Artist Name: Liora Kaplan
Residency Dates: April – May 2024
Born: 1974
Hometown: Tel Aviv, Israel
Lives & Works: Tel Aviv, Israel
URL: LioraKaplan.com | Instagram: @liora_kaplan
Education:
2005 | Hamidrasha, Beit Berl Academic Art College
2003 | Avni Institute of Art and Design
Bio/Statement:
Liora Kaplan creates sculptural works and environments, which she sees as “landscapes of silence”, conveying a simultaneous sense of embarking on a journey to an ancient temple and to an unknown future. Her work materializes the desire of imbuing objects with personal meaning and underlines the role of time and space as key conditions for such a process to happen.
In her last two institutional exhibitions Kaplan’s eclectic totems explore how certain materials, shapes and textures are drawn to each other, and how to reveal an inner movement and their yearning to connect. Through the juxtaposition of found objects, fabricated elements, various materials and techniques, she honors the history of craft and constructs conceptual shrines that preserve the legacy of the artisans who came before her.
At the heart of her practice lies a beating understanding that cultures embed themselves into matter. After years of delving into the world of local material culture, Kaplan has created an archive from her extensive mid-century israeli ceramic collection. Separating each object’s visual components into categories of shape, silhouette and pattern, elevating them into a visual “Alphabet”. She uses this vocabulary as a new way to conceive monolithic marble sculptures that are rooted in history and yet carry a sense of formal freedom .
Kaplan was a healer, a meditation guide, and an NLP practitioner for many years. At the core of Kaplan’s spiritual and studio practice, there is a gentle tuning of intention, a profound listening to the essence of connection. Sound acts as a conductor at their intersection, and becomes a significant part of Kaplan’s environments. In one exhibition there was a gong bath that invited viewers to partake in a ceremonial meditation alongside her work. In a second exhibition, she collaborated with the musician Ohad Elkobi on a soundpiece, created from recordings of the ceramic vessels in her studio. Her artistic process became a type of ritual where the objects act as muses in her own holistic world that she now ‘resides’ in.
Selected solo exhibitions include: The Lighthouse is Dark Between Flashes at KMAC Contemporary Art Museum, Louisville (2023); Rhythms of Permanent Resonance at CCA, Tel Aviv (2022). Notable group exhibitions include: The Promise at CCA, Tel Aviv (2020); Ground Water at Ramat HaSharon Gallery, Israel (2020); (2020). Calling to the Goddess at Beit Hair, Tel Aviv (2020).
Support: Liora Kaplan’s residency is made possible with support from Artis.
