OHAD MATALON
Ohad Matalon is an artist and photographer working in contemporary photography and in the development of experimental photographic practices that examine the photographic medium, its conditions of possibility, and the technological, institutional, and cultural frameworks that shape the production, distribution, and reading of images. Over the years, he has developed distinct visual languages and photographic operations for different bodies of work and exhibitions, seeking to operate within the logic of the medium while simultaneously destabilizing it through the use of photographic mechanisms, photographic materials, and processes of production as a conceptual and material field of action. These approaches are reflected, among others, in the bodies of work Photo Op, Action’s Echo, North True South Bright, and others.
Among other things, Matalon has developed hybrids between the positive and negative of the same image that generate a new visual world, the construction of images based on sculptural gestures that he creates and documents through multiple perspectives and temporalities, and the use of photographic devices and photographic materials as subjects of photography in ways that oppose their original function, in order to reflect on the medium through them and examine its limits. His work brings together photography, installation, drawing, scanning, sculpture, and digital processes, and seeks to direct attention toward what usually remains transparent within the act of photography itself: the mechanisms of representation, the conditions of display, the systems of production, and the ways in which images acquire validity, value, and cultural and political authority.
Alongside the reflexive engagement with the structure of the medium, his work consistently maintains an ethical and political commitment toward the photographed reality and toward the role of photography in shaping consciousness, memory, and relations of power. In bodies of work such as The Zone and in his works documenting the ruins of Gaza, photography moves between documentation, testimony, and a critical examination of the ways in which violence, history, destruction, and collective symbols become images. Through acts of slowing down, dismantling, and reconstructing the gaze, the works seek to confront the viewer with the limits of vision, with what remains outside the frame, and with the responsibility inherent in the very act of looking.
Matalon graduated with honors from the Department of Photography at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and holds an MFA from Bezalel. He also studied philosophy at Tel Aviv University. Over the years, he has taught photography at Bezalel, Hamidrasha School of Art, Shenkar, and Minshar. His solo exhibitions have been presented, among others, at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Haifa Museum of Art, the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Podbielski Contemporary in Berlin, Dvir Gallery, and additional venues. Ohad Matalon has received the Minister of Culture Award, the Young Artist Award, and the Best Artwork Award at the MIA Art Fair. Alongside various publications and exhibition catalogs, he published the artist book The Zone and the catalog for the solo exhibition Photo Op, presented at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
Works, interviews and reviews have appeared in newspapers, magazines and publications worldwide, including:
North True South Bright – ARTFORUM , HAARET’Z
Veild Heart – HAARET’Z
The Zone – GOMMA
Action’s Echo – HAARET’Z
Interview – PORTFOLIO MAGAZINE