Roy Mordechay

Born 1976 in Haifa, Israel, lives and works in Dusseldorf

The streaming duck 2020
Watercolor, coffee, acrylic and oil on canvas
141×191 cm

Roy Mordechay

Born 1976 in Haifa, Israel, lives and works in Dusseldorf

Curriculum Vitae

1976 Born 1976 in Haifa, Israel
1999–2002 Art Studies, Avni Institute of Art and Design, Tel Aviv, Israel
2002–2003 Scholarship Studies, School of New Media, Musrara, Jerusalem, Israel
Current Lives and works in Dusseldorf / DE

Awards & Sholarships

2024 Finalist, International Art Competition for the Cologne Cathedral
2023 Sarp, Artist in residence, Sicily Finalist, Art and Environment Award, Kummer - Vanotti - Stiftung
2017 Kunstalm - artist in residency program
2015 Pais Grant-Israel Lottery Council for Culture and Art
Yehoshua Rabinowitz Foundation for the Arts, Tel Aviv – Grant
2014–2015 International Grant Program, Lepsien Art Foundation, Germany
2012 Israel Young Artist Prize, The Ministry of Culture, Israel
Yehoshua Rabinowitz Foundation for the Arts, Tel Aviv – Grant
Guest Artist in the German-Israeli Exchange Program, Düsseldorf
2011–2012 Artist-community scholarship grant, The Ministry of Culture, Israel
2010–2011 Artist-community scholarship grant, The Ministry of Culture, Israel
2010 Honorary Award for the 15th Da Dun Fine Arts Exhibition, Taichung, Taiwan
2008–2009 Artist-Teacher scholarship grant, The Ministry of Culture, Israel
2006 Forum of the Art Museums, Beracha Foundation, Israel

Solo Exhibitions (selected)

2024 Silent Partners, PLUS-ONE Gallery, Antwerp / BE
2023 Heel to Toe, Nir Altman, Munich /DE
2022 Crocodile in Jerusalem, Maya Gallery, Tel Aviv / ISR
2021 Art Cologne - Solo presentation Three ideas for a storm, Nir Altman, Munich / DE
2019 Small Fishes in Their Vases, JosédelaFuente, Santander, Spain DAMA, Turin / IT
2018 Somewhere Between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, Nir Altman, München,
Tarabin, Solo presentation, Code Art Fair, Copenhagen
2017 A Wandering Tale, Kibutz Yad Mordechai, Israel
2016 Styrofoam Prayers, Nir Altman, München
2015 Workplace/Rough-Cut, Helena Rubinstein Pavilion, Tel Aviv Museum, Israe
2014 Partial Models of Truth, Felix Ringel Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany
One Question I Had To Ask, Rheingold Bellevue, Remagen, Germany
2013 The Slopers, Irmin Beck Projects, Munich, Germany
2012 Park, Shay Arye Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2011 Thousand Parrots, Felix Ringel Galerie & Gabriel Stux, Düsseldorf, Germany
Spreading, Nechushtan House, Tel-Aviv
2010 Free Falling, Baustelle Schaustelle Project room, Essen, Germany
2009 Out of the Green, Felix Ringel Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany
2008 Zoom-Zoom, Siman Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2007 Hashlaglags Returns, Paintings, Rehovot Municipal Gallery, Israel
2006 The Hashlaglags, Installation, Janco Dada Museum, Ein Hod, Israel

Group Exhibitions (selected)

2024 Gentle Cruise, JVDW Gallery, Düsseldorf / DE
Aufbruch, Galerie Hausschlangeneck, Euskirchen / DE
2023 Face-Time, Plus One Gallery, Antwerpen / BE
Bodies, Grids and Ecstasy, KAI10 Arthena Foundation, Düsseldorf / DE
In the Pink, Parlour, London / UK
Drawing Now Art Fair, Van der Grinten Galerie, Paris / FR
The Road to the Pole, Litvak Gallery, Tel Aviv / ISR
2022 Behind & before the figures, Van der Grinten Galerie, Cologne / DE
2021 DIE GROSSE Kunstausstellung NRW, Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf / DE
2020 Genius Loci 8, Setareh, Düsseldorf
Ground Water, Contemporary Art Gallery, Ramat Hasharon, Israel
2019 Shaped Figure, Kunstverein MMIII Mönchengladbach Shaped Figure, Kunstverein Krefeld
Decoys and Deadheads, Kunst im Hafen, Düsseldorf
Living Bridges, BBK, Düsseldorf
2017 Strangers to ourselves, (2-persons-exhibition), Achenbach & Hagemeier, Düsseldorf, Germany
2016 Zoo, Lepsien Art Foundation, Düsseldorf, Germany
Balagan, Nir Altman, München, Germany
2015 There is There, Start gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Grant Program Exhibition, Lepsien Art Foundation, Düsseldorf, Germany
I live in the east but my heart is in the west, Pasinger Fabrik, Munich, Germany
2014 Hals-und Beinbruch (with Gil Shachar), Circle 1, Berlin, Germany
2013 R+R=R, Collaboration (with Rimma Arslanov), Fresh Paint 6, Tel Aviv, Israel
Arrival/Departure, (with Rimma Arslanov), Oranim, Israel
Ministry of Culture Prize winners Exhibition, Ashdod Museum of Art, Israel.
5th Base Gallery Film Nights, London, UK
Complex Family, Beit Mani Leumi and Suzanne Dellal Centre, Tel Aviv, Israel (cat')
2011 New Directions, Mani House, Tel Aviv
And what shall we do with painting in the 21st Century?, Haifa Museum, Israel
Story Slam, Kishon Gallery, Tel-Aviv
2010 15th Da Dun Fine Arts Exhibition, Taichung, Taiwan
2009 Polari, Vegas Gallery, London, UK
Zulu-Hunters & other fantasies, Nahum Gutman, Museum, Tel-Aviv, Israel
Raly, live performance, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Standard Deviation, CCA, Tel-Aviv, Israel
Natural History Museum, Petach Tikva Museum of Art, Petach Tikva, Israel
Moving, VIP 7, Purelly Performance, Ticho House, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Art of Emergency, Artneuland, Berlin
2008 Post Pop, The Comics Museum, Holon, Israel
Hess 8, One Building, One Day Before Construction, Tel Aviv, Israel
2007 The Drawing Biennale, Reshamim 3, Jerusalem, Israel
Darom Darom, Nahum Gutman, Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel
Water, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
A Journey to an Ancient Star, Yeuda Margosa 36 Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel
2006 Diffusion, Line 16 Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel

Gruppenausstellung

Vor und hinter den Figuren (Before and Behind the Figures)

Frans Roermond, Lorenzo Pompa, Roy Mordechay

April 3, 2022

 — 

July 23, 2022

Throughout the ages, “modernity” has always triggered wide-ranging debate. One issue, however, remains fundamental: what is, in fact, the picture, and what is the artist? In an early phase of the Modern Art era, when symbolism was on the ascent, the prevailing thought was that the subject of a painting, as in poetry, should be the very essence of things, of the world, should be a likeness thereof. The value and significance of the thing was felt to lie in its unforgettability, its aura, its ability to make sentiments visible, all of which then convenes in the imagination of the viewer to produce something that can be grasped mentally and can also transcend its own physical nature. Not just an object, no: a similitude.

This type of idealism provoked a dialectical response from the realists, who explicitly favored paintings that were less likeness, allegory or idea and more object. Realists are interested in the thing and not its essential nature.

Even in the fragmented realm of cubism or in wholly abstract painting, the works were still seen as solid entities in a world of things. A dilemma for 20th century art became apparent. In the past it was a given that comparability provided the fundamental basis for the reception/perception of art. But to the same degree as recognition proceeded to depart from the level of pure comparability, painting found itself forced to embrace the elements of memory and sensitivity. A few brushstrokes and voilà: a bundle of asparagus. Not “real” asparagus, rather an analogy thereof. A direct result of increasing freedom, but also in times when paintings become just one among very many things, is that the fundamental system of analogies is also increasingly called into question. And that, in turn, provokes viewers’ desire for restoration, purification or readjustment. Like a pendulum swinging to the other extreme. All remain trapped in this paradox.

The four painters presented in the current group show “Vor und hinter den Figuren” (Before and Behind the Figures) were carefully curated to create an exhibition that is a dialogue between various outposts within the broad field of  “genuine” painting – that is, an expression of the real, immediate personal emotions/perceptions of the artist. They each take what appears to be a clear position within the historical progression described here, each having developed a unique individual language to express it. It follows that these artistic standpoints take figurative painting seriously as painting first and foremost. Not only in terms of the wide-ranging formal options it offers for creative expression, but also in its challenging preconditions, which are constantly being reconsidered.

The alliance with Philip Guston, arguably the progenitor of this forthright type of “genuine” painting, is perhaps most apparent here in the work of Lorenzo Pompa. His figures are primary yet complex elements with a streamlined corporal appearance that nonetheless strongly conveys human emotions.

Elements typical of Guston also appear in the painting of Roy Mordechay: segmentation and fragmentation of body parts and a harkening back to painterly discoveries of bygone eras – in the case of Mordechay to ancient Judea, et al. Frans Roermond’s painting is perhaps the most enigmatic, strangely timeless in its constant interspersion of figurative and abstract. The work of Matthias Röhrborn displays most powerfully the collision of mastery of the medium and subversive disruption.

Despite all the differences, each of them is ultimately concerned with the depiction of human beings, whether as a figurative form, or behind one, with ourselves in the foreground or absent.

Painting, it seems, just can’t stop after all, and it also can’t just stop.

Lorenzo Pompa (*1962) grew up in Rome where he first studied interior design and architecture before moving to Germany, later studying painting with Georg Herold at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1996 – 2003. He lives and works in Düsseldorf.

Frans Roermond (*1967) studied painting in London, Berlin and New York, which since 2017, after long periods abroad, has once again been his home and work base.

Matthias Röhrborn (*1968) studied at the Udk Berlin from 1989 – 1996. He lives and works in Berlin and Brandenburg. 

Roy Mordechay (*1976) was born in Haifa and studied at the Avni Institut of Art and Design in Tel Aviv from 1999 – 2002. He is currently based in Düsseldorf.

Gruppenausstellung

Vor und hinter den Figuren (Before and Behind the Figures)

Frans Roermond, Lorenzo Pompa, Roy Mordechay

April 3, 2022

 — 

July 23, 2022

Throughout the ages, “modernity” has always triggered wide-ranging debate. One issue, however, remains fundamental: what is, in fact, the picture, and what is the artist? In an early phase of the Modern Art era, when symbolism was on the ascent, the prevailing thought was that the subject of a painting, as in poetry, should be the very essence of things, of the world, should be a likeness thereof. The value and significance of the thing was felt to lie in its unforgettability, its aura, its ability to make sentiments visible, all of which then convenes in the imagination of the viewer to produce something that can be grasped mentally and can also transcend its own physical nature. Not just an object, no: a similitude.

This type of idealism provoked a dialectical response from the realists, who explicitly favored paintings that were less likeness, allegory or idea and more object. Realists are interested in the thing and not its essential nature.

Even in the fragmented realm of cubism or in wholly abstract painting, the works were still seen as solid entities in a world of things. A dilemma for 20th century art became apparent. In the past it was a given that comparability provided the fundamental basis for the reception/perception of art. But to the same degree as recognition proceeded to depart from the level of pure comparability, painting found itself forced to embrace the elements of memory and sensitivity. A few brushstrokes and voilà: a bundle of asparagus. Not “real” asparagus, rather an analogy thereof. A direct result of increasing freedom, but also in times when paintings become just one among very many things, is that the fundamental system of analogies is also increasingly called into question. And that, in turn, provokes viewers’ desire for restoration, purification or readjustment. Like a pendulum swinging to the other extreme. All remain trapped in this paradox.

The four painters presented in the current group show “Vor und hinter den Figuren” (Before and Behind the Figures) were carefully curated to create an exhibition that is a dialogue between various outposts within the broad field of  “genuine” painting – that is, an expression of the real, immediate personal emotions/perceptions of the artist. They each take what appears to be a clear position within the historical progression described here, each having developed a unique individual language to express it. It follows that these artistic standpoints take figurative painting seriously as painting first and foremost. Not only in terms of the wide-ranging formal options it offers for creative expression, but also in its challenging preconditions, which are constantly being reconsidered.

The alliance with Philip Guston, arguably the progenitor of this forthright type of “genuine” painting, is perhaps most apparent here in the work of Lorenzo Pompa. His figures are primary yet complex elements with a streamlined corporal appearance that nonetheless strongly conveys human emotions.

Elements typical of Guston also appear in the painting of Roy Mordechay: segmentation and fragmentation of body parts and a harkening back to painterly discoveries of bygone eras – in the case of Mordechay to ancient Judea, et al. Frans Roermond’s painting is perhaps the most enigmatic, strangely timeless in its constant interspersion of figurative and abstract. The work of Matthias Röhrborn displays most powerfully the collision of mastery of the medium and subversive disruption.

Despite all the differences, each of them is ultimately concerned with the depiction of human beings, whether as a figurative form, or behind one, with ourselves in the foreground or absent.

Painting, it seems, just can’t stop after all, and it also can’t just stop.

Lorenzo Pompa (*1962) grew up in Rome where he first studied interior design and architecture before moving to Germany, later studying painting with Georg Herold at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1996 – 2003. He lives and works in Düsseldorf.

Frans Roermond (*1967) studied painting in London, Berlin and New York, which since 2017, after long periods abroad, has once again been his home and work base.

Matthias Röhrborn (*1968) studied at the Udk Berlin from 1989 – 1996. He lives and works in Berlin and Brandenburg. 

Roy Mordechay (*1976) was born in Haifa and studied at the Avni Institut of Art and Design in Tel Aviv from 1999 – 2002. He is currently based in Düsseldorf.

Die Wohnung, off space initiator and curator, Düsseldorf, Germany
Zoo, Lepsien Art Foundation (group show) co-curator, Düsseldorf
Hess 8, one building, one day before construction, co-curator with Ravit Harari, Tel Aviv