The Artistic Practice of Gilad Efrat
Born in 1969 in Beersheba, Israel, Gilad Efrat is a contemporary Israeli painter and professor. After completing his BA at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem in 1995, he went on to earn an MFA through a joint program between the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2003. His career includes a two-year residency at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, and he has held various teaching positions at Rice University and the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design. His work has been exhibited globally, with a significant solo exhibition titled Inside Painting held at The Israel Museum in 2019.
Technique and Subject Matter
Efrat’s painting method is characterized by a unique process of layering paint onto a canvas and subsequently exposing images by erasing the layers. This technique allows the canvas to function as an archaeological mound of testimonies and erasures. His subject matter fluctuates between the figurative and the abstract, encompassing a diverse range of imagery including:
His abstract works often feature large, sweeping smears of paint that retain the memory of an image, maintaining a relationship with photography even within highly processed, abstract compositions.
