Boaz Vaadia

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Boaz Vaadia slices and carves layers of bluestone to form his figures. Each layer is hand-hewn, chiseled, and chipped in the manner of ancient arrowheads. Vaadia then stacks these gradated bluestone pieces into a stratified human form that echoes the way in which sediment is naturally layered in rock. These two simply postured figures rest on boulders placed atop heavy blue-stone slabs. The artist uses materials taken from his own urban landscape—slate and blue-stone from roofing and sidewalks, and glacial boulders unearthed from city building sites. The artist believes that using these materials connects each sculpture directly to man’s interaction with the earth. He views the urban environment not as an artificial creation but as part of a natural habitat fashioned by man.

Stout and balanced, these works emanate a density inherent to the earth. Vaadia views his work as a portrayal of the energies present in nature, and his figures as expressions of this energy frozen in modern man. The artist states that, “By using the natural forces of rocks…my work is trying to awaken these ancient ‘earth senses’ that were slowly abandoned by man during his long evolution through civilization.” His work reflects the primeval and symbolic resonance of stone as “the bone structure of the earth.”

These solid and serenely silhouetted figures are anonymous and elemental, simply occupying their defined space. The boulders on which they rest add to a sense of contemplation and speak to the spiritual potential inherent in the stone. Each figure is both self-contained and part of an interwoven environment.

Born: November 13, 1951; Israel

Resides: New York, New York, U.S.A.

Education: Brooklyn Museum Art School, Brooklyn, NY, 1976-77 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, 1975-76 Avni Institute of Fine Arts, Tel-Aviv, Israel, 1967-71

Grants/Fellowships/Awards: 1992 Utsukushi-ga-hara Open Air Museum Award, Japan 1988 National Endowment for the Arts Grant 1986 Ariana Foundation For the Arts, NY, grant 1985 Committee for the Visual Arts, Artists Space, New York, NY, grant 1977 America the Beautiful Fund, Palisades Interstate Park NY; grant and residency 1977-76 Beeckman Scholarship, Brooklyn Museum Art School, Brooklyn, NY 1976-75 America Israel Cultural Foundation Grant Selected Solo Exhibitions: 2003 Kraft Lieberman Gallery, Chicago 2003 Imago Gallery, Palm Desert, California 2002 Elaine Baker Gallery, Boca Raton, FL 2001 Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, GA 2000 Elaine Baker Gallery, Boca Raton, FL 1997 Jaffe Baker Gallery, Boca Raton, FL Imago Gallery, Palm Desert, California Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia 1996 Buschlen-Mowatt Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia Jaffe Baker Gallery, Boca Raton, Fla. 1995 Allene Lapides Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico 1994 O.K. Harris Works of Art, NY, NY 1993 Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia Helander Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida 1992 O.K. Harris Works of Art, NY,NY 1991 Helander Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida 1990 O.K. Harris Works of Art, Birmingham, MI Hokin Kaufman Gallery, Chicago, IL 1989 O.K. Harris Works of Art, New York, New York Hokin Kaufman Gallery, Chicago Illinois 1989-88 Sculpture Court Installation, The Jewish Museum, New York, New York 1988 O.K. Harris Works of Art, New York, NY Helander Gallery, sculpture David Haggit & Adoniyya, public private partnership between Arlington County and La Salle partners, sited at 1300 N. 17th Street, Rosslyn, Virginia; sculpture commissioned by La Salle Partners through an invited competition with a selection panel consisting of Arlington County officials, developers, art professionals, and a landscape architect 1988 Carnegie Park Building, 200 E. 94th St, New York, New York, permanent installation of outdoor sculpture, Omri & Ah_av, in the park of a residential apartment building, New York City, New York

Selected Group Exhibitions: 2002 Art of the 20 century_ NY, Lillian Heidenberg Imago Gallery,Palm Desert,California From Stone to Foam_ Nohra Haime Gallery, NY 2001 Vered Gallery, East Hampton, N.Y. Elaine Baker Gallery, Boca Raton, FL 2000 Buschlen-Mowatt Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia Elaine Baker Gallery, Boca Raton, FL Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia 1999 Imago Gallery,Palm Desert,California Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia Art Miami , Elaine Baker Gallery Art Palm Beach_, Buschlen Mowatt Gallery 1998 Milestones Israeli Sculptures 1948-1998_, The Open Museum, Tefen, Israel Art Miami _98_, Elaine Baker Gallery Art International New York_, Buschlen Mowatt Gallery 1997 Taipei Art Fair, Taiwan, Buscheln Mowatt Gallery The International Fine Art and Antiques Fair for America, Washington, D.C., Buschlen Mowatt Gallery 1997-96 Philharmonic Center for the Arts, Naples, Florida 1996 Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia Vered Gallery, East Hampton, N.Y. 1995 The White House, First Lady_s Sculpture Garden, 20th Century Sculpture,Southern Region Imago Gallery,Palm Desert,California 1994 Hakone Open Air Museum, Japan Open Museum at Tefen, Israel 1993 F.I.A C. in Paris, France Lillian Heidenberg Gallery, New York, New York Helander Gallery, Palm Beach, Fla. 1992 Fay Gold Gallery Atlanta, Georgia. 4th Rodin Grand Prize Exhibition, Utsukushi-ga-hara Open Air Museum, Japan 1991 Centerpieces, Norton Center, Center College, Danville, KY Art at Gateway Center, Second Annual Sculpture Exhibition, Prudential Insurance Company of America, Newark, NJ 1990 Figurative Abstraction, Helander Gallery, Palm Beach, FL. Hofstra Museum Outdoor Sculpture Installation, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY A Bite of the Big Apple!; The 79th Annual Exhibition, Maier Museum of Art, Randolph-Macon Woman_s College,Lynchburg, VA Sculpture: Soft and Hard, Margulies Taplin Gallery, Bay Harbor Islands, FL. Pygmalion, Phyllis Rothman Gallery Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison NJ 1989 Best of Season, Helander Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida 1987-86 Origins , Bronx River Gallery, Bronx, NY Other Gods: Containers of Belief, ( touring to: ) Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY; Fondo Del Sol, Washington, DC; Wallace/Wentworth Gallery, Washington D.C; The Los Angeles Municipal Gallery, Los Angeles, CA with The Craft and Folk Museum The Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA 1986 Unaffiliated IV, Hillwood Art Gallery, Long Island University, NY Contemporary Primitivism, Gallery of Contemporary Art , Colorado Springs, CO Outdoor Exhibition, CW Post Center for Public Art, Long Island University, Greenvale, N.Y. 1986-85 Contemporary Pedestal Sculpture, The Moody Gallery of Art, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Al; University Galleries, University of South Florida,TampaFL; Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL