Alon Kedem: Touch me /

“Touch me” by Jerusalem artist Alon Kedem, features two groups of the artist’s oeuvre totaling approximately 12 works. Kedem’s work deals with the relationship between the viewer and his surroundings. Each of the two groups treats this relationship in a unique manner and can be viewed as complimenting one another.

The first group is comparatively organized. In each painting appears a collection of random figures, lines and colors, perhaps pieces of objects or perhaps abstract gestures all bundled together in the center of the work or alternatively spread across the canvas. In the second group these bundled together objects have suddenly “taken off” and are now spread out loosely and fill the entire canvas. These objects invade the space between the viewer and his “subject”, and subsequently hide otherwise visible objects.

In his work, Kedem expresses his passion for painting, a celebration of color like a toy store or an ancient computer game. There exists an amount of intentional, yet relevant artificiality, as if a plastic object illuminated by a LED lamp. (adapted from Yonatan Amir, Exhibition commentary)

Kedem was named as the sole Israeli artist to appear in the important book “100 Painters of Tomorrow”, published by Thames & Hudson, 2014. The book reviews the select top 100 International Contemporary Artists and works were exhibited in London and in New York.