Still Life: Maya Hanoch

Omer Tiroche Gallery is proud to present, Still Life, a solo exhibition by Maya Hanoch, curated by Shira Davidi and Dorit Lautman. Hanoch’s paintings depict female figures in hazy snapshot compositions derived from still photographs that she has collected from the internet and reinterpreted into oil on wooden panels. She has chosen to use the term Still Life in its most literal and direct meaning, as the figures in her composition have been halted through the medium of photography and paint.

Having previously decided to put her work on hold and step away from painting to focus on set design, Still Life marks Hanoch’s return to painting in several years. She purposefully obscured herself backstage, until the desire to paint overcame her crushing fear of being in the spotlight. Hanoch’s blurred painting technique, enables her to create a distance from the viewer and a layer of detachment behind which she is able to hide.

This new body of work is her most personal and revealing yet, depicting her vulnerability of being exposed and on display. She highlights this by partially illustrating portions of the female form, models facing away revealing their bare backs as well as intimate viewpoints of figures sleeping, so close it feels invasive. Hanoch also includes the absence of detail in the models, her cropped figures highlight what can’t be seen which invites the viewer to complete the image themselves, therefore creating a strong sense of absence which in turn becomes very present.

Hanoch often refers to these works as ‘anti-selfies’ as her format is contrary to the normal stereotypical ‘selfie’ of sharp, perfected and posed compositions. Instead Hanoch’s blurred vision and at time awkward angles, contradicts the accepted perception of beauty, specifically during an age dominated by social media aesthetics. It is through her work that Hanoch confronts her fears of being at the forefront and addresses the everyday demands of promoting female image perfection.