LOT 85
| Technique | Photography |
| Size | 52 x 70 cm |
| Availability | Available |
| Donation | 70% |
I build the image through a sequence of decisions, working the surface until it reaches a point of clarity and force.
The red X draws on an ancient visual motif: the crossed arms of sculpted figures on sarcophagi, a gesture associated with death, stillness, and protection. Here, this form becomes a central structure within the image—a custodial mark that both holds and contains a surface marked by disruption and intensity. The work brings this historical sign into a contemporary field, where it retains its symbolic weight while forming a precise and charged visual presence.
About Gilad Ophir
Gilad Ophir (b. 1957) lives and works in Tel Aviv. Since the late 1980s, he has
exhibited widely in museums and galleries, and his works are held in major
collections, including the Tate Modern, London, the Israel Museum, and the Tel Aviv
Museum of Art.
Trained in New York at the School of Visual Arts (BFA) and Hunter College (MFA),
Ophir began his studies at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, and
has served as a senior lecturer at the Bezalel Academy and at Shenkar,
Multidisciplinary School of Art.
Ophir first gained recognition for his conceptual photography, examining urban
landscapes and the traces left by human activity. In his long-term project
Necropolis, he focused on military landscapes and the enduring presence of
militarized structures embedded in the terrain.
In recent years, his practice has shifted toward a studio-based process combining
photography with material experimentation. Through layering, staining, erasure,
and reconstruction, he forms images that carry the marks of time, intervention, and
transformation.
The works presented here belong to this latter body, in which images emerge
through a sequence of decisions until the surface reaches clarity and presence.
Log in to save artworks to your favorites.
