You are invited to an artist talk with Ben Hagari (New York/Israel), a participant in Artport’s residency program for Israeli artists living abroad. The event will feature screenings of several works from recent years alongside a preview of a project currently in development. During the talk, Ben will discuss the creative processes behind his previous works and the research process for his current project.

Ben Hagari creates films, video installations, video sculptures, kinetic environments, animations, photographs, and exhibitions. His tragicomic work conjures unique absurd environments and wondrous worlds, blurring the boundaries between reality and imagination, between theatrical illusion and behind-the-scenes exposure. His work is the result of extensive research in literature, theater, art history, and scientific curiosity, aiming to rethink the relationships between object and creator, and between raw material and its production process, through play and role reversals.

Selected solo exhibitions include shows at Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv-Jaffa (2024); Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art (2023); The Boiler, New York (2022); Fundación CALOSA, Mexico (2021); Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2016); Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts (2016); Flora Ars+Natura, Bogotá, Colombia (2015), and more.

Ben Hagari teaches at the Yale School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut, and in the MFA program in Photography, Video, and Related Media at the School of Visual Arts (SVA), New York.

Image: Ben Hagari, “Behind”, Video, 2020