קורות: גיא סער רוסו

Guy Saar Ruso – KOROT

Guy Saar Russo – Korot
Maya Gallery, Tel Aviv
September 1 – September 24, 2022
Curator: Zeela Kotler Hadari

In his solo exhibition "Korot" (Beams / Chronologies), artist Guy Saar Russo presents a series of print and sculptural works, most of which were created over the past year (2022). These series emerged from research and observation of the local landscape—both private and collective.

Saar Russo’s unique print works began as drawings made on the beaches of Sinai or inspired by the area, gazing towards the mountains and the sea. He salvages the wood for his printing blocks from dismantled furniture, houses slated for renovation, or timber found by the roadside. The carving of the blocks is done using basic, manual hand tools. The printing process is also carried out entirely by hand, in limited editions using oil-based inks.

The artist created his series of sculptures, which depict local "Hebrew" or "Canaanite" animals—some still present, others long extinct—inspired by the Chauvet Cave discovered in France in 1994, which revealed cave paintings and art dating back to the Paleolithic period, roughly 35,000 years ago. Much like his mythical animal sculptures, the archetypal figures carved by the artist remain rooted in the bases of the wooden beams (korot), serving as remnants tied to the raw origin of the material.

Saar Russo is deeply interested in the dawn of time, wanderings, origins, and the chronicles (korot) of nation, tribe, humanity, and existence. Thus, the woodblocks used for the prints exist as standalone objects, acting as markers in a quest for the genesis of things. Like the findings in the Chauvet Cave, his works seek to become a private and collective memory, permanently imprinted into the physical matter—into the wood.