MasksAreAid: Lea Soussan

“Virtue has a veil, vice a mask” – Victor Hugo.

Omer Tiroche Gallery is proud to present MasksAreAid, a multi-media solo exhibition by artist Lea Soussan, curated by Mor Reshef Sivan. A play on the word ‘masquerade’, the title hints at a deeper function of the ability of masks to be used as a tool as well as a façade.

MasksAreAid, showcases Soussan’s latest body of work which examines a different concept of what role masks play in our contemporary lives, both on a personal and a social level. Through her work, Lea reminds viewers that masks are not just objects but utensils that have served us for centuries and can function in our search for happiness.

The concept for the exhibition stems from the artist’s own travels, where she experienced and encountered various purposes that masks have had across different contexts and civilisations. As a result, Soussan’s practice revolves around the question of identity and unmasking one’s inner self, and it is through the process of creating these masks that she is able to continuously strive to reveal her own personal truth.

In the first part of the exhibition Soussan presents different metaphorical masks that several societies use in their day to day lives in order to hide emotions, ideologies and beliefs.  In the second part, she defines the tools that we could use to unmask the true nature of our individual identities that we so often conceal.

Lea Soussan was born in Israel, 1986 and at a young age moved to Paris. She later received an art degree from the Stern College for Woman in New York. In 2015 Soussan returned to Israel and she currently lives and works in Tel Aviv.