Exhibition - Passage: Chaki’s Debut in Sun Valley

Gallery DeNovo is pleased to debut the vibrant painting of Yehouda Chaki in Sun Valley this August.  Master of color and visual drama, Chaki paints expansive landscapes that excite the senses and explore personal passage. This exhibition features twenty six paintings of landscapes and still life, both large and small, better described as a collision of the outside world with the artist’s innermost visceral perceptions.  The show opens with a reception and continues throughout August.

Raised in Israel and educated both there and at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, Yehouda Chaki has continued his mature life and his ambitions from Montreal, Canada. For this show he has chosen to work principally with two visual conventions: the landscape and the simple flower vase. With a vivid palette expressing the pleasures of seeing the world intensely, Chaki links the artistic freedom of the twentieth century with his connections in contemporary art and personal identity. “Emotion and reason coexist and complement each other in his works, with reason being the product of Chaki’s extraordinary drawing skill, and emotion guiding his sense of color. When read in depth, a landscape done by Chaki leaves us with substantial intellectual pleasure and vast emotional enrichment,” states Leo Rosshandler of the Indo-American Arts Council. “We are pleased to be able to début Chaki’s work in our area. His work is easily seen and  recognized in Canada, and many places he has called home (Israel and France), and at 70 years young, he continues to paint every day to share his vision of a newly ordered world inclusive of untouched nature,” states Robin Reiners, Gallery DeNovo director.

Chaki’s established career began with group exhibitions in 1959, and solo exhibitions in 1962. Since then, his work can be found in prestigious corporate collections and museums throughout the world including Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montreal, Musée de foyer d'Israel - Belgium, and the Fort Lauderdale Museum in Florida. Chaki also was head of Painting and Drawing in the Department of Fine Arts at the Saidye Bronfman Centre, in Montreal.  A recent accomplishment involves an exhibition that débuted in 2001 in Ontario and now is traveling, Mi Makir: A Search for the Missing. This powerful, sobering exhibition deals with Chaki’s past – memories of the Holocaust. He has made public images of both past and present victims of genocide and political persecution. Chaki explains: “The images in the project reference the Holocaust because this is my experience of loss. I use it as allegory, as a means of understanding misfortune in the largest sense. The sadness expressed is not limited to specific places or events, the time frame is eternal.”  His is a world of relative optimism and affirmation, despite his background of war and dislocation.  "He expresses these ideas in a confident homage to direct painting activated sometimes by haunting images in black and white, sometimes by loose swathes of rich color.” states Joan Murray, Director Emerita of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa.

Gallery DeNovo specializes in unique and compelling paintings, sculpture and photography from internationally represented artists. The gallery was started by collectors with a passion for helping accomplished international artists gain additional exposure in the United States. Artists include: Joan Barrantes, Quim Bove, Rein de Lege, Davis Freeman, Fred Martin, Jian Bing Nie, Anton Perich, Agusti Puig, Cynthia Fusillo, Erik Hall, Melissa Herrington, Sjer Jacobs, Andrew Lui, Graham Metson, Marta Moreu, Marlene Rose and Philip Tsiaras. Located at the NE corner of Sun Valley Road on First Avenue North “on Gallery Row”, PO Box 7214, Ketchum, 726.8180. Exhibitions and artist’s works are viewable at www.gallerydenovo.com.

For additional information and/or high resolution images please contact Robin Reiners at robin@gallerydenovo.com.

Date: August 4 – 29th, 2009

Artist’s Reception: August 7th, 5 – 8 PM

Location: Gallery DeNovo