14 September - 15 October 2005
35 Heddon Street, London W1
Avner Ben-Gal’s elusive and moody paintings present landscapes and rural views with a desolate edge, rendered burnt and barren by harshness of climate or by damage reaped by man. Warehouses and barns go up in flames, harvests are poorly planted and meagre in their rewards, and shady looking farmers struggle to make an impact. A hazy veil appears across the surface of many of the paintings, forcing us to bring the image into focus and decipher its open-ended content. The implied narratives marry fable with the harsh reality of propagation. They evoke the structure of dreams or hallucinations, as tangible elements knit together to form an unresolved picture of a land and its inhabitants in transition.