statement

My work is based on direct observation of the world around me. The physical involvement with the most basic material from which a painting is made --oil on canvas-- is for me a crucial part of painting. The materials and subjects that I use in my work come from a longstanding tradition. Subject-matters such as still life, portrait, figure and interior were always in the painter's eye, They were never questioned and were always relevant during the hundreds of years of innovation and change. These subjects, in their constantly evolving forms, are central to my work. The works of the Great Masters are a major source of inspiration, although what drives me is not the longing for a forgotten and eroded tradition, but the inability to paint like they painted. For me the tension hovers above a hole that was created in the painting tradition about 100 years ago. The so-called announcement proclaiming the death of painting is what tempted me to go into painting in the first place.

Having said all this, my interests lay mainly in simple compositions, with very few focal points and levels which I feel derive from my visual absorbing of modern and contemporary art. One of the main focuses of my work is on painting machinery and other utilitarian objects. In my view, these objects carry an abundance of metaphorical content. My interest with these objects has to do with my growing curiosity about the making of things- how things around me are made, and furthermore, how and why painting is made, both in the physical and in the conceptual sense. Due to lengthy periods of time spent in front of these objects, they become alive, they become a sort of baby monsters. Each one of them is therefore installed with its own special character. This charterer is what I strive to express and introduce to the viewer, together with all the other associations that these objects and the way they are painted brings to one's mind.

bio

born: 1985, Israel

education

Slade School of Fine Art, London, 2012
New York Studio School, 2010 - Current
"Hatahana", School of figurative drawing and painting, Tel Aviv, 2009 - 2010

selected awards/honors

The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation scholarship, 2011
Award for Excellence in honor of Ayala Abramov, Israel Museum, 2003

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Avital Burg - Paintings, New York Studio School, NYC, NY, 2012
News Painting | Avital Burg, Hanina Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2011
Avital Burg, Paintings, New York Studio School,  NYC, NY, 2011

selected group shows

Greenpoint Film Festival, Brooklyn, NY, 2012
Hudson & Laight Gallery, Hudson, NY, 2011 - 2012
Group Drawing Exhibition, Rothchild Fine Art, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2011
"Natalia", Curator: Dror Burstein, Hanina Gallery, Tel Aviv, 2010