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Ronen Azulay is an Israeli born artist that lives and work in NY since 1996. Trained since a young age in fine art he followed a corporate path as an adult and designed menswear for some of the biggest brands including Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger. At the outset of 2018 he chose to bring his life and work experience together to create art full-time. In less than two years he his art was shown in multiple shows in major cities around the country.
His current work represents a shift in his daily environment, from corporate office to artist’s studio. He has been reflecting on his role as a consumer in our world of mass production. His aim is to slowdown the process by recycling materials, using them as new media and tools. He incorporate items castoff from his former life as a fashion designer, and he currently features repurposed denim, other textiles and found objects.
Azulay comes from a tradition of artists who believe emotional expression is paramount to technique. Azulay is a technically savvy painter, his mastery of acrylics is clear the moment you lay eyes on a drop of water from his recent Shower Series. You believe you are gazing at the work of an impressionist master, until you step back to reveal an intimate contemporary scene of a person in the shower. His cunning use of color and curiousness about his subject draw you in, until you realize you are disconnected, divided from the subject by the shower cell. These works are a deeply personal meditation on the question of boundaries, individual and national. The work exposes the subject to us, even as it deflects us away, distracting us from our fear that we don't belong here. His work is the soulful struggle of a man trying to make himself at home.
This style marks a turning point in his technique. As digital photography became a part of our daily lives, Azualy began meticulously cataloging with his phone how light is effected by minor movements and expressions. He began developing a new form of pointillism, recreating each drop of water from these enlarged, pixelated images, building on the rich tradition of Seurat and Signac.
His intense consciousness of the world has resulted in work that is pure, and at the same time expresses unusual ideas with great directness. He has escaped the trap that many artists fall into of letting formal mastery overwhelm genuine feeling. As the viewer, we are deeply grateful that he has had the patience to perfect his craft and bring us into his world, if only for a moment.
More info:
Website: https://www.ronenazulay.com
Design: https://ro25design.com