“I look at the world and the world looks right back at me!
You know how you see something, stop, take a second look and then…begin to discern something else, something deeper maybe? Well, my paintings have that feeling, that certain something that you can’t quite put your finger on. Hidden in the folds and creases of material and paint, are things that you cannot put a name to. There may be secrets (and their purging or their perpetuation.) There is a clash of worlds amidst a multitude of glimpses, an explosion of conflicting forces, a ripple of moods. There is imbalance in the gestalt, paradoxes abound, an uneasy ceasefire of the senses unleashed. It’s enough to “feel” the reflection in a looking glass, to see the tension between two juxtaposed figures, to appreciate the negative space, to hear the beating of a hawk’s wings to know that a world of strong emotions and “canned” heat is just beyond the open window.
My paintings are about human beings, politics, sociality and Nature unbound. All people (edulcated or not, intellectual or not) can and will react and instinctively comprehend these elemental structures. As in Nature, structure and form is in everything, but by disassembling and disrupting it, we are forced to look differently at our own vision of reality.
In one way or another, my art work is always composed of a multitude of glimpses. What appears solid, contains a hint of displacement and timelessness. Success of the painting depends on how the marks, brushstrokes and stains of paint interact with each other. A hard-edged outline can both contain and invite the eye into the picture. Elaborate strokes and dabs, heighten the decorative and (at the same time) can also attack complacency! Sentimentality is avoided and repetition (sometimes in registers or grids) abstracts the image. A rhythm and language of images are born, coalesce, and cohere to depict a single form. Some paintings hang loose, like flags – torn, battered, weathered and creased – highlighting and emphasizing both internal and external conflict. Other works on stretched canvas, lend themselves to a quieter, more analytical approach.
Colour and tonality are key elements and I exploit them to create (what I would term) a “push and pull” effect. On the one hand, the viewer is drawn into the work and then, paradoxically, repelled outwards at the same time. Vibrancy and contradiction are played out with colour, line and form, confounding our emotional reaction, but whetting our appetite! Here, hard-edged and free-form, decorative embellishments versus the expressive and abstract, all come into play. I strongly believe that these apparent contradictions succeed in confounding the senses of reason and encourage the viewer to question, to delve, to penetrate the polychrome layers…… in short to EXPLORE.
LIFE IS A STRING OF IMAGES – CONFLICT AND HARMONY, THE BEAUTIFUL, THE PAINFUL, THE SERENE, THE VIOLENT. MY FERVENT WISH IS THAT THE VIEWER WILL FEEL THE DESIRE TO DELVE DEEPER, TO ASK QUESTIONS AND MAYBE COME TO REALISE THAT NOT ALWAYS ARE THERE CLEARLY DEFINED ANSWERS.
I wish to expose the vulnerability of undiluted emotion and break the cultural surface tension.”
David Ben-Ami
Autobiographical Statement
1955 Born Tel Aviv, Israel
1959 Moved to London, UK
1973 Graduated from high school, returned to Israel
1974 Founding member of Kibbutz (collective), Israel
1974 Army Service (medic)
1977-78 Worked in Cairo, Egypt
1978-82 B.F.A. Bezalel Art Academy, Jerusalem, Israel
1984-86 M.F.A. Pratt Institute, New York, USA
1989-90 Lived in East Berlin, Germany
1992-2000 Lived in Tel Aviv, Israel
2000-02 Lived and worked in Abuja, Nigeria
2003-05 Lived and worked in Canberra ACT, Australia
2006-08 Lived and worked in Bangkok, Thailand
2008-11 Lived and worked in Helsinki, Finland
2011-15 Lived and worked in Pretoria, South Africa
2015-19 Lived and worked in Hong Kong
2019- 23 Lived and worked in Vancouver, Canada
2023 – 25 Lived and Worked in Barcelona, Spain
2025 currently living and working in Gaujac, France, selling privately
Exhibitions
1982 Group show “The Other World” Jerusalem Artists House, Jerusalem, Israel
1982 Group show under the auspices of The American-Israel Cultural Foundation, Helena Rubinstein Museum of Modern Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
1983 Group show “Here and Now” The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
1984 Group show, Gallery 90, Tel Aviv, Israel
1984 Group show, “Catastrophe”, Jerusalem Theatre, Jerusalem, Israel
1985 Group show, “Myth Without God”, Jerusalem Artists House, Jerusalem, Israel
1986 Group show, Bezalel Academy Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel
1987 One-man show, Ramat Gan Museum of Art, Ramat Gan, Israel
1987 Group show, Gallery Rega, Tel Aviv, Israel
1988 Group show “Israeli Artists Solidarity Show for Palestinian Self Determination”, Gallery Rega, Tel Aviv, Israel
1988 Group show “Leading Israeli Artists for AIDS Research”, Gallery Richter, Jaffa, Israel
1989 Group show/happening, New Visions Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
1990 Designed nationally distributed poster “The Names Project-The Israel Tour”
2004 Group show, Stephanie Burns Fine Arts, Canberra, AUS
2004 Fundraising Exhibition for the Erylden Trust, Sydney, AUS
2005Group show “Hommage à Cézanne,” Stephanie Burns Fine Arts, Canberra, AUS
2005 Group show, Gallery Caviar, Cooma, New South Wales, AUS
2007 One man show “Elective Affinities” Catherine Schubert Fine Arts Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
2008 One man show “Through a Glass Darkly” Patravadi Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
2011 One man show Hotel Radisson Blue, The Mezzine Gallery, Helsinki
2015 One man show Da Vinci Gallery, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Awards / Grants
1979 The Herman Struck Prize for Outstanding Printmaking in Israel
1980 The America-Israel Cultural Foundation Grant
1981 The America-Israel Cultural Foundation Grant
1985/86 Pratt Institute Foreign Student Grant for Excellence in Academic Performance
Professional Experience (only as related to the arts)
1978-79 Art therapy for disturbed children, Jerusalem, Israel
1979-82 Teaching assistantship, Bezalel Academy of Art, Jerusalem, Israel
1984-86 Teaching assistantship, Pratt Institute, New York, USA
1985-86 Internship at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, USA
1986-89 Art teacher at the Tel Aviv School of the Arts, Tel Aviv, Israel
1991-93 Established art program and headed the department at the Gavrieli school in Tel Aviv, Israel
1993 Directed joint environmental art project for Arab & Jewish school children in Israel (under the aegis of “Interns for Peace”)
1993-97 Taught private art classes
1997-99 Taught English “through art” at a school for disadvantaged children in Tel-Aviv, Israel
2000-present Teaching private art classes and selling privately
Gallery
The Bel Ami Villa 