Avner Ben-Gal

Who is Avner Ben-Gal?

Avner Ben-Gal is an international painter and artist, working mainly from Tel Aviv, Israel. His works depict various intense, often neglected locations such as agricultural fields, prisons and smoky interiors, whereby theatrical scenes play out. The scenes present ghostly, rough hewn and often low life figures that are bare and hardened. The parallel between Ben-Gal’s raw way of painting and his tough, ambiguous subject matter allows a unique intensity within his paintings.

Avner Ben-Gal studied at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem. Ben-Gal was the subject of solo shows at museums such as the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art; Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, Switzerland; and Sudden Poverty at the Aspen Art Museum, Colorado, United States; and he has participated in various group shows, including DARK at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, and as part of the Venice Biennial, 2003. A number of books have been published on his work, notably a catalogue to accompany his 2008 show in Basel.

He is currently represented by Sadie Coles HQ London and Bortolami Gallery, New York