Art Chicago 2011: New Insight
Art Chicago, The Merchandise Mart graduate student
Oren Lukatz April 29–May 2, 2011
Each year, students from the San Francisco Art Institute are invited to apply to Art Chicago, which annually features an exhibition showcasing emerging talent from the best MFA programs in the country. In 2011, MFA candidate Oren Lukatz’s series The Violent Season was selected for inclusion in Art Chicago’s New Insight exhibition. The project consisted of night photographs that were taken on the beaches of Tel Aviv, Israel, Lukatz’s former hometown, during the summer of 2010.
Lukatz makes the following statement about the project: Summer in Israel is a violent season. The unbearable Mediterranean heat during the day, and the constant urge to fight it, is mixed with an ongoing worry for one’s personal safety and security. At night, the air cools down and a sea breeze comes in. Along the boardwalk of Tel Aviv, people allow themselves to stay late at the beach or just stroll along. Guillaume Apollinaire, a French poet from the early 20th century, once wrote: “Summer is here, the violent season, and my youth died in the Spring.” These words express the approach I took photographing the beaches of my former hometown: partly as a local, partly as a tourist—always divided and split.
Oren Lukatz The Violent Season – 2010 – Archival inkjet print 22 x 33 inches
Image courtesy of the artist
Oren Lukatz The Violent Season – 2011 – Installation view of the exhibition Photographed by Oren Lukatz
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