Through my art I am interested in the power of images to stand out on their own, losing all relation to any cultural, geographical or social source. Our contemporary lives take place as much in the virtual realm as in true reality. However, neither space is immune of media-generated images that are intended to represent our universally accepted societal ideals. We internalize them, strive to adhere to them, and we are under constant pressure to adopt them as our own.
Communication theorist Marshal McLuhan famously said, “the medium is the message”. The world is reduced to symbols and data maps, and is presented to us as news, entertainment, fashion, and so on. Direct experience is replaced by consumption. The term “virtualization” implies a facsimile of reality, endlessly repeated and disseminated on the Internet–a simulacrum, a copy without an original.
The processing of information undoubtedly did not begin with the Internet, however communication technology has effected it radically nonetheless.
I noticed that Japanese culture has an exceptional blurring between the virtual and the real, and between hierarchical stages in social evolution. Imaginary, folkloric figures such as the y?kai follow individuals from childhood into adulthood, interacting with them in their everyday lives. I perceive the interaction between the real and the imaginary worlds mirrored in the cyberspace that is becoming so dominant among most of us on a daily basis, and in any place in the digitized cultures. It is precisely this interaction that I aim to explore in my work.
Miri Chais
October 2013
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2013 Reflection / Extension, Satoshi Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2012 In Horror and Longing, Haifa Museum of Art, Israel
2011 Paradise, Janco-Dada Museum, Ein Hod, Israel
2011 Beyond the Real, Dwek Gallery, Mishkenot Shaananim Cultural Center, Jerusalem, Israel
2010 Colossus, Shay Arie Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2009 Viral Propogation, ongoing series debuted at DLD Conference, HVB Forum, Munich, Germany
2003 Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who’s the Fairest of Them All, Seemann Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
2002 Reflecting Walls, Hi-Tech Management School (HTMS) Gallery, Tel Aviv University, Israel
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2013 Luminosity, The Loft at Liz’s, Los Angeles, USA
2013 Generations IX: The Red/Pink Show, A.I.R Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, USA
2013 MAS Attack, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA, USA
2013 Idol Wild presents POSSESSED: A Group Art Show, Keystone Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2013 Los Angeles Juried Exhibition, L.A. Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Art Park, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2013 OUT THERE, Los Angeles Art Association/Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2013 12 x 12 x 12, Keystone Art Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA
2012 No Wonder, Hangar 2 at Port of Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Israel
2011 Meeting Point, Alfred Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2011 Code: Mosaic, Hatzouk Gallery, Natania, Israel,
2011 Venice Mémoire, Zemack Contemporary Art Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2011 Summer Exhibition, The Heder Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2011 Videocracy, The Center for Contemporary Art (CCA), Tel Aviv,
2011 Magna Carta-Art/Paper, Cain Schulte Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2010 Magna Carta-Art/Paper, Cain Schulte Gallery, San Francisco, California, USA
2009 CONmunication, Nhow Hotel, Milan, Italy
2003 OverCraft, University of Haifa, Israel
2002 The Boundaries of Sculpture, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in collaboration with Open Museum, Tefen, Omer, Israel
JURIED
2013 Los Angeles Juried Exhibition, L.A. Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Art Park, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2013 Place/Non-place: Locality in the Digital Age, Venice Arts Gallery, Venice, CA, USA
2013 Wide Open 4, Brooklyn Artists Coalition, Brooklyn NY
Juror: Carrie Springer, Whitney Museum of American Art
forthcoming
INSTITUTIONAL COMMISSIONS
2012 Black Bird, for Yohji Yamamoto exhibition, Design museum Holon, Israel
2012 Meeting Point, for Tzazim exhibition, The Israel Children’s Museum, Holon, Israel
2012 Augmented, for Secret Art 6 exhibition, Beit Mani, Tel Aviv, Israel
ART FAIRS
2012 Fresh Paint 5, Florentin Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2011 Fresh Paint 4, Florentin Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2010 Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent, Paris, France
EDUCATION
1997 – 2001 Hamidrasha School of Art, Beit Berl College, Kfar Saba, Israel