21 February - 6 April, 2019
text by Wilko Austermann
JosédelaFuente
C/ Daoíz y Velarde, 26
29003 Santander, Spain
Small Fishes in Their Vases points to a controversial image. Roy Mordechay is playing with words and pictures. His language propels the viewer in a direction without giving a clear answer. The mysterious thoughts of perception play an important role, linked to the ancient words fishes in their vases quoted from the Bible book of Exodus. The visual image of the title reflects the artist´s works.
Roy Mordechay is an Israeli artist based in Düsseldorf Germany. His objects are rooted in the origin of our cultural development. They are linked to ancient drawings, depictions of fear and hope. The artist creates pieces that fall between painting and sculpture. He is connecting his works as an installation, telling us a story from past to future. Mordechay uses a unique language to connect the different media in the exhibition. The paintings are characterized by different levels and perspectives. He uses various techniques combined against a shiny background. Dynamic drawings attach themselves to digital surfaces, emerging in figuration. The viewer can read the depiction and think about it before it fades away. Several images appear and are combined with other narrative sections.
The exhibition features several groups that exist between painting and sculpture. Guidance consists of industrial used wood, carved and put together in the shape of a sphinx. The traces of use (extraction) contrasts with the colourful flat head of the figure. Mordechay transforms his palette into the circular mask, marked with holes shaping eyes and mouth. Similar color tones are visible in his piece We are here to laugh at the odds #1, a rectangular wooden structure combined with a painting. Mordechay depicts abstract drawings in black and white on a soft colourful surface. The signs seem to float through an imaginary space and are open to interpretation. Figures, a head and a cup appear and provoke the beholder. Some of the new paintings are curved. Their form derives from ancient stone reliefs and are echoed today in our smartphones. Mordechay uses different techniques of painting on the canvases, giving them a dynamic structure. Watercolor, Oil, Acrylic, Ink and spray linked to a soft grid. Each medium is rooted in the past telling us their individual stories.
Roy Mordechay questions the contemporary language of our thoughts and feelings about our cultural heritage. He plays with our perception while absorbing his various visual depictions. The exhibition attests to his engagement of the ancient with the ephemeral images of our time. The cave paintings of Altamira reappear in a fluid modern intriguing achievement. Take a look inside and let yourself flow.