n the two-person exhibition Skin of the Teeth, painters Rakafet Viner Omer and Talia Israeli present two-dimensional works with a childlike quality. Viner Omer shows a series of etchings she has worked on over the past year, while Israeli presents a new body of work composed of “spray drawings” that engage with notions of printmaking and imprint, created on found surfaces.
Years of ongoing conversation about painting and spatial partnership led to a desire to place their works together within a single space. A fitting moment emerged when both artists, following significant solo exhibitions, found themselves—each for different reasons—converging toward a “lean” and reduced painterly moment, both in terms of imagery and materiality. This temporary proximity enabled a shared encounter and joint installation.
Outside of this moment, the painters’ recent pictorial aesthetics differ. Yet over the years they have maintained an active dialogue concerning the conditions of painting, its local cultural context, its effectiveness, its evolutionary circumstances, and the desire to expose its foundations—as a survival tool of a struggling consciousness. As an accompanying text, the artists wrote letters to one another.
