Bio

Ronen Raz (born 1964) is an artist living and working in Israel. Professionally trained as a fashion designer, Raz’s works, mostly made from processed and recycled leather, focus on body and structure, and the concept of creating something that is both animate and inanimate at the same time. Raz has had two solo shows and participated in many group exhibitions. In the winter of 2017, he took part in the prestigious residency program at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, USA. Raz’s works have been purchased by private collectors in Israel and abroad and have won several awards and commendations.

Statement

Body and structure fascinate me. During the years when I designed clothes, I realized that engineering the fashioned body does not provide a response to the ideas and organic intimacy aspects that I was interested in. I have forever been fascinated with preservation and taxonomy and in my early days, I practiced taxidermy and maintained insect's collection. Years later, I could define this as an “animate-inanimate” enterprise, an attempt to say something about the very skin we inhabit. Today I mostly deal with leather and hair, as representations of my interest in the gap between their organic, living essence, and their current dead state, as it applies to broader human questions regarding the place of mortality within our relationships and lives. My works are comprised of life-size leather shell reproductions of trivial objects. I usually use damaged stocks of leather or recycled leather goods. The pieces are painstakingly cut and sewn based on a model, and rest upon traditional work disciplines related to the creation of “haute couture.” Everyday consumer products (car parts, road parts, supermarket carts, flush pipes and more) undergo surgical and chemical manipulations as they come to life with biological tissue and evoke associations towards an organic body, which, though exhibiting signs of sexuality and sensuality, remains compressed, drained, exhausted, and primarily human.