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Reviews & Articles

Masculine, feminine and something in between

By Uzi Tsur, Haaretz, July, 2008

An unstoppable flood innundates Noam Omer's works in their large paper sheets.  Omer is a very young artist, who studied at the Midrashah, but the present exhibition shows ripeness and  maturity far beyond expectations.  In his works figure and landscape are amalgamated and twisted into one mass, feminine accessories standing side by side with a glaring masculinity. A feeling of sexual ambivalence pervades most of the works.

 

In "Jacob's ladder" the nude body of the protagonist merges with the landscape, surrounded by dream fragments with echoes of Kandinsky.  An impromptu tryptich deals with the mutual grapplings of sportsmen, at the borders between fraternal and erotic love, between mutual hugging and strangling.  Pastel arabesques entwine the strained flesh and muscles. A powerful, mature man leans over the bodies of stranded whales, with drooping flesh and female breasts and nipples.  In "the Peacock" an exuberant male bends over the roofs of a town that shoots forth out of his loins, offering them the breast.  In a "Pietá" a young man carries an older one on his arms, while both are surrounded by flowers with penises that embellish their compassionate embrace.

Omer is a very talented artist, whose pictorial qualities express a truth beyond changing fashions. The catalogue to the exhibition captures additional aspects of his work.  However, to get a feeling of the fullness of his art, one needs to confront the large sheets that seem to keep unfolding over and beyond their physical limits.

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