Looking At Shapes Looking at Me
Raya Manobla works and lives in Jerusalem.
The exhibition presents paintings and drawings of different sizes and in various media, created at different periods.
Raya's paintings range from the abstract to a discovery of structures and images that invite identification. The works are created slowly, built up gradually through a deep process of observation, while paying close attention to the material and the ongoing development of the painting. At the outset nothing is known in advance. There are no preparatory drawings or sketches. Raya works in a process of adding and erasing layers, covering and scraping, thus creating, breaking down, and recreating rhythms, objects, shapes and echoes of shapes, until the moment of resolution arrives when everything falls into place into a whole presence.
The paintings are done in an assertive, playful and at the same time hesitant process, in which anything can happen, and yet all is under complete control.
Raya moves between free, intuitive action, and the desire to control and seek balance.