Leonid Balaklav – The Artist.
Leonid Balaklav immigrated to Israel in 1990, already
a well known and promising artist in Moldavia. Balaklav's works are rooted in the tradition of European painting which he became acquainted with during his studies at the Academy of Kiev and Odessa. In Israel he connected with other artists from Russia and the U.S.S.R., both old timers and new timers, who were enlightened by the Israeli culture and experience. Through them, Balaklav bonded with Israeli culture. Balaklav's works combines cultures and stand on their own right as an expression of changes taking place in an artist coming from another environment, bearing rich culture and finding a way to connect to Israeli light and art. Leonid Balaklav found his Israeli identity through religious rebirth and in many of his paintings the religious family experience is expressed. The variety of subjects are vast – nature, still life, scenery from the studio's window, Jerusalem alleys, and village scenes. However, the most prominent is the self portrait which Balaklav has been occupied with from the day he arrived to Israel. Balaklav studies his portrait as it is reflected in a mirror during the course of the day, in the different moods which express internal and external exchanges, materialistic and spiritual.
At times the painting is severed, the image is cut and the enigma of its image remains unsolved. As a religious believer, Balaklav does not see in the image perfection, and it is therefore always missing and unfinished like. The easel of the painting is a partition between the portrait and the viewer and hides part of his image however, the easel is a symbol and motif accompanying the artist. There are instances when the artist is revealed through his image reflected from the mirror that severs from his body and face. Not only does Balaklav sever part of his body or face, many of his paintings do not completely cover the entire canvas and leave the canvas bare, and this same emptiness accentuates and strengthens the whole allowing the viewer to complete the picture through his imagination.
Ella Klier Ariel
Leonid Balaklav Works 1995-2007 15.6.07-19.7.07
The paintings presented in this exhibit give us a unique glance into the world of an artist living and working in Jerusalem. The paintings cast a picture of the artist's intimate life; we see his house and his terrace, his studio and window, as well as the occasional glimpse into his everyday existence.
Balaklav does not choose to depict dramatic panoramic scenes; rather he prefers painting the small corners of existence, breathing new life into them through his unique ability to see the extraordinary side of them: a puddle on the street, a cat on a terrace in Nachlaot, and a kettle sitting on the countertop near the window. He likes to paint self-portraits as well as portraits of friends and family. When he paints a small boy, there is a sensation that his childhood comes back to him, he feels as if he himself is the subject and that the painting is a portrait of himself as a child. In that vain, when he paints an elderly man, he identifies with the character and feels as if he is painting an elderly version of himself. Past and present blend in his soul, the village of his youth is portrayed within the image of the tree in the studio window, and other scenes merge with the views of the village.
Balaklav came to Israel from Moldavia, his soul deeply entrenched with the culture and scenery of his past, and today those scenes tend to merge. His works preserve hues of the European climate as well as colors from his past, yet he paints them under the Israeli sun, and thus the brown becomes orange, yellow, and pink. Green is a very dominant force, thereby symbolizing the flora, vegetation, and life. Through the paintings, he succeeds in combining the cultural identity that he brought with him with the new culture he studied and absorbed here.
Balaklav paints on cloth, on wooden planks, on plates of Formica and on cardboard. He paints tiny pictures of scenery that are like jewels in their abrupt beauty. The fragmented portraits, the narrow and shrunken characters on the planks, the unfinished scenery, the diminution of painted material and the focus on empty spaces creates an expression of spirituality and a feeling of creation ex-nihilo. Ella Klier Ariel
Biography
1956 – Born in beltza, Moldavia, ussr
1971 – 1973 Studied at an Art school in Kiev
1974 – Studied at the Art Institute in Odessa
1990 – Immigrated to Israel
One artist exhibitions
1978 – Scientists' house, Kiev
1988 – The Jewish center, Moscow
1989 – Central artists' house, kishinev, Molavia
1991 – "Immigrant Artists", Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv
1993 – "Cypresses", Artists' House, Jerusalem
1994 – "From there to here", Museum of art Ein Harod
1997 – "Drawing 93-97", Herzliya museum of art, Herzliya.
"New Works", Artists' House , Jerusalem
1998 – "Landscape and Still-Life", Artspace, Jerusalem
2000 – "Portrait", artspace, Jerusalem
2002 – "The Face of the Light", Museum of Art Ein Harod
Among his Group exhibitions
1977 – Participated in ten group exhibitions in Moldavia, USSR
1990 – "Iimmigrants 90", z.o.a house, tel aviv
1992 – "Russian artists in new york" Michael endo gallery, new york
"New acquisitions", the Israel Museum, Jerusalem
1995 – "Mirror mirror", Youth Wing, the Israel Museum, Jerusalem
1997 – "At eye height", Artists House, Jerusalem
2002 – "Portrait", Tel Aviv Museum of Art
2006 – "Self Portrait", Israeli Art, Jerusalem
Awards
1987 – Gold Medal at theInternational Film Festival, Tokyo
1995 – Jerusalm Prize for painting and sculpture, Jerusalem
2002 – Israel Discount Bank Israel Museum Prize for an Israeli artist
Leonid Balaklav's Gallery... |  |