Artist Assaf Evron. Article written by Linda Marcus.
What we see, how we see, and how we understand what we see is the basis of Assaf Evron‘s art. His conceptual practice spans from sculpture to photography with a variety of mediums. He says it’s one of his biggest challenges, how to “package” or explain what he does.
Evron says his art is a combination of culture, nature, and architecture with historical, phenological, and philosophical understandings. ” I’m thinking about surfaces and the depth of the relative objects in relationship to the history of ideas, but then thinking about how all of these things are speculative.”
For the viewer, Evron’s art is intriguing on multiple levels. The work itself demands the viewer’s inquiry in a sensory way. Knowledge is gained through a kind of back and forth between the viewer and the object itself. He says “there are other levels of engagement which follow the sensory experience.” But the effort is well worth it. His large- scale installations, photography, objects, and collages are not only aesthetically pleasing but also carry a deep historical perspective and understanding.
Evron is a photographer and educator at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. His work has been exhibited all over the world. He has received numerous scholarships and grants. He studied history and philosophy with his undergraduate work and then worked for a decade as a news photographer prior to getting his MFA at the Art Institute. He says “place” and where he is has always influenced the art he makes; ” All of my work comes from the where I live and what’s around me.” Place for Evron is the landscape around him. He says ” I’m thinking about landscape and the absence of landscape in the Midwest and the absence of topography. The juxtaposition with actual photography, like a placeholder for topography.”
In addition, Evron has been creating an ongoing body of large-scale installations in and around the architecture of Mies van der Rohe in Chicago. The modernist structures with their glass facades are covered with various geological sites from around the world. The images range from the Dead Sea to the Vermillion Cliffs in Arizona. The structures are saturated with landscapes often from different historical times. The intervention changes the former transparent windows to a surface to be seen and not a surface to be seen through. “We never exist outside of architecture. We are always around architecture, contaminated by architecture, segregated by architecture and it conditions our lives”, according to the artist.
Evron has transformed the McCormick House, now part of the Elmhurst Art Museum, the Esplanade Apartments on Lakeshore Drive, and the S.R. Crown Hall at ITT. Soon to be added to the list is the steel and glass house of Edith Farnsworth currently on the National Register of historic places. He is investigating and photographing the environment below the surface with a look at the vast network of caves in and around the Midwest. The work the artist says will have benefits beyond the images. ” It will give awareness to the environment that surrounds us and will lead to more sensitivity to others around you.”
Visit www.assafevron.com to learn more and connect on Instagram at @assafevron