Mark Yashaev

Mark Yashaev (b. 1981, Azerbaijan, USSR) lives and works in Haifa. Yashaev’s main medium of work is photography, in which he studies themes such as space, the relationship between objects, and the perception of time in photography, which he finds most enigmatic. He finds stimulation in architecture and archeology, as well as his personal photography archive. Part of Yashaev’s studio practice is building and creating objects that can be used within his photographed installations.

It is often said that photography freezes a moment in time, but Yashaev challenges this notion: “I try to freeze and curate more than a single moment by using a photograph within a photograph, installation within installation, using different kinds of techniques.  This allows me to tell a story with more than one meaning and undermine the fundamental concepts of Photography: the photographic time, the two dimensions versus the three dimensional and the use of light.”

Yashaev has had solo shows at Haamakim Gallery, Shaar Haamakim (2021), Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv (2018), Dual exhibition with Rona Perlman, Hahanut 31, Tel Aviv (2017), Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2016, Tel Aviv), the Wizo Academy of Education and Design, Haifa (2015), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Ramat Gan (2012) and the Jerusalem Artists House (2011).

He has participated in many group exhibitions at Kfar Saba Municipal Gallery (2022), Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem (2021), Ashdod Art Museum (2021, 2020), The 10th edition of the International Photography, Ladislav Sutnar Gallery, Pilsen and Nova Síň Gallery, Prague (2021), Hutz Gallery, Kibbutz Yagur (2020), Social Bauhaus, Haifa (2019), Beit Kandinof, Tel Aviv (2019), Atelier Shemi, Israel (2019), Sklar Levy Gallery, Modiin, Israel (2019), Zumu Museum on the Move, Hazor, Israel (2019), Bat Yam Musuem, Bat Yam (2018), Hanina Gallery, Tel Aviv (2018).

Past group exhibitions also include Launda National Museum (2009, Luanda), Wizo Academy Gallery (2009, Haifa), Rayko Center of Photography (2010, San Francisco), L.Nowlin Gallery (2010, Austin), Hamidrasha Gallery (2010, Tel Aviv), Haifa Museum (2012, Haifa), Petach-Tikva Museum of Art (2014, Petach-Tikva), Mact/Cact (2015, 2016, Bellinzona) Fresh Paint Fair (2016, Tel Aviv), Dana Gallery (2017, Yad Mordechai) & India Gallery (2017, Tel Aviv).

In 2017 he was awarded the Ministry of Culture and Sports Prize to Encourage Creativity and in 2016 the Loren and Mitchell Perser Award and Under the Hammer/Fresh Paint by Sotheby’s. He received the Photographing Angola prize in 2009 from the LR Group Cultural Foundation and the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Grant in 2008.

His work is included in many collections, such as Tel Aviv Museum of Art Collection, Joseph M. Cohen Collection, Amos Schocken Art Collection, Doron Sebbag Art Collection, ORS Ltd Zeev Holtzman Art Collection, START by Serge Tiroche, as well as private collections.

In 2009 he graduated from the Wizo Academy of Education and Design, and in 2013 he received his MFA from the  Bezalel Academy of Art.