Artist Spotlight: Gidi Gilam
Gidi Gilam, was born in Tel Aviv and now is based in Berlin. He holds a B.A. in history and philosophy from the Tel Aviv University and a B.Ades. from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem. He was awarded the D.A.A.D. scholarship and was a recipient of the
Feldheim Award for Excellence in Visual Communication. His works were exhibited at
the Holon Design Museum, Tel Aviv Municipality Museum and at the Memorial
Museum of Curitiba (Brazil) as part of the Beinal de Curitiba 25 year celebration. His works are located in the Eisenberg collection (USA) and the Hollander
collection (France).
What or who inspired you to want to be an artist?
Thinking back, I would say both my grandmothers were an inspiration. It is something I don’t remember thinking about when I started practicing art nor did I ever had conversations with them about art (maybe because they passed away when I was young), but the fact that they were both practicing art, in their own way, had a great impact on me growing up. It wasn’t until much later that I found myself working in a studio, exhibiting and selling my artwork.
What was your creative journey that has brought you to where you are in your career today?
I didn’t study art so my creative journey is full of twists and turns. I guess like many, the beginning is always in childhood with being a creative boy and going to after school art classes. During my 20’s I fooled around with printing, collage and early days of Photoshop, while studying history and philosophy in TAU. It wasn’t until I started studying visual communication in Bezalel Academy that I started practicing art and getting to know artists and galleries. Back then, as I was living in a very small one room apartment, I didn’t have a lot of space to paint so I used to go out and do street art. It wasn’t after several more years that I rented a studio and started practicing art in a more structured way. During those years, I developed my own ideas and perception of what I am actually doing and what my artistic practice is. It started with the understanding of the importance of the studio as a place for trials and errors and the importance of mastering my craft and not only in the technical sense. I also studied a lot about art in formal and non-formal institutions.
What do you need as an artist today?
As an artist, I need to expand my network and the possibility to present my work to more people, whether in the art world or not. I think it is especially important during social distancing due to the Corona virus.
What creative project are you working on now?
Currently I am working on a new series of self portraits for a future solo exhibition, though because of the restrictions imposed due to the Corona virus, I don’t know when that will happen. The portraits formulate questions that rise from my research which focuses on the impact of the image, whether it is in the political, economical or social sphere, on us as viewers. The paintings are based on a collage of images collected by myself from my ever growing archive of images. Some images are collected from the internet (mainly social media), some are scans from magazines and some are photos I take.
