Appearing like pixilated images, brightly coloured weavings or even needlepoint, Guy Yanai’s oil on linen paintings depict simplified interpretations of the everyday painted in meticulously applied strokes of colour. From pot plants to sail boats, the artist paints ordinary still life subjects and sun-soaked landscapes but in a way that makes them current, gliding the brush across the canvas, one line at a time.
Titled ‘Ancienne Rive’, the young Israeli artist’s latest solo exhibition, opening 9 July at Ameringer McEnery Yohe in New York, showcases a collection of brand new works. ‘I really like the way these two words feel,’ says Yanai of the show’s title. ‘There is a lot of blue and water in all the works and all the paintings are deeply rooted in the contemporary context, yet somehow speak to the old, to the ancient. And of course edges, I'm obsessed with edges, both in painting and with people.’
Inspired by the Mediterranean climate and vegetation of his native Tel Aviv among many other things – ‘films, people, experiences’, Yanai’s use of bold blocks of colour and sunny coastal scenes has led to comparisons with Hockney – in particular his paintings of Californian homes and pools. ‘I pay homage [to Hockney] in a very personal way though,’ says Yanai. ‘I put my own memory and experience on top of some idealistic image of his,’ adding, ‘sometimes things aren't what they seem. In that way maybe the colour is a decoy for something else, to lure the viewer in at first.’
In the past, his multilayered approach has caught the eye of the fashion world, resulting in crossover collaborations with US label Band Of Outsiders on its 2014 resort collection and a skateboard for New York fashion brand Woodpoint & Kingsland in 2013. ‘Collaborating with different fields and different projects is something that I like,’ enthuses Yanai. ‘I get to work with other people - not so normal in the studio routine - and see results that could have never happened alone.’
From pot plants to sail boats, the artist paints simplified interpretations of ordinary still life subjects and sun-soaked landscapes in meticulously applied strokes of colour. Pictured: Last Splash, 2015
‘I really like the way these two words feel,’ says Yanai of the show’s title. ‘There is a lot of blue and water in all the works and all the paintings are deeply rooted in the contemporary context, yet somehow speak to the old, to the ancient. And of course edges, I'm obsessed with edges, both in painting and with people.’ Pictured: Sprinkler for Grandfather (After DH), 2015
Yanai lists the Mediterranean climate and vegetation of his native Tel Aviv among his many inspirations. Pictured: Boat with No Sailors, 2015
-
Victoire de Castellane nods to Dior motifs in a new fine jewellery collectionFor the latest additions to the My Dior collection, Victoire de Castellane turns the house’s signature cannage motif into golden wonders
-
After the floods, Valencia’s design community unitesValencia's design community launches ‘Auction for Action’ and 'Interioristas en Acción' (IED), initiatives to raise money for those effected by the floods in Spain
-
In Helsinki, Pauline Curnier Jardin has created the grotesque amusement park of her dreamsFrench artist Pauline Curnier Jardin celebrates otherness at Kiasma, Helsinki’s Museum of Contemporary Art
-
Henni Alftan’s paintings frame everyday moments in cinematic renditionsConcurrent exhibitions in New York and Shanghai celebrate the mesmerising mystery in Henni Alftan’s paintings
-
Brutalism in film: the beautiful house that forms the backdrop to The Room Next DoorThe Room Next Door's production designer discusses mood-boarding and scene-setting for a moving film about friendship, fragility and the final curtain
-
'There’s an anxiety under all of it': Violet Dennison in New YorkViolet Dennison debuts abstract paintings with new show 'Damaged Self' at Tara Downs Gallery
-
‘Gas Tank City’, a new monograph by Andrew Holmes, is a photorealist eye on the American West‘Gas Tank City’ chronicles the artist’s journey across truck-stop America, creating meticulous drawings of fleeting moments
-
Mark Armijo McKnight’s bodily landscapes capture the tactile serenity of the American WestThe artist’s new exhibition at the Whitney Museum, which is organised by the museum curator Drew Sawyer, offers a succinct window into his contemplative suggestion of queering a landscape
-
Dark, glamorous and hedonistic: a photography book captures New York in the 1990sNew York: High Life, Low Life, by Dafydd Jones, goes behind the scenes of New York society
-
Derrick Alexis Coard’s portraits are a sensitive, positive testimony to Black menThe late artist Derrick Alexis Coard’s retrospective ‘I Am That I Am’, at New York’s Salon 94, honours his ‘symbolic expression for possible change for the African-American male community’
-
Intimacy, violence and the uncanny: Joanna Piotrowska in PhiladelphiaArtist and photographer Joanna Piotrowska stages surreal scenes at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania
