‘I kept my walls empty for years. I would sit and watch the light penetrate the room, observing the walls for hours… It was in that observation, in that emptiness, that my work was happening,” Avinadav Begin recalls.
This long period of attentive watching, a dialogue with surfaces, shadows, and light, now informs the monumental, tactile works on display in his solo exhibition at the Sheetrit & Wolf Gallery in Neve Tzedek, running from September 11 to September 29. The show presents 44 recent creations, where concrete, iron, steel, and pigment converge in a dialogue with space, time, and perception.
The exhibition opens with a fundraising event on September 11 at 7 p.m., with proceeds supporting Assure for Children, an organization aiding young orphans who lost both parents in the tragic events of October 7, 2023.
A dialogue with material and space
Returning to art after a 20-year hiatus was not a reinvention for Begin, but a continuation of a deeply rooted dialogue with material and space. “Still, after a 20-year break, who you are as an artist, your concept, it remains.
“When I look back at what I did at [the age of] 21, 22, 23… until I stopped at 25, I am the same artist. I deal with the same things. The materials have changed, not a lot, but essentially, it’s the same work,” he explains.
These early years, spent drawing from observation – people at concerts, on benches, quietly in parks – formed the foundation for a practice in which human presence is often implied, rather than represented, through texture, structure, and spatial tension.
Begin’s dialogue with emptiness, with space unfilled and surfaces unadorned, was not absence but incubation, a gestation period for a practice defined by attentiveness, patience, and precise observation.
A grandson of former prime minister Menachem Begin, his work is rooted in materiality. He employs everyday construction materials – sand, water, cement, iron, steel – and saturates them with pigments at the casting stage. The surfaces are then treated with heat, acids, and mechanical manipulations, creating layers of color and texture that evoke the passage of time, erosion, and repair.
“Everything is concrete, and concrete meshes. They are actually concrete castings like a wall, but you later do manipulation, sometimes dismantling and recasting, subtraction of material with heat, etching with acids, all kinds of acids,” Begin says.
Fields of energy
Begin’s engagement with history, both artistic and architectural, informs the subtle complexity of his work. He draws on a lineage of abstraction stretching from classical painters like Rembrandt and Van Eyck to modernist teachers such as Philip Leader at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design.
“It’s calculating, it’s an analysis of the field. But when I create these things, I am inside. It’s an emotional dynamic, completely,” Begin explains.
Music, played at high volume in the studio, intensifies the emotional and physical labor invested in each piece, transforming creation into a sensory and kinetic process. His work resonates with the energy of the artist present – physically, mentally, and emotionally – within each phase of his creation.
Despite the technical rigor, the works remain profoundly human and accessible. They do not demand understanding but invite presence. Some viewers may be confounded; others are moved.
“Some people move on and ask what these stupid things are, and some people get emotional. For me, these are emotional works,” Begin says.
The dialogue he establishes between material, space, and observer transcends explanation, emphasizing the experiential and the immediate over the narrative or the symbolic.
Creation as a necessity
The exhibition also underscores Begin’s philosophical approach to art. For him, creation is a necessity, not a calculation. “I build the works because I need to. The rest is that it meets people, and I see what it does,” he says.
The works emerge from an internal artistic drive rather than external stories or politics, though they inevitably resonate with the broader emotional landscape of contemporary life. In this way, Begin situates himself within a tradition of artists who explore material, space, and perception as ends in themselves, rather than as means to a narrative.
Each work in the exhibition is a meditation on form, volume, and energy. Concrete, iron, and steel are not inert; they are carriers of memory, time, and human engagement. Pigments, acids, and mechanical interventions produce surfaces that record process, interaction, and change.
The result is art that is simultaneously monumental and intimate, abstract and emotionally charged, challenging conventional ideas of beauty while offering profound aesthetic and sensory experience.
Ultimately, Avinadav Begin’s work is a study in presence, of space, of material, and of the viewer. By stripping walls bare, saturating concrete with pigment, layering, etching, and grinding, he transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.
His practice reflects decades of observation, patience, and labor, resulting in works that pulse with energy, demand attention, and reward engagement. As he puts it, “Art is first and foremost a place of emotion and energy… It’s spiritual.”
A fitting home
At the Sheetrit & Wolf Gallery, Begin’s works find a fitting home. The gallery, situated in two beautifully preserved historic buildings in Neve Tzedek, offers expansive exhibition spaces that allow visitors to fully engage with the sculptural and architectural dimensions of the work.
The interplay of light and shadow, the physicality of surfaces, and the density of pigment are all heightened in these wide, luminous rooms.
The gallery’s owners, businesswoman Ruth Sheetrit and art collector Jonathan Wolf Abramczyk, combine artistic and commercial activity with community support events and initiatives to aid war victims, strengthening and rehabilitating Israeli society.
The gallery’s commitment to contemporary art is matched by its engagement with the community, exemplified by the opening’s fundraising initiative in support of Assure for Children.
Yodfat Harel Buchris, a founder of the Assure for Children organization, will address attendees, giving voice to the young orphans whose lives have been irrevocably shaped by the events of October 7. The gesture unites aesthetic contemplation with ethical reflection, reminding viewers that creation and care can coexist within the same space.