Guided by Light - Daniel Enkaoua and Dale Chihuly

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Guided by Light
Daniel Enkaoua
Dale Chihuly

Guided by Light: Daniel Enkaoua | Dale Chihuly

Daniel Enkaoua | Dale Chihuly

Curator: Hadas Glazer

Litvak Contemporary, April-June 2025

Catalogue editor: Orit Ephrat-Moscovitz

Design: Daria Weiser

Photograghy: Youval Hai

Measurements are given in centimeters and inches: height x length x depth

Litvak Contemporary

Shvil Hamifal 3 Street, Tel Aviv 66535, ISRAEL +972-3-7163897

LITVAKCONTEMPORARY.com

© All rights reserved to Litvak Contemporary, Tel Aviv, 2025

Guided by Light: Daniel Enkaoua | Dale Chihuly

The encounter between Dale Chihuly and Daniel Enkaoua presents a rich dialogue between two artists exploring the relationship between light, material, and time. Chihuly, the renowned American glass artist, and Enkaoua, a French-Israeli painter, work in different mediums but share a common pursuit — capturing that elusive moment when light is transformed into color, transparency, and texture.

Chihuly infuses glass with wild, untamed energy, offering a bold and personal interpretation of the classical Venetian tradition. Enkaoua, by contrast, delves into the intimate connection between the figures and still lifes he paints and the infinite, contemplative backgrounds they inhabit. Both artists, each in their own way, investigate how material — whether molten glass shaped in a blazing workshop or paint applied layer by layer — can become a vessel for capturing time and movement.

While both draw inspiration from tradition, they are not bound by it — they deconstruct and reimagine it anew.

Chihuly engages in a dialogue with the Venetian glassmaking heritage, known for its symmetry and ornamentation, yet transcends it towards an expressive, almost primal language. His creative process begins with vibrant drawings that envision each piece and culminates in the hotshop, where they are transformed into sculptures full of color, twists, and dynamic motion. Many of the Venetians series were created in the 1990s and 2000s in collaboration with Lino Tagliapietra, one of Venice’s greatest glass artists. The result is both a homage to tradition and a breakthrough beyond it — swirling lines, clashing colors, and a balance of elements inspired by organic forms from flora and fauna. For Chihuly, glass is a sculptural body that captures light, reflects it, and engages in a dialogue of transparency, brilliance, and depth. Much like Caravaggio’s baroque paintings, light here is not merely a tool — it is the heart of the dramatic event. In Chihuly’s work, light becomes the story itself — a raw, elusive substance capable of altering the color and form of what unfolds before our eyes.

Enkaoua anchors his practice in the tradition of realist figurative painting through prolonged observation, yet converses with the language of abstraction — evoking Rothko’s endless color fields and Giacometti’s slender, contemplative figures. His subjects are present, but only at their edges — contours blur, colors dissolve, and the figure sinks into layers of transparency and emotional detachment, glazed with distance. The light in his paintings is soft, subtle. Color does not merely depict a figure but reveals its emotional state, carrying its inner mood. His figures seem to emanate an inner glow. Here too, as with Chihuly, there is both reverence for tradition and a quiet subversion of it. Enkaoua’s portraits do not aim to document a likeness but to capture its transience — the movement between appearance and disappearance.

Despite differences in material and medium, both artists focus on the manifestation of light. Chihuly operates from an expressive impulse reminiscent of Jackson Pollock — a gesture of

material release, surrender to chaos, where technical virtuosity meets spontaneity. Enkaoua, on the other hand, navigates between the physical and metaphysical — not seeking to depict a figure, but to evoke its presence. His paintings resemble fleeting moments — images that emerge and fade, merging into their backgrounds.

The encounter between Chihuly and Enkaoua is unexpected yet profoundly natural. Chihuly creates pulsating, twisting forms — almost alive; Enkaoua paints faint memories — residues of light, color, and feeling. Both strive to seize a moment, to capture the ephemeral — a movement, a glow, a flash — and give it substance.

In this exhibition, material itself — whether molten glass or diluted paint — becomes a space where light acts, exists, and leaves its resonant echo behind.

Dale Chihuly
Marbled Yellow Piccolo Venetian with Green Leaf and Coil, 1994 Glass
35.56 x 17.78 x 17.78 cm 14 x 7 x 7 in.
Inquire
Dale Chihuly
Transparent Yellow Piccolo Venetian with Yellow Leaves and handles, 1994
Glass
27.94 x 17.78 x 12.7 cm
11 x 7 x 5 in.
Inquire
Dale Chihuly
Gray Blue Piccolo Venetian with Orange Coil, 1994 Glass
35.56 x 17.78 x 17.78 cm 14 x 7 x 7 in.
Inquire
Dale Chihuly
Clear Yellow Piccolo Venetian with Burgundy Prunts, 1997
Glass
27.94 x 22.86 x 17.78 cm
11 x 9 x 7 in.
Dale Chihuly
Clear Red Piccolo Venetian with handles, Leaves and Tigerlilies, 1994
Glass
33.02 x 17.78 x 17.78 cm
13 x 7 x 7 in.
Inquire

22.86 x 17.78 x 17.78 cm

9 x 7 x 7 in.

Dale Chihuly
Spotted Sterling Blue Piccolo Venetian with Clear Ribbons, 1994
Glass
Inquire
Dale Chihuly
Ruby Red Piccolo Venetian with Reduced Green Leaves, 1995
Glass
27.94 x 15.24 x 15.24 cm
11 x 6 x 6 in.
Inquire

27.94 x 12.7 x 15.24 cm

11 x 5 x 6 in.

Dale Chihuly
Gold Over Blue Piccolo Venetian with Spotted Green Leaves, 1995
Glass

20.32 x 20.32 x 20.32 cm

8 x 8 x 8 in.

Dale Chihuly
Turquoise Blue Piccolo Venetian with Cerulean Blue Handles, 1994
Glass
Inquire
Dale Chihuly
Cadmium Green Piccolo Venetian with Red Orange
Lip Wrap, 1997
Glass
22.86 x 20.32 x 17.78 cm
9 x 8 x 7 in.
Inquire

27.94 x 15.24 x 12.7 cm 11 x 6 x 5 in.

Dale Chihuly
Violet Piccolo Venetian with Rose Coil and Red Flowers, 1995
Glass
Dale Chihuly
Pale Pink Piccolo Venetian with Larkspur Blue Leaves, 1995
Glass
30.48 x 22.86 x 22.86 cm
12 x 9 x 9 in.
Dale Chihuly
Honeysuckle Piccolo Venetian with Cyan Spires, 1997
Glass
34.29 x 19.05 x 17.78 cm
13 1/2 x 7 1/2 x 7 in.
Dale Chihuly
Clear Lilac Rose Piccolo Venetian with Spotted Green Prunts, 1994
Glass
27.94 x 20.32 x 17.78 cm
11 x 8 x 7 in.

35.56 x 15.24 x 17.78 cm

14 x 6 x 7 in.

Dale Chihuly
Rose Cloud Piccolo Venetian with Sepia Spotted Leaves, 1997
Glass
Inquire
Dale Chihuly
Pale Yellow Piccolo Venetian with Crimson Blossoms, 1997
Glass
20.32 x 22.86 x 17.78 cm
8 x 9 x 7 in.
Dale Chihuly
Platinum and Black Venetian with Horns, 1991
Glass
40.64 x 33.02 x 38.1 cm
16 x 13 x 15 in.
Dale Chihuly
Black Venetian with Cobalt Blue Petals, 1991 Glass
40.64 x 43.18 x 40.64 cm 16 x 17 x 16 in.
Dale Chihuly
Silvered Venetian with Silvery Blue Blossoms, 2009
Glass
124.5 x 48 x 40.5 cm
49 x 18 7/8 x 16 in.
Dale Chihuly Gold Venetian with Spotted Flowers, 2010 Glass
88.9 x 48.26 x 43.18 cm
35 x 19 x 17 in.
Dale Chihuly Gold Venetian with Deep Wine Flowers, 2010 Glass
73.66 x 35.56 x 27.94 cm 29 x 14 x 11 in.
Inquire

220 x 210 cm

86 1/2 x 82 5/8 in.

Daniel Enkaoua
Aure en rouge, 2014-2015
Oil on canvas

x 39 cm

7 7/8 x 15 3/8 in.

Daniel Ekaoua
Tomates Montserrat, 2012
Oil on canvas
20
Daniel Enkaoua
Natan et la capuche, 2017 Oil on canvas
100.3 x 100.2 cm
39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in.

27.3 x 37.2 cm

5/8 x 14 5/8 in.

Daniel Enkaoua
Le mur el la table, 2022
Oil on canvas mounted on wood
10
Daniel Enkaoua
Chou et blettes, 2022
Oil on canvas mounted on wood
19 x 29.3 cm
7 3/8 x 11 1/2 in. Inquire

Daniel Enkaoua

Aure assise vue de haut, 2017-2020

Oil on canvas

178 x 102 cm

70 x 40 1/8 in.

Inquire

195 x 130 cm

76 3/4 x 51 1/8 in.

Daniel Enkaoua
Liel de profil assis torse nu, 2022-2023
Oil on canvas

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Guided by Light - Daniel Enkaoua and Dale Chihuly by Litvak Contemporary - Issuu