Born in Tel-Aviv, Israel
1980-1990, Lived in N.Y. City
1980-1984, Studied at the Art Student League in N.Y.C., among her teachers were: Roberto Delamonica, Bruce Dorfman, Knox Martin Media: Oil & Acrylic Paintings, Drawings, Etchings, Cast paper, Tapestries, Murals, Clay Sculptures.
Defines her art as "Synthetic Realism".

2005 Ramat Gan Eshkol for Sciences and Art Bldg. “Smiles and Suprizes”
2004 BoxHeart Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA “Magna Mater”
2002 Painters and Sculptors Association - Israel
12/2001 - 2/2002 Wilfried Israel Art Museum - Kibbutz Hazorea - Israel (Catalog)
2001 The Castra Gallery -Haifa - Israel
2000 The National Arts Club, New York City, New York (Catalog)
1993 The Studio Neve Tzedeck, Tel Aviv, Israel
1984 Bronx Museum of Art, New York
1983 River Gallery Irvington, New York
1981 Cicchinnelli Gallery, New York
1971 Israelis Gallery, Tel Aviv

2005 Givatayim Theatre – “Creators – Personal Choice”
2005 BoxHeart Gallery, Pittsburgh PA – “Celebrate the Season” Group Exhibition and Sale
2005 Museum Leeuwenbergh in Utrecht, The Netherlands- "Art for Nature"
2005 BoxHeart Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA 5th Anniversary Exhibition
2005 St. David’s Hall, Cardiff, Wales
2004 Mariner Gallery St Ives Cornwall, UK
2004 BoxHeart Gallery, Pittsburgh,PA The 8th Annual Sacred Art Exhibition
2004 NAPA International Exhibition, Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Merseyside, UK
Awarded the Napa-Kay Greenwood-Casey Award
2004 BoxHeart Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA "The Third Annual Art International
2003 ”New Rivasinistra" Centro d'Arte e Cultura Contemporanea, Florence, Italy
2003 “New Assioma”, Centro d’Arte e Cultura – Prato, Italy (Catalog)
2002 NAPA National Exhibition, UK
2002 “Her Presence in Colours V”, Clock Tower Gallery, Sheffield, UK
2002 MAC21 Art Fair - Marbella (Catalog)
2002 Europ’Art 2002, Paris
11 / 2001 Awarded "Artist of the Week" at Global Art Information
2001 "10 Women - 10 Countries" exhibiton at Noosa Gallery representing Israel http://www.noosagallery.com/10women10countries.htm
2000 Bar David museum/outdoor exposition-Kibbutz Baram
2000 Xtreme Xteriors Xhibition at Marcus Garvey Park, NewYork City, Curator: Gallery X, New York City.
2000 "Milestones for Peace", Organized by The International Artists' Museum, Castra Art Center, Haifa, Israel
2000 Touchstone Gallery, Washington D.C.
2000 Sylvia White Gallery, Los Angeles
2000 World Art One Collection "2000 Reasons to Love the Earth", Den Haag, The Netherlands
2000 Sylvia White Gallery, New York
2000 "Milestones for Peace", Organized by The International Artists' Museum, "Jaffa Art 2000", Jaffa, Israel
2000 Peace Gallery, Art Center of Givat Haviva, Israel
1999 The Suan Pakkad Palace Museum, Bangkok, Thailand
1997 The National Arts Club, New York
1993 Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C.; Painting is in the permanent collection
1993 Stavit Gallery, Paris, France
1990 Garett Stephens Gallery, East Hampton, New York
1990 Riverdale YM YWHA Gallery, New York
1990 Strauss Gallery, New York
1989 Lamontage Gallery, New York
1987 Succoth Mural Painting, New York
1984 Dubelle Fine Art, New York
1983 C.D.S. Gallery, New York
1983 Byer Museum of Art, Illinois
1983 Dubelle Fine Art, New York
1983 Penisula Public Library, Lawrence, New York
1982 River Gallery Irvington, New York
1982 Arras Gallery, New York
1982 24th Annual Art Show, Westfield Chapter of Hadassah, New Jersey
1982 Art Expo, New York
1982 Jewish Community Center, Tenafly, New Jersey
1982 S.Morantz Gallery, Cliffside Park, New Jersey
1982 Guild Hall Museum of Art, East Hampton, New York
1982 Fine Arts Museum of Long Island, Hampstead, New York
1982 Bronx Museum of Art, New York
1982 "Art Show", 599 Broadway, New York
1981 Cicchinnelli Galleries, New York
1981 Ingber Gallery, New York
1981 S.Morantz Gallery, New York
1974 Bergman Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
1972 Z.O.A. House, Tel Aviv, Israel

SYNTHETIC REALISM
Synthetic Realism expresses a metaphor different from reality. My works create synthetic life on canvas, forming diverse flat shapes in contrasts which are not naturalistic, academic or sentimental. Shapes which recreate themselves while rendering a different interpretation to reality. These works emerge from the present experience without drawing from the past, devoid of opinion, preparation or previous training. They are the product of an entry into the unknown with freedom devoid of fear.
My works are woven into rhymes and tied up in geometry of poetic expression. The formation of my work is not cognizant. The works stem from a process of alert concentration, attention to detail and an interest in the subject. This invites an element of surprise and an unexpected freshness which adds another dimention to my works. The work is not abstract, the vivid interest is in the existing concrete subject and in the formative complex containing its whole, clear of information or any hint or message of any kind.
My work emanates from itself with a strong presence, each line dictates another and each shape creates a shape. It is built on the anatomy of art and not on the anatomy of the subject. These elements are derived from the works of maestros like Titian, Veronese El greco, Frans Hals, Velasques, Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, De Kooning, as well as the contemporary American artist Knox Martin, who was my teacher at the Art Student League in New York.
The essence of my work revolves around discovery itself and not on illustration or description. It is art that does not age and is beyond time and fashion.
ILANA RAVIV, New-York, 1986


HOLOCAUST
Visual art in it's response to human condition could never ignore the evil aspects of life, just as no individual nor nation could, without distorting or idealizing reality. From the walls of the best museums in the world countless expressions of brutality and suffering are watching us. Common to all these scenes is their message, namely the representation of a particular aspect of evil, such as a particular massacre that took place some time in some place. Rare indeed are the successful attempts to convey the idea of evil as such. For evil as such means absolute evil, and the description of absolute evil, if possible at all, suffers when it requires the presence of intermediaries - persecutors and victims alike. I dare to suggest that the commandment "You shall not make for yourself a graven image or any likeness", was meant precisely to protect one against falling into the trap of substituting the concrete for absolute. Following the killing of Abel, God turns to Cain and says: the voice of your brother 's blood is crying to me from the ground ". Why did God mention a crying voice instead of stating in plain words Cain 's guilt? Although your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow"; whenever a metaphor of an absolute is given, the bible prefers the senses over the mind, the sound and color over the reasoned argument. The Holocaust was absolute evil. Indeed, it had occurred in a certain continent during a certain moment in history, yet it transcended both location and time. Facing the numberless acts of horrors perpetrated by the Nazis and their collaborators against the Jewish people, one should nevertheless remember that underlying these crimes there was a prior crime, carefully prepared and executed against the human spirit. It consisted in the gradual and systematic destruction of all values held inviolable by humankind; it was first and foremost the murder of God's "You shall not" commandments. This being achieved, the road to every crime opens wide; moreover, walking along this road becomes inevitable. It was therefore my intention to expose this preliminary sinister aspect of the Holocaust, rather than to focus my gaze at its results. In my painting, God 's commandments are shown burning and their struggle for survival is expressed merely by the mingling of colors: the Nazi black, red and white, and the Jewish white and blue.
Ilana Raviv September 1984
This painting is in the permanent collection of the Holocaust Memorial Museum at Washington D.C.


SUKKAT SHALOM (Tabernacle of Peace)
This mural was installed for the largest Sukkah (Tabernacle) event in the world, which marked the beginning of the celebration of Israel's 40th anniversary in New York City. It was sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council and Mr. Andrew Stein, President of the City Council of New York City. This mural, which was painted in collaboration with the New York artist Knox Martin, focused on 40 years of friendship between New York and Israel adn their efforts in eradicating the problem of world hunger. The Sukkah was installed on East 1414 St. and measured 80 feet by 60 feet and was capable of holding 1000 people.


THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES
The Feast of Tabernacles, apparantly the symbol of transition, of temporary dwelling, of wandering and of being on the road; of not being there any more, and not here - yet. It is also an eternal symbol of passing from servitude into freedom, and what could more fittingly describe peace and tranquillity than the fruits of the land, the shaking of the palm branch in the direction of the four winds of heaven and the protecting thatch above us, like a dove protecting her nestlin.
For seven days and nights, so it seems, things are turned topsy-turvy, and the people of Israel are called upon to replace the protective walls of their cities and homes by walls of linen and roofs of branches, thus gaining true confidence, which is not man made.
Not in vain did the prophet Zaccariah shown, in his last days vision, the Feast of Tabernacles and Jerusalem as the symbols of the universalism of the world's peace:
"And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations who came against Jerusalem, shall go up from year to year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts and to keep the Feast of Booths". (Zac. 14;16)
Ilana Raviv
September 1987.

A true artist is beyond vanity and its ambitions. She, her, woman. Mrs. Ilana Raviv - artist, mother, wife, citizen of the world. Unique advantage of one who is interested rather than being interesting. She, from the sense of woman perceives the real relationship to art, by knowing what it is. Beyond shibboleth, fashion and encroachment of bourgeoisie surround ( art boutique ). All that is glib. This distinguished artist is then open to the dance of intelligence that comes out of the work itself, therefore is self evident and very clear that the work does not come out of any kind of lack, but from a cup that runnith over filled by art from the source which is art in relationship to life and death as mother, daughter, wife, teacher, the dynamics of living to points of joy in revelation and celebration is her art.
Knox Martin Former professor at Yale University Art Department


The art (paintings and drawings) of Ilana Raviv has the kind of preceptive rightness as it's base as do a certain period of Jackson Polock, Hals and Miro. When one says a certain period, one indicates a non analytical flow that congeals the right moment out of a fragile flight which peaks. To stop a moment before or after would render the creation average for that artist. When that peak is stopped at, the work has a tension as a crest that is the wild. This has the quality of being in a plane and encountering a solitary barren flower. A11 is without effect then the suddeness. Now this is esoteric because it can't be willed. This has been characteristic of Raviv's eariler work, a less self-conscious work. Given a foot up is then not the garden glimpsed and the awareness of the possibility of carrying an endowment to it's dangerous potential. Why not eat of the fruit of knowledge so that one can know enough to know, to cast aside the known in order for creation to take place. The vital check are the elements that make up the garden - Raviv is now in the garden. The garden of art consists of only the salient in art as has been pruned and selected by the garden masters. One of these master's is Cezanne - Cezanne knowing what the garden is creates it. A painter like Monet illustrates it. like Turner, Monet is looking at a very stubborn illusion perpetrated because it is energized by the inability to inspect the garden much less create the garden. One is revelation the other is the illustration of a revelation. Dangerous because the risks are everywhere. Beauty is the encounter with the unknown but once haven found the unknown to carry it with you makes it the known. It becomes a fossil sample. All these finds must be dropped, any accretion nullify the special access to creation. Ilana Raviv works in this garden her oeuvre is manifestly the evidence of the encounter.
Knox Martin Former professor at Yale University Art Department
Second Knox Martin Review July 26, 1984

What is A Painting?
An interview with Ilana Raviv
Watching llana's works causes many things and raises many questions. First comes the impact, which isn't easy to define, and then the curiosity, for one thing: one can't remain indifferent while looking at these works.
The external impression is evident: The colors and shapes intermingle and the overall effect is that of a synthetic and different image of reality. Ilana creates without leaving the background neutral; the spaces are as active as the shapes they define. The contrasts of shapes and changing colors are at the same time accurate and seem to flow out of themselves: the thick and the thin, the straight and the curved, the big and the small, emerging into each other and weaving their threads into a peculiar "static" motion.
I asked llana why is it that her works lack any ornamentation elements. Her answer was firm and clear: "There is simply no reason why they should be there, absolutely no reason; all that they can bring is to detract from the characteristic vigor of the painting".
"What are the elements of this characteristic vigor?" I asked.
Ilana hesitated a while, then replied: "There is a little paradox here", she said. "We are dealing here with rather simple elements that can be found in the works of the greatest painters, yet these were not discerned by all. These elements are found in the rich bow which covers the anatomy of art and are also laid at its basis. They are like a chain that passes through the tradition of such grandmasters as Titian, Veronese, El Greco, Frans Hals, Velasques, Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, Miro and De Kooning, as well as Knox Martin, the contemporary painter who was my teacher at the Art Student League in New York.
"And how would you define these elements?" I asked
"The main starting point is the existing concrete subject, from which a flat metaphor is created, a measureless and non naturalistic academic or sentimental metaphor. It is a metaphor that is born on the spur of the moment in a real-time experience, without paying tribute to past convictions, without resorting to previous training. Essentially it means opening a door to a different view, beyond reality and logic, creating yet another dimension within the wide range of the language forms, rhymes, contrasts and spirality, bound together by a geometry of poetic expression and sensation."
"Would you call this approach by a name, a group of artists that have placed it as their motto?" I asked.
"I can't recall one", said Ilana. "These elemants do not belong to and do not represent schools of thoughts, trends, messages or gimmicks. Their essence is the complexity which makes the whole without resting contented with a splinter of an idea or alegory which is supposed to be hidden behind them. They do not supply us with association, information or any other clue besides themselves. A painting should be an anatomy built of and into these elements, and not of the elements of the anatomy of a subject."
"Isn't there a danger involved in such an approach of obscurity, of loosing contact with the viewer?"
"New creation means walking into the unknown, taking fully the chance and the risk involved in opening the door to the challenge of surprise; it means daring to touch the weird and unexpected. It doesn't describe a subject and follow its steps; it is what it is, built without "going forward", without taking anything for granted, without seeking "conclusions". Each moment creates another moment, a shape that invites yet another shape."
"True, this path has its pitfalls and traps too, which make a world of difference between discovery and the mere description of discovery, an illusion of it."
"And how can one avoid these traps?", I wondered.
"This is perhaps the most difficult piece of advice one can ask for", she said. "First, one should examine the subject thoroughly and become saturated with it, and then leave it alone. Only later one should try and recreate it without carrying along any of the old concepts associated with it. Only a sudden shake-up can move us forward toward a new fusion with the subject; a fusion but not identification which only shuts the door to fresh air, inflates the ego and produces an image that kills any daring and new challenge. A true work of art isn't just a product of deep concentration, rather it is an absolute awareness of the possibilities inherent in a given subject, in its forms and contradictions."
"Is it then the idea that shapes the form of a subject, or is it the opposite?" I asked.
"The idea is not supposed to guide us or suggest a line of action; rather it is the action that unleashes the idea, the name. Nature follows creation and not the other way around, and creation isn't an invention based on the real; it is only a beginning of something that hasn't yet come into being. Moreover, this something is created and is exercising its power cut of absolute freedom, without coercion, with the same ease that one feels upon arriving back home, like a refreshment brought about by a good companion who shows interest and involvement in that which surrounds us, unlike his boring self centered counterpart. The whole point is that one should be interestred, not interesting, free from fears or alien consideration. One should express one's self without reservation or polite restraints. Like a child one should go along the mysteries of creation experiencing the full impact of every moment. One's steps should become concrete simultaneous information, beyond preconceived ideas and without preparations."
Aren't you describing here what a spontaneous creation is all about?" I remarked.
"Exactly so. This is a kind of active spontaniety, striking while the iron is hot at a moment that fits only itself, which needs no choice making, nor an opinion nor an interpretation. This is why there is no place left for a neutral background, for a musical background The subject should be formed by the uniqueness of its strong presence realization, which is constantly increasing and doesn't grow old. It is like these elements that one finds in the cave paintings and African sculptures, that dramatic impact hidden in the fiery Flamenco dance which is devoid of any meaning other than its belonging to itself - that very thing which makes this dance so different from the Broadway dance performances. These merely reenact the solving of an already solved crossword puzzle, ready made and easy to grasp, which doesn't excite and which requires little effort to digest the experience."
"The kind of art-making that I have mentioned, like the Flamenco dance, is a different thing. It belongs to the traveller climbing an unknown hill, full gas forward! Taking no heed, no precaution! What we have here isn't a trip to a given destination or purpose."
To be there, this is the key that opens the door to endless creative possibilities. These things cannot be achieved merely through the power of the will, and they are among the characteristics of Ilana's paintings.
Yehuda Oppenhiem

homepage Ilana Raviv

e-mail Ilana Raviv