Orange and Blue
Small Talk
Fragments in Red
Nurit Avesar
Artist Statement
This body of works is about the process of applying and juxtaposing fragments of paintings in order to merge them into new and coherent images.
I start the work with a large painting on paper, which I paste onto canvas. I sand the surface of the painting, tear and remove the areas that have not completely adhered to the canvas. This creates a new image composed of distressed fragments of the original painting. I then proceed to manipulate the images in order to create new ones. I often collage rust, graphite, fabric and paper, as well as paint, in order to create the finished pieces.
The final images are surprising visuals combining the arbitrary with the intentional. Faded, ghostly images of the initial surfaces merge with the bolder, brighter layers, which were added on top. Those intriguing and complex surfaces convey vulnerability along with dynamism. Manipulating and destroying finished paintings in order to create new ones, invokes the reexamination of cultural legacies and historical events and their weight on the present.