ARTIST STATEMENT
In the year 2000, in light of a wave of terror that accrued in Israel, I experienced an outburst of a post traumatic disorder as a result of my army service in Lebanon. I realized that I must do everything I could to find a way out of the trauma. It seemed that the thing I could rely on the most was creativity and art. I immersed myself in an exploration of trauma and came to see it as an inner source of creativity, that I was to express and materialize.
In time, I found a way to realize my anxieties and to turn them into sculptures. I created a method of work that I call “From Strait to Create” which has been guiding me ever since.
While using diverse materials, like bronze, wax, ceramics, metal and more, I create sculptures that express mental situations and inner conflicts. My aim is to assist the observers to identify through my work reflections of their own inner world. The ability to see oneself outside of ourselves is the pathway to freedom and recovery.
A major part of my work consists of large outdoor sculptures. My motivation to create outdoor works in the public sphere is to bring these ideas to a much larger audience. I take the specific context of the sculpture’s environment into consideration and create sculptures that symbolize conflicts and tensions, but at the same time stand for the possibility of recovery, change and healing.
BIOGRAPHY
Dan Reisner (b. 1964, Haifa, Israel) is an Israeli sculptor and multi-disciplinary artist, who specializes in outdoor sculpture, and in sculptures in the urban space. Reisner’s Studio is currently located in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Reisner usually begins his creative process by exploring and deepening his understanding of the realms of pain and the unresolved that lies in between the inner and outer spaces of the psyche. Once the hidden emotional state is raised to the surface, he continues in the search for the sculpture’s site-specific location. Only then, he manifests the creation of the sculpture, as a reflection of an inner object.
His public sculptures are visually striking and space-conscious, merging aesthetics and modern sensibilities, while their style is characterized by a deep awareness of the importance of space as a design element, with a profound goal of adding value, beauty, and personality to their particular environment.
So far he has installed around twenty permanent, large-scale sculptures in Israel and around the world.
Reisner has been in the creative process of yet another important sculptural series named “Idols of the Sun,” which started in 2002, and consists of dozens of bronze sculptures. It is an ongoing series that refers to Reisner’s continual efforts and interpretation of post-trauma. This series exemplifies a unique creative approach, which deals with the personal sources of art, and the relations between artistic representation and the experiences of life. The process is based on the idea of life as an artwork that flows from an unresolved inner source yet to be discovered, whose components must be exposed at the consciousness level, extracted, and brought before the viewer. The viewer’s discovery thus leads to a source of inspiration and change.
His work has been exhibited in major Israeli museums and galleries, among them the Herzliya Art Museum, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and the Tel Aviv Museum. His work is in public and private collections.
EDUCATION
2000 Post Graduate Program, Bezalel Academy of Art & Design, Jerusalem
1991 Art Teachers Training College, Ramat Hasharon
B.A. equivalent by the Ministry of Education, Israel
SCHOLARSHIPS, AWARDS, AND RESIDENCIES
2016 Mifal haPais Grant for Printed Catalog, Mifal HaPais Council for the
Culture and Arts
2015 Traces of Dialogue, Symposium, Munster, Germany
2008 Artist in Residence at the Luts Ackermann Foundation, Gäufelden, Germany
“Infinity Art”, Mizrachi Tefachot Bank, 2nd prize
1999 Artist-in-Residence at the Cit`e International Des Arts, Paris
1997 Creative Arts Award from the Israeli Ministry of Education
1993 Young Artist Award from The Israeli Ministry of Culture
America Israel Cultural Foundation Award
1992 America Israel Cultural Foundation Award
1991 America Israel Cultural Foundation Award
1990 Ha’midrasha Art School Grant for Excellencewhite
