VISUAL ARTIST LIOR MODAN
Modan’s The One-Two-Three Stones reflects on the fundamentals of the cerebral cortex, human consciousness and memory. Pulling inspiration from the research of Catalan scientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal and the artist’s own identified aphantasia, Modan materializes his forms—crossing the boundaries between sculpture and painting, object and artwork.
In this series, the pieces are surfaced in a layer of hand-dyed, fine silk velvet. Modan’s artworks invite the viewer to dive into the double sensuality of his reliefs, activating both sight and touch in their evocative chiaroscuro surfaces.
I am an artist living and working in New York for the past decade, but am originally from Tel Aviv. My studio is located in Sunset Park, south Brooklyn. It is in quite a magical space in a deteriorating historical building a few steps away from the water.
Tell us about your greatest inspirations or influences?
I was always attracted to dead artists; I love the work of Picabia, Konrad Klapheck, Kippenberger, Konrad Lueg and Dominick Di Meo.
One of the foremost influences of the trajectory of my work comes from early 20th-century fashion and design, like the work of artists such as Katarzyna Kobro, Lyubov Popova, Varvara Stepanova and Sophie Tauber Arp. These unbelievable women worked in fabric, paper and painting and tried to marry art language with ways of living. Some more recent direct inspiration has come from the likes of Domenico Gnoli, Gene Moore, Gertrude Abercrombie and René Magritte’s "Vache" period.
Tell us a bit about your creative process?
I am usually quite slow, I try to let the work evolve organically. I spend a lot of my time looking at books that I collect. The majority of the research comes from non-art-related books on topics such as cult commercial indexes, antique rope reference books, plant totemism, early 20th-century girl scout crafts books, etc. Simultaneously, there are quite a lot of technical aspects to the way I make my reliefs; I use various processes such as sculptural modeling, casting, vacuum pressure, embossing. The way I produce my work is a result of self-discovery and experimentation that I have been doing for many years. I always try to leave room for rethinking and challenging the means of making.
How has the pandemic affected your creativity, and how do you see the world changing?
The first word that comes to my mind is ‘humbling’, then ‘frightening'. It has been quite a wild emotional rollercoaster so far. It felt like staring at the sun. The pandemic was such a surprisingly strong force that happened everywhere at once and challenged our perception of the future. It felt so silly to be stuck in New York. It was stripped down to its bare bones. It was as if the city was to become the island that it physically is. Just over-populated, expensive and pretty ugly. Slowly, I managed to go back to my work, and that was a big relief. I also started liking the island life; I am living a much more isolated social life, and I can’t lie, it’s quite nice at times. As for the world, I think the end of this is still pretty far. It is hard to tell how the change will manifest.
Who do you consider to be an icon of our time?
Gianni Versace (maybe more the icon of the time right before our time).
What does wellbeing mean to you, and what do you practice?
There is so much uncertainty when you are an artist, and we are all working 24/7. Well-being for me is to try to slow down, do some internal check-ins and just be in the moment. Admittedly, I could be practicing this more often.
Check our Lior’s first west coast solo presentation at Make Room Los Angeles on September 4th.
The exhibition titled "The One-Two-Three Stones" will run till October 2, 2021.
Fish Tank, 2020 Velvet, nitrile, foam, keys in cast belt frame 18 x 22 Courtesy the artist and Make Room Los Angeles
