Avner Sher Portfolio

avnersher@gmail.com www.sher-art.com

Working in the studio

Jonah, 2013 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood, 47x47" / 120x120 cm

My Beauty in the Garden, 2007 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood, 71x71" / 180x180 cm

Dragonfly, 2007 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 71x47" / 180x120 cm

Details

Beautiful, 2002 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 47x39" / 120x100 cm

Cuckoo Thoughts, 2001 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 47x31 / 120x80 cm

Alone with the Cat, 2013 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 47x31 / 120x80 cm

Six Days, 2013 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood, 71x71 / 180x180 cm

Cuckoo Thoughts 2, 2013 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 71x47 / 180x120 cm

Jacobs Dream, 2013 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 71x39 / 180x100 cm

Frida, 2013 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 71x47 / 180x120 cm

Bless You, 2013 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 71x47 / 180x120 cm

The Feast, 2013 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 71x47 / 180x120 cm

Big Mama, 2013 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 71x39 / 180x100 cm

Good Morning? 2013 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood, 47x47 / 120x120 cm

Noah, 2007 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood, 71x71 / 180x180 cm (Kristal Family collection)

Brunette, 2007 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 71x47 / 180x120 cm (Beilin collection)

I am king, 2007 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 71x47" / 180x120 cm

Beautiful as the Moon, 2007 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 51x87 / 220x130 cm

Untitled, 2002 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 47x31 / 120x80 cm

In the Beginning, 2001 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 47x31 / 120x80 cm

Normal, 2002 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 49x24 / 125x60 cm

Leader, 2002 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 47x31 / 120x80 cm

Fish, 2002 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 47x31 / 120x80 cm

Untitled, 2002 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 71x47 / 180x120 cm

Mirror, 2002, Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 47x31 / 120x80 cm

Life is just a game (after Benigni), 2013 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood, 47x71 / 120x180 cm

Womanizer, 2012 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 47x31 / 120x80 cm

15 minutes, 2013 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood, 47x39 / 120x100 cm

Man Eater, 2013 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 71x47 / 180x120 cm

Hope, 2013 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 71x39 / 180x100 cm

Welcome to show business, 2013 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 47x31 / 120x80 cm

Sacrifice, 2007 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 47x31 / 120x80 cm

Mummies, 2001 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 47x31 / 120x80 cm

Untitled, 2001 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood 47x31 / 120x80 cm

Diptych, 1999 Scratching, Etching and engraving on cork and wood, 38x20 / 96x50 cm (each)

AVNER SHER avnersher@gmail.com www.sher-art.com Born 1951, lives and works in Israel Education 1984 1978

Art Studies, University of Haifa, Israel B. Arch, Architecture and Town Planning, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology

Solo Exhibition 2013 2011 2007 2005 2002 Koninklijke villa, Oostende, Belgium Atelier Sher, Art Monaco Fair, Grimaldi Forum, Monaco Opera House, Tel Aviv Reflection, Municipal Gallery, Haagam, Raanana The Artist Way, Municipal Gallery, Haagam, Raanana This is his Tatoo, Mabat Gallery, Tel Aviv

Group Exhibitions 2013 Art Laren, The Brink, Laren, Netherlands Dacia Universal Art Project, Erfurt, Germany Dacia Universal Art Project, Sibiu, Romania Group Exhibition, Engel Gallery, Tel Aviv Unity Exhibition, Memoir de l'avenir gallery, Paris, France Avner Sher Paintings, Contemporary Art Fair, Javits Center, NY Art show on Broadway, Dacia Gallery, NY The Miami River Art Fair during Art Basel Week, Miami, FL Nina Torres Gallery, Miami, FL The Israel Painters & Sculptors Association, Haifa

2012

2005

Selected Publications 2013 2012 Atelier Sher, exhibition catalog Scratching the Surface by editor, Arts Observer Images in the Chaos, by Hilly Moyal, Makor Rishon newspaper Avner Sher Paintings, exhibition catalog Avner Sher, exhibition catalog, with the Current Art Group Reflection, exhibition catalog Exhibition Catalog, The Israel Painters & Sculptors Association, Haifa The Madness of Destruction, by Anat Medan, Yediot Aharonot newspaper A New Inner World, by Alim Blitenthal, Makor Rishon newspaper This is his Tatoo, exhibition catalog Israeli Artists, by Yehuda May, Auction Magazine

2007 2005 2003 2002

Collections Beilin Collection, CA Kristal Family Collection, Caesarea Private collections worldwide

Artist Statement As a child I was never allowed to go on school trips. Being an only child to survivors of the holocaust, my parents were so protective, fears that something would happen to their son. Like others who had survived the holocaust, my father and mother never told me about what they had gone through so I always had a strong feeling that my home is full of secrets. Often I would listen through the keyhole to their conversations and would hear about the long walk they were forced to make barefoot in the snow, or about the threatening dogs set upon them by the Germans. Only recently had I started to think that perhaps I am painting my fathers anguished face, and that the reoccurring images are a sublimation of the

repetitiveness of the holocaust images that I had been carrying around in my mind from an early age.
I have always been interested in a relationship between construction and deconstruction. In my early works I painted colorful compositions in oil on canvas, in the cubistic spirit. I later began exploring the other side of creation and started to destruct the surface. I am working on cork boards, using a wood scorching pen, screwdrivers and hammers, I

scratch, tear, engrave and burn the surface by splashing wine, ketchup, mud or iodine on it. The work is done without
thought, an intuitive process, instinctual, which embodies an attempt to release control. Only at the end does my unconscious content emerge, and I often contemplate its meaning only after reading the interpretations given by art critics.

Each work induces a journey beginning with intuitive unruly desecration, somehow exposing the subconscious and
indelible marks of second generation Holocaust survivors. This force turns towards revealing the beauty within the ugliness and abomination, creating an emotion full of anticipation for a better world. Hinting at man's strength, belief and will to create wholeness, a normal and full life, my

works are an expression of hope in the face of chaos.