IRIT BATSRY
Irit Batsry is an artist working mainly in video and installations. Her work has been shown extensively in 35 different countries. She was awarded the prestigious Whitney Biennial Bucksbaum Award (2002) given to “an artist whose work demonstrates a singular combination of talent and imagination – a person who promises to make a significant contribution to the visual arts”. She received the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 1992 and the Grand Prix Video de Création of the Société Civile des Auteurs Multimedia, Paris (1996 and 2001) as well as other distinct fellowships from The Civitella Ranieri Foundation (2012), New York Foundation For The Arts (2002), Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology (1999) and the Jerome Foundation (1990).
Her videoart works received many festival prizes including: Grand Prix - Locarno 90 and 95, First Prize - Vigo 94 and 01 First Prize - the Australian Video Festival 89, First prize - San Francisco Poetry Film Festival 89.
Selected shows include the National Gallery in Washington, the National Film Theater and the ICA (London), Reina Sofia Museum (Madrid), Museu d'Arte Moderna (Rio), Ludwig Museum (Koln), Tel Aviv Museum, Artists Space, In 2006 the Jeu de Paume in Paris organized a retrospective of her videotapes (1981-2006), A second videotape retrospective was organized at Casal Solleric, Palma de Mallorca in 2014.
Her work is part of private and public collections including those of the Whitney and MoMA in New York City.
Irit Batsry | select exhibitions
2017
Tabacaleira | The Raft, immersive video installation, Proyector, Madrid, Spain
2015
Casal Solleric | Irit Batsry: Video Retrospective, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
2008
Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art | Beach at Nightfall, Israel
2006
Jeu de Paume | Irit Batsry : retrospective – videotapes 1981-2006, Paris, France
2003
Whitney Museum of American Art | Irit Batsry: Set
Irit Batsry | select works
Beach at Nightfall | 2008 3 channel video and mixed media installation
“With a mixture of fun, ritualism, spirituality and tribalism these images carry a twofold meaning: beauty and control versus treachery and chaos. The artist’s use of the video camera in Beach at Nightfall embraces notions of painting, abstraction and documentation while investigating formal aesthetics and cinematic language.” From Press release for the show at Shoshana Wayne Gallery
Screen | 2013
A large hand crafted ‘screen’ composed of clusters of 35mm film divides the space. A video loop depicting light being adjusted on a film set is projected through this porous ‘screen,’ affirming light as a primary condition to the existence of the image.
Caution/Danger Street Life | 2010
The gallery's glass doors are filled with yellow and red security tapes with printed legends, 'caution' and 'danger' respectively. The inner gallery spaced is turned into a ‘surveillance chamber’ by video camera that is streaming in real time the street view into two video projectors.
Caution : Ocean | 2007/2009
Caution : Ocean, 180 x 120 CM is a print of an image of a yellow industrial tape, with the word ‘Caution’ repeatedly printed on it, floating over the ocean. The work is part of the cycle Caution/Danger that includes installations and prints created with industrial plastic tapes.
