Nevet Yitzhak

Nevet Yitzhak (b. 1975, Israel; lives and works in Tel Aviv) is a video artist, composer, installation artist, and cultural researcher. Each of these practices brings forth a complex view of art, society and culture. One of the cornerstones of her work is the use of archival material, found footage and institutional collections which she disconnect from their original context while manipulating and placing into an ensemble of images and sounds which configure her works. The outcome reintroduces the historical moment with a critical approach to past social and cultural structures and traditions. This decomposition and reconstitution in her work leaves gaps for inquiry and thought, resulting in a layered conceptual creation.

Yitzhak multi channel video & animation installations takes a critical approach to contemporary political and cultural issues. She challenges our perception of the past by raising questions about cultural heritage and collective forgetfulness within a complex local and global identity. She often employs archival materials that deal with historical events, which she then deconstructs and reconstructs using digital tools. The outcome reintroduces the historical moment with a critical approach to past social and cultural structures and traditions. The extraction of found footage from its original context and manipulation of its video and sound is one of the central processes of Yitzhak’s work.

In recent years Yitzhak’s modus operandi deviates from the prevalent relationship between the artist and the museum, which the former regards as a space in which to exhibit her work. Her works in recent years, especially in video, animation, and installation, explore the cultural perceptions and values that shape the ways in which museum collections are formed and their role as agents of memory. In her work with museum collections she constructs a new exegetical space, which combines historical and fictional elements and creates new narratives while considering the power and status of objects as reflecting a political and sociological ideology.

Her work has been exhibited among others at the 6th Asian Biennial, Taiwan; the 5th Mediation Biennale, Poland; Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland; Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach; Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin; the Museu Colecção Berardo, Lisbon; Mana Contemporary, Jersey City; National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts; SMBA, Amsterdam; Kuandu Museum, Taipei; Modern Art Research Institute, Kiev; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the Museum for Islamic Art, Jerusalem; Herzlyia Museum of Contemporary Art; Petach Tikva Museum of Art; Eretz Israel Museum, Tel-Aviv; Koffler Center of the Arts, Toronto; Circle 1, Berlin; Galeria Labirynt, Lublin; Edel Assanti Gallery, London; 68 Square Meters, Copenhagen; Bandjoun Station, Cameroon; Jeanine Hofland Gallery, Amsterdam; TSR, Miami; Nimac Art Center, Nicosia; KOU Gallery, Rome; SIP Institute for Photography, Tel Aviv; Huashan Culture Park, Taipei and CCA, Tel- Aviv.

Yitzhak has been awarded the Visual Art Award, Israeli Ministry of Culture & Sport (2017); the Landau Fund Prize for Arts and Sciences (2014); Beatrice S. Kolliner Award for a Young Israeli Artist (Israel Museum, 2014); Shmuel Givon Prize (Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2012); Creative Encouragement Award (Israel Ministry of Culture and Sport, 2012); Yehoshua Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts Grant (2008, 2010); First Prize, Experimental Film Competition, 21st International Film Festival, Jerusalem (2004); and was selected for Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Artist in Residence Program (2015- 2016) and ArtPort Artist in Residence Program (2013-2014).