Sign in with Google
Sign in with email
Featuring installations and works stretching the line between function, art and design is Please Do Not Sit at Nilufar Gallery’s Via della Spiga 32, Milan location, a solo exhibition of Israeli-American artist Shlomo Harush, on view from November 19, 2024 – March 10, 2025. For the show, Nilufar’s founder, Nina Yashar, has curated a collection of fresh works by the Jerusalem-born creative, creating a unique, engaging dialogue by manipulating and modifying objects and materials within the design gallery.
Harush (b.1961) studied Middle Eastern history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and photography at the Hadassah Community College (1987-1990). After living and working in Milan, Italy, from 1990 to 1997, he moved to New York City in 1998, where he worked from his Brooklyn studio, creating sculptures, photography, installations, paintings and mixed media art.
The gallery notes that the 63-year-old artist has been experimenting with various media to create transformative, multidisciplinary art portraying the human condition in its state of ‘perpetual metamorphosis’. “His installations, sculptures, drawings and multidisciplinary works are an expression of freedom. They embody his perception of the world, combined with the powerful force he physically exerts to shape and transition the work. Concepts manifest from material, and vice versa, through immediacy and the raw release of energy,” the show’s press release confirms.
In recent years, Harush has focused on the metamorphosis of forms and materials, achieving intriguing interrelations between art and industry. He works with industrial materials such as aluminium, bronze and steel, incorporating everyday subjects and objects into his contemporary art. "I blend everyday subjects and objects into my work, manipulating them to turn away from the archetypal towards new and unexpected emblems," states Harush, whose material manipulations turn into artistic experiences, highlighting the materials’ central role with shapes naïve, primitive, familiar and timeless.
"Working with Shlomo has been a highly interesting journey. His ability to breathe new life into everyday objects and create profound and thought-provoking art aligns with the vision of Nilufar. We are thrilled to present his innovative works and foster a deeper appreciation for the transformative power of art," Yashar comments.
In his works, the material is never dominated—instead, it becomes the protagonist, with the artist's ideas seamlessly integrated into its form, ‘transitioning from drawing to three-dimensional life’. When light and shadow merge with his works, they proffer metamorphic moments where “drawings transform into sculptures and sculptures revert to drawings”, according to Nilufar. Dimensions shift fluidly, immaterial yet perceptible.
This ‘indefiniteness’ allows his works to indulge in movement, with the interplay of light and air adding dynamism. The ongoing dialogue between art and function is evident in the manipulation of metal—its twisting, gravity and nailing—expressing tension, life and experience to evoke a sense of contemporary existence and artistic communication.
For Please Do Not Sit, the multidisciplinary artist’s works stretch between two-dimensional drawing and three-dimensional sculpture and between words, ideas and material. Working with copper alloy to etch and give it form, not just shaping it but binding his inner thoughts into the work itself ‘for eternity’. His use of brass wire creates three-dimensional drawings, “where the wire becomes a continuous line, replacing the pencil”, explains Nilufar. The final works, as witnessed in the art exhibition, are of minimal weight, complete transparency and, with their play on light, “endless new dimensions to life”.
Nilufar, a premier destination for collectors, institutions and design enthusiasts, has a legacy spanning over four decades. Its latest exhibition, Please Do Not Sit, marks a significant milestone in Harush’s career, offering the public a chance to engage with his unique vision of the world through works that defy expectations and spark critical thinking.
What do you think?