Emmanuel Fremin Gallery is proud to announce its first solo exhibition for Israeli artist Eitan Vitkon. Thorns will open with a reception on ThursdayJanuary 8 from 6-8 pm and run until February 8.

The ‘Thorns’ photographs are stunning portrayals of shapes and silhouettes, carefully enveloped in thorns collected by the artist himself.The painstaking images describe Vitkon’s feeling about his homeland: “I collected the first thorns on the family farm where I grew up and brought them to my studio. Today, I have thorns from all over Israel.”

While the images evoke the most intimate moments in one’s life: an infant, a kiss, a loving embrace reminiscent of security, stability, and a familiar tenderness, the thorns proclaim Israel’s soul a difficult entity to navigate. If one is searching for relief, it will not be found in Vitkon’s work. All images from the ‘Thorns’ series strive to create a balance, focusing on reverence for reality rather than lament, through the exploration of hidden meanings and
intangible truths. The work strips the skin of reality and transforms it into new time textures, thereby drawing parallels to the depths of the surface we now live in – both literally and symbolically. If skin is the toughest human organ, soft yet strong, then Vitkon succeeds admirably in exposing his metaphoric position on Israel, it’s people, and it’s soul.