Benyamin Reich
Benyamin Reich was born in Bene Brak to a Hassidic family in 1976. At the age of 16 he left the Orthodox community and dedicated his life to art. He studied at the Musrara School of Photography in Jerusalem, the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris and the Bezalel Academy of Art. Since 2009 Reich lives in Berlin. In his works, Benyamin attempts to find sparks of holiness in secularized modernity and in the human condition. On his aesthetic mission, he explores conflicts and similarities between the Western world and traditional cultures. By recourse to a Renaissance inspired humanism and motifs from Romanticism, such as religion, land and intimacy, Benyamin searches for a new harmony. In his portraits, landscapes and still lifes he combines extremes and alleged opposites, including: sensuality and spirituality, the sacred and the profane, nature and civilization.
זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק (Amalek)
2018 | Fine Art Print, Wooden Frame, museum Edition No.: 1/6 | 35 x 35 cm |
In the series „Imagine“, Benyamin Reich deals with painful pasts and coping strategies as they are frequently found in modernity. In his works he invites us into a dreamlike alternative reality that playfully romanticises a lost route, that could have been taken but never manifested itself. The selection of works calls on the viewers to develop critical discussion skills and to engage i n an ongoing cultural , psychological and political conversation with lasting significance for our time.
Selfie
2018 | Fine Art Print, Wooden Frame, Edition No.: 1/5 | 160 x 240 cm
The „A Jewess marrying a Nazi“ works dive deeply into the complicated relations between Jews and Non-Jews in Germany's 21st century liberal society and their continuing traumata. Himself an Israeli migrant to Berlin and a descendant of Holocaust victims and survivors this series processes some of his own emotional reflections and developments – as well as that of many Israelis in Germany's capital. In another picture Benyamin and one of his sisters stand in a pose evoking Caspar David Friedrich on one of Rügen's famous cliffs, reinstantiating the lost Garden of Eden and simultaneously making a tribute to the romantic era and the various blendings of identity associated with that period.
Hortus
2015 | Fine Art Print, Wooden Frame, Edition No.: 3/5 | 160 x160 cm |
Benyamin and one of his sisters stand in a pose evoking Caspar David Friedrich on one of Rügen's famous cliffs, reinstantiating the lost Garden of Eden and simultaneously making a tribute to the romantic era and the various blendings of identity associated with that period.
Chuppah
2018 | Fine Art Print, Wooden Frame, museum Edition No.: 1/5 | 31 x 25 cm |
The „A Jewess marrying a Nazi“ works dive deeply into the complicated relations between Jews and Non-Jews in Germany's 21st century liberal society and their continuing traumata. Himself an Israeli migrant to Berlin and a descendant of Holocaust victims and survivors this series processes some of his own emotional reflections and developments – as well as that of many Israelis in Germany's capital. In another picture Benyamin and one of his sisters stand in a pose evoking Caspar David Friedrich on one of Rügen's famous cliffs, reinstantiating the lost Garden of Eden and simultaneously making a tribute to the romantic era and the various blendings of identity associated with that period.
Hershy (Unorthodox) 1
2018 | Fine Art Print, Wooden Frame, museum glass, Edition No. 2/5 | 41 x 41 cm
In the series „Imagine“, Benyamin Reich deals with painful pasts and coping strategies as they are frequently found in modernity. In his works he invites us into a dreamlike alternative reality that playfully romanticises a lost route, that could have been taken but never manifested itself. The selection of works calls on the viewers to develop critical discussion skills and to engage i n an ongoing cultural , psychological and political conversation with lasting significance for our time.
Hershy (Unorthodox) 2
2018 | Fine Art Print, Wooden Frame, museum glass, Edition No. 2/5 | 41 x 41 cm
In the series „Imagine“, Benyamin Reich deals with painful pasts and coping strategies as they are frequently found in modernity. In his works he invites us into a dreamlike alternative reality that playfully romanticises a lost route, that could have been taken but never manifested itself. The selection of works calls on the viewers to develop critical discussion skills and to engage i n an ongoing cultural , psychological and political conversation with lasting significance for our time.
Munitionskiste 11627
Fine art Print in A wooden ammunition box | 45 x 22 x 20 cm |
In the series „Imagine“, Benyamin Reich deals with painful pasts and coping strategies as they are frequently found in modernity. In his works he invites us into a dreamlike alternative reality that playfully romanticises a lost route, that could have been taken but never manifested itself. The selection of works calls on the viewers to develop critical discussion skills and to engage i n an ongoing cultural , psychological and political conversation with lasting significance for our time.