ELAD LAROM CAME TO VISIT ME IN MY STUDIO A FEW WEEKS AGO. I ASKED HIM TO POSE FOR ME FOR SOME DRAWINGS, THINKING OF PLACING HIM AS THE KING IN “STONED HAREM”, “IT SUITS HIM WELL” I THOUGHT, AT ONCE BOTH RELAXED AND AROUSED, TAKING IN THE EROTIC TENSION OF THE SCENE IN A CONCENTRATED, SOMEWHAT DETACHED WAY, A CONCEPTUAL PAINTER…
The first time we met was many years ago. He was a wild-eyed kid, anxious, overflowing with talent and restlessness.
Wondering about at art school we struck an instant understanding and friendship… shortly after we both dropped out… disappointed, bored.
We both found our ways back to the art Academy and to the world of art, eventually.
With this perspective of time, what I find most striking about his painting is how little it has changed, how clear his vision since the very beginning!
He refers to himself as a “conceptual painter”, this to say he is a “painter of images”, his painting is “functional”, an effective instrument for the execution of a visual rhyme, sentence, riddle or joke. Using the minimal effort necessary.
He is a virtuous painter, his hand firm, his eye clear, he can paint anything, and fast!
Some years ago, in preparation for an exhibition, we sat together and he showed me some paintings, in a bar, with a laptop. For about an hour he was flashing his paintings! hitting me with hundreds of images, shot rhythmically one after the other!
An experience quite similar awaits whoever leafs through his new book “Portals & Commodities”. It’s divided into three chapters as Elad puts its: 1) “Tribal, Local, Family like”, 2) “Universal, Existential” and 3) “False Attraction”, dealing with the medium, with painting itself, the illusion.
PORTALS AND COMMODITIES
Monograph summarizing fifteen years of painting by Elad Larom
Hardcover: 244 pages
32×23 cm
Print run: 500
10 copies come as collectors edition in a slipcase with a signed original watercolor
Language: English
Producer: Ran Kasmy Ilan
Publisher: The Artist Residence Herzliya
Graphic Design: Field Day Studio (Zohar Koren and Idan Am-Shalem)
Texts: Dr.Shaul Setter, Sharon Kantor, Ran Kasmy Ilan
ISBN: 978-965-90190-0-7
