Museums, Galleries and Leading Artists. Moznaim Literary Publication. Art 2000, Israeli Artists, Painters and Sculptors. Moznaim Literary Publication. Marquis Who's Who in the World. Her Presence in Colors IV, exh. cat. International Women Artists, Marsi Gallery, Suan Pakkad Palace Museum, Thailand. Gallery & Studio: The World of the Working Artist, N.Y. “Women’s Lives & Myths” “Synthetic Realism”: The Wilfrid Israel Museum of Oriental Art and Studies, exh. cat, “Artists of Israel 2002″ Editor: Yehuda May, Mechira Pumbit, 158pp, MAC21- International Contemporary Art Fair – Manifestaciones de Arte Contemporaneo, Exhibit Catalogue “1001 Reasons to Love the Earth”, The World Art Collection, 528 pp. ed.: Frans van der Beek “Arte al Femminile” exh. cat. Published by “New Assioma” Centro d’Arte e Cultura Contemporanea” 48 pp., Agenda Prato, “Quattordici modi di declinare l'”Arte al femminile” Hedwig Brenner: Judische Frauen in der bildenden Kunst II 394pp Hartung-Gorre Verlag Konstanz 2004,The 110 Anniversary of the Russian Museum, The State Russian Museum annual report 2008,Cover for the book “The Sins of the Fathers” by Professor John Witte, Jr 2009,The Moscow Museum of Modern Art's magazine

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