Reuven Israel

reuven israel

Reuven Israel (b. 1978, Jerusalem) is a New York-based sculptor known for precise, handcrafted works that blur the line between the industrial and the spiritual. A graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, his practice explores geometry, movement, and transformation. He has exhibited internationally at institutions such as the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Shulamit Nazarian (Los Angeles), and Fridman Gallery (New York), and has received awards including the Young Artist Prize from Israel’s Ministry of Culture.

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F.L.O.O.R - CCA TEL-AVIV

For his solo exhibition at CCA Tel Aviv, Reuven Israel conceived a new site-specific sculptural installation commissioned and produced by the Center and tailored for its first floor gallery. The work, entitled F.L.O.O.R. (Formulated, Liminal, Oblique, Openable, Rectangles), consists of thousands of wooden segments laminated in different colors. Tiling the exhibition space, these segments create tessellated geometric patterns that crisscross throughout the gallery, covering most of its floor. To physically enter the heart of the installation, to literally go through the work, visitors are obliged to tread on the locking rows of colorful segments. Unfolding from this tiled floor, multiple sculptural structures sprout up, leaving empty gaps in the tessellated wooden surface, where the pieces of wood once lay. Further advancing into the installation, the tiled floor breaks up into groups of segments creating geometric patterns and leaving swathes of bare floor to complete their negative spaces. On the other side of the installation, joint pieces of wood unravel - stretching across the gallery floor and spiraling into a loop, similar to a loose thread - and untie the work, giving a sense of transient temporality.

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W.A.L.L - SHULAMIT NAZARIAN GALLERY

W.A.L.L. (Wooden Arrangeable Linear Lamellations)
18 September – 30 October 2021Shulamit Nazarian presents W.A.L.L., a solo exhibition of new sculptures by Israeli-born, Brooklyn-based artist Reuven Israel—his third with the gallery. The show coincides with F.L.O.O.R., a solo museum exhibition at the Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, which will travel to the Museum of Modern Art of Bogotá.
Israel’s work challenges the idea of sculpture as fixed, incorporating color, geometry, and movement to suggest transformation and flux. W.A.L.L. features three aspects of his practice: wall sculptures with sliding parts, folding structures, and semi-circular forms. Though they appear industrial, each piece is meticulously handcrafted from birch plywood and MDF, blurring lines between the handmade and machine-made.
His geometric wall pieces shift and expand, revealing glowing inner spaces, while the Unfolding Objects series stretches into space with optical effects recalling Op Art. The semi-circular works, carved from single MDF blocks, reference lunar cycles and celestial movements.
Israel’s sculptures resist strict interpretation. Though they may suggest spirituality or science fiction, they prioritize autonomy and material presence. “I try to build a system that generates objects,” he explains, “a language that creates its own world.” Through minimal forms, his work sparks curiosity and invites reflection.

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In Four Acts - Shulamit
Nazarian Gallery LA

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Offshoot

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EXHIBITIONS

(b. 1978, Jerusalem)
Lives and works in NYCSOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS “Tempus Fugit”, 89 Greene St at Signs and Symbols, New York (2024); “Metamorphosis and Metaphors, The abyss And rising from it, Reuven Israel/Panos Tsagaris”, Ncontemporary, Milan (2023); ”Slip Slidin’”, Sevil Dolmaci Gallery, Istanbul (2022); ”Reuven Israel: F.L.O.O.R. (Formulated, Liminal, Oblique, Openable, Rectangles)”, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv (2021); "W.A.L.L. (WOODEN ARRANGEABLE LINEAR LAMELLATIONS)", Shulamit Nazarian Gallery, Los Angeles (2021); "In Four Acts", Shulamit Nazarian Gallery, Los Angeles (2018); "Offshoot", Braverman Gallery, Tel-Aviv (2018); "As Above, So Below", Shulamit Nazarian Gallery, Los Angeles (2016); "Formula", Braverman Gallery, Tel-Aviv (2016); "Multipolarity", Fridman Gallery, New York (2014); "Superpartners", Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv (2011); "Fatima", Braverman Gallery, Tel-Aviv (2010); "From Shapes to Forms", Museo Civico Floriano Bodini, Gemonio (VA) (2010); "Range of Sorrow", Montrasio Gallery, Milan (2009); "Reuven Israel", Braverman Gallery, Tel-Aviv (2006).GROUP EXHIBITION “Objects Of Affection”, Wasserman Projects, Detroit (2023); “Metamorphosis and metaphors, a dialogue on minor aesthetics”, Ark Kultur, Istanbul (2022); “10 Years”, Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles (2022); “The Promise”, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv (2020); “Play”, Braverman Gallery Tel-Aviv (2020); “Crossing Lines”, Kunsthalle Osnabrück, Osnabrück (2019); “Diplomacy”, Yeh Art Gallery St. John’s University, New York (2019); Only Connect, Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv“Twist,” Jessica Silverman Gallery Fused Space, San Fransisco (2018); "Flair," Fridman Gallery, New York (2017); "Same Same But Different," Works from The Haaretz Collection, Minus1 Gallery, Tel Aviv (2017); "Untitled.," Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv (2017); ״BENE•F•ACTION״, Andrea Meislin, New York (2016); "The Museum Presents Itself 2", Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv (2015); "The Museum Imagined", Danese/Corey, New York (2015); "Domestic Ideals", Lesley Heller Workspace, New York (2015); "Re:Start", Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv (2015); "The Readymade Centennial", Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa (2013); "No Place", BAAD Gallery, Tel Aviv (2013); "Human Nature", Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv (2013); "Curator: Yona Fisher", Ashdod Art Museum (2013); "Tracing the Fish Bladder", Radiator Gallery, New York (2013); “Re: Visiting Rockefeller,” Rockefeller Archaeological Museum, Jerusalem (2013); “Senses of the Mediterranean”, Hangar Bicocca, Milan (2011); “The Ministry of Culture and Sport’s 2009 Awards for Art and Design,” Herzliya Museum of contemporary Art (2010); “Il Segreto dello sguardo,” Galleria San Fedele, Milan (2010); What Does Sculpture Want?, Bezalel gallery, Tel Aviv (2009); In Silence, rothschild 69 project, Tel Aviv (2008), "Young Israeli Art", Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Helena Rubinstein Pavilion,Tel Aviv (2007), Forms of construction, Eigse festival, carlow ( Ireland) (2007); "Raw and Cooked", University of Haifa Art Gallery, Haifa (2007).AWARDS Young Artist Award, The Israeli Ministry of Culture (2009); the Legacy Heritage Fund Prize, Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2007); Rich Foundation Award (2006); America- Israel Cultural Foundation- scholarship (2004,2006); Prize in memory of Ehud Elhananani, Department of Fine Art, Bezalel Academy (2004).EDUCATION Reuven Israel holds both an MFA (2007) and a BFA (2004) from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design Jerusalem.