Solo Show Opens at Walter Keller Gallery

I'm thrilled to announce the opening of my first solo show at the Walter Keller Gallery in Zurich. I've been looking forward to this for some time, so it gives me great pleasure to have my work shown in such a great venue. Here's the press release for the show, and I'll have some installation views coming soon.

GABRIEL BENAIM
TEL AVIV AT 100
An exhibition of photographs
April 29 - June 12, 2010

I am very proud to announce the first exhibition of Israeli photographer Gabriel Benaim(*1969). Choosing his series inspired by the city of Tel Aviv for his first international solo exhibition, Benaim presents us with emotionally intense, rigorously composed images that capture the unique light and fascinating architecture of this “white city by the sea”. The unpretentious simplicity of Benaim’s Tel Aviv images appealed to me from the get go. Somewhat to my own surprise. Why was this? Am I developing a new conservative view on photography, as a consequence of having seen too many fervid large-size C-prints? No. The desire for discovering skillfully composed works, laden both emotionally as well as aesthetically that only the medium of photography can produce, has always been there. I am taken by the alertness, the quiet attention to detail of the images. Strolling, leisurely meandering like a flaneur, Benaim captures this city that was founded 100 years ago. Using a large-format camera, Benaim presents us near perfectly produced silver gelatin contact prints. And this in itself is a breath of fresh air given the current confusion within the production of contemporary photography. Almost like a moment of silence in the midst of a noisy performance, Benaim’s images are calm, unhurried; photographs that pull the brakes on the race that is our urban life.

Walter Keller
For more information, please visit our website or contact the gallery
Walter Keller Gallery
Oberdorfstrasse 2, 8001 Zurich Switzerland, T: +41 (0) 43 268 53 65
info@kellerkunst.com / www.kellerkunst.com / Facebook: Galerie Walter Keller
Thursday & Friday 12 am - 6 pm, Saturday 12 am - 5 pm, Other weekdays by appointment.
For images of the exhibition please visit our website as of April 30.

An artist's talk will take place at the gallery May 24.

Article in Photonews Magazine and Book Launch for Portfolio Showcase at C4FAP

I'm pleased to announce that Photonews Magazine, Germany, has published a selection of my "Tel Aviv at 100" images in their current May issue, together with a short essay by Anna Gripp on my work (in German, will have a translation up shortly).



In other news, a selection of images from my "Tel Aviv at 100" series was included in the Center for Fine Art Photography's Portfolio Showcase Vol. 4. The Showcase includes both an online and a print component, and the launch of the book will take place May 7 at the Center in Fort Collins, Colorado. The juror for the Showcase, Kate Ware of the New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts, wrote in her statement about my work:

"Stepping back from the urban flow, Gabriel Benaim views his city from above, revealing the sinuous lines and muscular patterns that form the armature of life in contemporary Tel Aviv."

I had the pleasure of meeting Ms Ware last month at Fotofest in Houston, and spent some time showing her the actual prints of the work she'd chosen online. It was a real treat to make a personal connection with someone who knew me only through an online submission, and I'll write more about the whole Fotofest experience later this month.