Oren Eliav

Isreali painter Oren Eliav on technique, Tel Aviv’s art scene and what makes an art object

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Hollow-eyed portraits, glittering ornamentation and cavernous architecture haunt the canvasses of Israeli painter Oren Eliav. The Rappaport Prize-winner’s otherworldly imagery creates tension between doubt and faith, exploring the historical implications of his subject by reworking old-world painting techniques to effects that toe the line between the grotesque and the beautiful. Following his solo show “Two Thousand and Eleven” earlier this year at Tel Aviv Museum of Art, we asked Eliav about his journey as a painter and the art community in Israel.

Were you always creating art as a child?

I painted and drew like every other kid does. My “discovery” of art was only when I was studying Political Science at Tel Aviv University and started taking courses in art that I realized this is my true fascination. I then applied to the Bezalel art academy, so I could finally be “at the driver’s seat” to practice art and not just learn about other people doing it.

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How did the time you spent at Cooper Union affect your painting?

It’s hard to separate the Cooper Union experience from the New York experience. I went to see art almost every day at Chelsea galleries, the Met and other New York venues. This proximity to art, not as a tourist but as a resident, had a deep effect on me. For example, being able to visit a specific painting at the Met every few days and understanding it differently every time opened my eyes to what I consider the mark of truly great art: the ability to generate different meanings and emotions over time. As a painter, I really benefited from the more technical classes that unfolded a wealth of painterly know-how, from watercolor to tempera, fresco and advanced oil painting techniques.

Did you have a mentor at Bezalel University?

I learned something from everyone I encountered. The learning process for me was mostly to realize how differently people perceive the same work. In my opinion, this is what makes the “art object”, a painting in my case, a very peculiar kind of object. Each of us see the same thing in a completely different manner.

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Do you feel a connection to other artists’ exploration of the dark side of life?

I don’t think I’m necessarily exploring the dark side of life. I’m attracted to places of ambiguity and uncertainty, to the subtle but swift passage from known to unknown. But it’s not necessarily dark. It’s just a bit shaky, other artists have this capability. If you look attentively and long enough at Velazquez, for example—I have “The Spinners” in my mind—you can sense how what you thought you were looking at is actually something else. Reality starts spiraling and becomes convoluted.

In many of your newest paintings, images seem to be appearing and disappearing at the same time.

The brushstrokes are both layered on and stripped away. The whole process of painting for me is based on pushing and pulling, or in your words, “appearing and disappearing.” Technically, it is a result of working with many successive transparent glazes. A painting has a double presence. It can act as a window, so we look “through” it and things are sort of in there. But it also has a material presence, as an object hanging on the wall with its own surface qualities and physicality. So during the painting process I try to be on the lookout for a point of balance between “out there” and “in here.” Where I sense this weird double presence, I stop painting.

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Can you tell us about the art community in Tel Aviv?

The Tel Aviv art scene is very vibrant and bustling with activity. Israel is a not a simple place, and I think good art often appears where there is tension and complexity. The art community has expanded remarkably over the last decade. There are more artists, art schools, galleries and collectors than ever before and it brings with it a variety of interesting positions.

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What are you working on now?

Right now I’m working on the last chapter of a trilogy. It started with my show in June 2010 at Braverman Gallery called “They’ll Never Wake Us In Time.” In March 2011 there was the second solo show at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art titled “Two Thousand and Eleven.” The last part was planned for a gallery in Berlin, but plans changed and it is now going to be shown elsewhere in Europe or the States sometime next year.

In this cycle of works I’m trying to construct a haunted present, to convey a sense of things that belong in the past and suddenly come into life or movement in the present. As if objects, styles and persons that are long forgotten and obsolete manage to shine through darkness for one last time.


Dezeen Screen: interview with Andre Fu

Andre Fu

In this interview filmed by Dezeen at the Tai Ping carpet showroom in London, Hong Kong designer Andre Fu talks about creating his new collection for the Chinese brand. Watch the movie »

Chef Ricardo Zarate

We interview an award-winning chef on bringing his distinctive Peruvian cuisine to L.A.
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In the summer of 2009 chef Ricardo Zarate found a daring way to share his bold Peruvian flavors with Los Angeles. After many years cooking in elegant restaurants in London and Southern California, he surprisingly opened Mo-Chica in Mercado La Paloma, a food court near USC. With a menu that honored his traditional Peruvian roots and showed off his immense creative talent, he amazed local food scene devotees and eventually won many culinary accolades including Food and Wine Magazine’s “Best New Chefs of 2011” award. Zarate was also at the helm of the most coveted kitchen space in L.A. for four months in 2010, when he coordinated the myriad chefs cooking special menus at the revered experimental Test Kitchen.

Now with his beautiful new Beverly Hills restaurant Picca and a new Mo-Chica location opening in downtown L.A. later this year, Zarate has not only taken the city by storm with his masterful cooking and dynamic flavors, but has also helped put Peruvian ingredients and flavors in the mainstream spotlight.

We recently caught up with Zarate at Picca and talked about his mission to bring Peruvian food to the world stage and his devotion to Aji Amrillo. Our interview and his recipe for ceviche follow.

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Why did you decide to open Mo-Chica in the L.A. after cooking around the world?

I came to L.A. because I had already been here and really liked it, and there is so much Latin culture here. Los Angeles is a difficult city to open a new restaurant, it is very competitive but one of the main things that drives me is challenge. Since the year 2000 I knew I wanted to open up a Peruvian restaurant—I had a vision that it was going to happen. I hope that in 20 years Peruvian food will be recognized as Japanese food is now. That’s my goal. People used to think of Japanese food as exotic and rare, and now it is part of world cuisine.

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When you opened Mo-Chica in the Mercado La Paloma food court, were you surprised by the reaction?

I was very surprised and happy. The reason I opened Mo-Chica there is because I am very stubborn. I opened the restaurant during the worst time in the economy. In 2009 it was hard to get anyone to invest even one dollar. For me, my vision was ‘this is my only opportunity.’ I had to jump into the storm and try to survive. Peruvian food has always been there and now people are starting to pay attention. It was the right moment to do it.

Why do you think that Peruvian food works so well here in California?

In California, people like Mexican and Latin food. In terms of flavors, people here also like the umami flavors in Japanese, Italian and Mediterranean food. Peruvian dishes have all of these flavors on one plate. That is why I think it is going to be popular. You go to a Japanese restaurant and have very clean, nice ingredients. You eat Mexican and the food is very spicy. Mediterranean has the freshness. With Peruvian you can play with all of that on one plate, since the cuisine has Chinese, Japanese, African, European and Peruvian influences.

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Can you tell us a bit about pre-Incan cuisine and how those flavors and ingredients factor into the dishes you make?

In my family we have descendents from the Incan on my mother’s side. Many of the ingredients we are using are in there, like sun-dried potatoes and the many types of corn like cancha, mote and choclo. We also have the Aji amarillo and Aji Panca chiles and herbs like Huacatay. A few weeks ago I went to the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market and we found Huacatay. I was so excited!

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You use Aji amarillo chiles in many of your dishes. Can you tell us about them?

Aji amarillo is my favorite ingredient. If somehow that ever disappeared, Peruvian food for me would disappear. That’s how much I love it. I use it in many different ways. You can take out the seeds and make it mild or keep them for a spicier effect. It marries so nicely and is so flavorful, we put it in the cheesecake here and also started mixing it with miso…Right now we are importing then from Peru. My goal is to grow them here. We are working on it with a local farm. It’s tough. We have been trying since last year. Some of the plants died. In others attempts, the flavor was not right. Finally I received a phone call three weeks ago that the plants are doing well. Hopefully we will have the locally grown ones soon.

Another ingredient I would like to bring here is the Peruvian lemon. The flavor of the lemon is different than those grown in California. The Peruvian ones look like limes, but the skin is very thin. The flavor has acidity, but it is not as strong as the lemons here. When I use local lemons, I have to play a lot to balance the flavor.

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You are known for cooking beef heart, can you elaborate on that?

Yes, in my country anticuchos is traditionally a street food of grilled food on a skewer. Beef heart is the number one most popular ingredient for anticuchos that you will find in Peru. We also cook stomach, tripe and many other ingredients.

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You are also known for your classic and creative ceviches. What is the secret to a great ceviche?

First of all, it is fresh ingredients. The second thing to consider is the balance of flavor. For me it needs to be balanced with a kick. All the ingredients need to marry together. The kick can be chile, spices or garlic. Ceviche is a dish that needs to have power.

Do you have a favorite ceviche?

The most simple one is my favorite—sea bass, lime, onions, garlic, cilantro and for chile I would use Aji amarillo or Rocoto.

Ricardo Zarate’s Ceviche

For the ceviche sauce:

1/3 cup pure honey

4 garlic cloves

1/4 red onion

4 sticks of clean celery

1/8 lb fresh seabass

1 cup lime juice

½ cup coconut milk

1 tbs Aji amarillo paste

For the ceviche:

1 lb fresh seabass, diced

½ red onion, sliced

1 tbs cilantro, sliced

Red serrano chili (to taste)

Salt and pepper (to taste)

Notes: Aji amarillo paste is a yellow Peruvian chili paste that you can find in different Latin markets. You can substitute the serrano chili for either jalapeño or habanero chilis to taste.


Interview: Assemblage 1 by Toogood

Interview: Assemblage 1 by Toogood

Dezeen Screen: designer Faye Toogood presents Assemblage 1, her first collection of furniture and lighting made of stone, brass and English sycamore, in this interview that Dezeen filmed during the London Design Festival 2010. Check out our plans for this year’s festival here. Watch the movie »

Dezeen Screen: Max Fraser at Lab Craft

Dezeen Screen: Max Fraser at Lab Craft

Dezeen Screen: this next movie in our series filmed at the London Design Festival 2010 features curator Max Fraser talking about Lab Craft, an exhibition of work that marries craftsmanship with digital technology. Watch the movie »

Dezeen Screen: interview with Jaime Hayón

Dezeen Screen: interview with Jaime Hayón

Dezeen Screen: while Dezeen prepares for the 2011 London Design Festival, here’s a previously unseen interview we filmed with Spanish designer Jaime Hayón during last year’s festival. Watch the movie »

Dezeen Screen: interview with Jens Martin Skibsted

Dezeen Screen: interview with Jens Martin Skibsted

Dezeen Screen: Danish designer Jens Martin Skibsted talks about his bicycle brand Biomega and the future of urban cycling in this previously unseen video filmed by Dezeen during the London Design Festival 2010. Watch the movie »

Cool Hunting Video Presents: Making the Evoque

A behind the scenes video with Range Rover learning about the bridge between design and manufacturing

When Range Rover asked me to be a City Shaper and help tell the world about their all-new Evoque one of my first requests was to meet the car’s designers and visit the factory where they’re being built.

Exploring the role of design at Range Rover we visited their creative team in Gaydon, England to learn about how the LRX concept vehicle was translated to the all-new Evoque. From there we traveled north to the factory in Halewood to see how the cars are manufactured and what it means to bring a design to life.


This is Head: "0001"

Swedish sounds perfect for your next rooftop party, road trip or canoe ride

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For summer bike rides, picnics and general fun in the sun, dreamy, burned-out music makes the perfect warm weather soundtrack. The electro-pop sounds of Swedish band “This is Head” have been making my ears happy as of late, so I asked band member Henric Claesson a few questions about their latest album, matter-of-factly titled “0001.”

You’ve named the tracks as numbers in chronological order. Are you just lazy?

When we started off as a band in 2008 all the songs were instrumental, without vocals, at least 99% of the time. We called them Number 1, Number 2, etc., and decided to continue with that, even after vocals were added. We’re not lazy, but we make quick decisions!

Some have described your sound as a mix between the Discovery Channel, Autobahn and a car accident.

It’s hard to explain it in another way. We think its the perfect description for the time when we wrote the music, rehearsed and recorded the album. Our friend Mikael described it this way, “They never thought of a song with the idea of sounding like Yeasayer joining up with the drummer from Neu! in an effort to play unreleased songs by U2 just so they could be mixed by Dan Lissvik from Studio and then be released by Touch & Go. That just happened.”

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Do you think that being Swedish influences your sound?

The sound could probably have been created in all Northern European countries. The long dark winters create this kind of music I think.

Your record puts together a lot of different influences, such as vintage electronical music, ’80s pop and so on.

We didn’t think of it. It just happened. We’ve all been listening to different styles of music and are listening to different styles of music. Since we write the songs together in the rehearsal room we all do what we think is best at the moment. That’s probably why you hear a lot of different influences in our music. I think all of us have different views on “0001,” we describe it totally differently if we’re asked what it sounds like. Because we all mainly listen to the parts we’re the most proud of I guess.

You can add “This is Head” to your summer playlists by purchasing their album on iTunes or listen on Myspace and Facebook.


Dezeen Screen: interview with Peter Zumthor at the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2011

Dezeen Screen: interview with Peter Zumthor at the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2011

Dezeen Screen: Swiss architect Peter Zumthor talks about his design for this year’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in this movie filmed by Dezeen at the preview yesterday in London. Watch the movie »

Above portrait is by Arup/Emilie Sandy Photography.