born in Israel, 1982
lives and works in Tel Aviv


Barak Ravitz's use of readymade creates a nearly impossible combination of immense seriousness, meticulousness and precision, and self-humor and merry pinpricking of the balloon that is called "the world of art." The works displayed in the exhibition are based on everyday objects that belong to the home, the kitchen and the realm of cleaning. All are common, routine, necessary or functional objects; objects that even in the age of endless consumerism are not studiously designed and are hidden away in cabinets and drawers. With minimal treatment of objects, Ravitz leaves them in their dull colors and seems to place them almost effortlessly.
Like Cinderella's fairy godmother who turned a pumpkin into a coach, and with a wink to the peak moments of modernist art and minimalist sculpture, he turns a broomstick into a neon sculpture in the style of Dan Flavin, cabinet doors into a geometric abstract painting (which is also the structure of airplanes), and a silverware drawer into an illuminated floor sculpture. The titles of the works divert the objects from their home context to an experience of military valor. And thus, by merely hanging, placing or calling by name, Ravitz gives glamour to the most dismal of everyday routines and endows them with splendor and pathos; including the quotation marks.