The exhibition Inhale > < Exhale is a two-person show by artists Omri Batkilin and Ariel Shefi. 
The urban sphere in Israel is comprised of a multitude of occurrences that include visual input, sound and touch, physical proximity between people in space, an excess of events and images, trucks unloading merchandise, police officers, loud shouting, honking and traffic jams. The urban experience conflates the exterior and the internal consciousness and creativity, accompanying Shefi and Batkilin into the personal sphere: home, dreams, anxieties and creation. Recently, Batkilin and Sheffi relocated from Tel Aviv\Haifa to Vienna, the capital of Austria. The clean space, as well as the polite and calm atmosphere that prevails in Vienna, caused them to consider the blurring of boundaries between exterior and interior which characterizes the urban sphere in Israel

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The exhibition’s name, Inhale > < Exhale, refers to breathing during daily walks in the urban sphere. This breathing is not cyclical and regular, but rather quick, rhythmic and at times obstructed. Its pace reflects the anxiety that characterizes our presence in the urban sphere, anticipating a moment that never arrives. It is as if inhaling and exhaling oppose each other, and this opposition creates an action that works against itself. The rhythmic, fast pulse echoes the urban, hectic pulse.

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The exhibition Inhale > < Exhale presents paintings in acrylic and oil on canvas in differing dimensions, drawings, texts and ceramics. The gallery’s small space exhibits creative processes and documentation of daily thoughts, from moments between the outside and the studio. Texts and drawings created by Sheffi and Batkilin hang on the walls: fragments of consciousness that popped up while walking in the street or processing experiences and images from daily life. Batkilin presents “revelations” from walking in space, which depict a picture of a grotesque and chaotic urban landscape. Shefi addresses contempt through thoughts about menstruation, the female body, and being an immigrant in a foreign space.

About the artists:

Omri Batkilin, b. Tel Aviv, Israel (1993). Multidisciplinary artist, holds a BFA from the Multidisciplinary Art School at the Shenkar College of Engineering, Art and Design (2019). Since 2021, Batkilin has been a master’s candidate in urban design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, where he lives and works. His work addresses the urban sphere from a dreamlike, ironic perspective, using painting, drawing and sculpture.

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Ariel Shefi, b. Israel (2000). Multidisciplinary artist. She currently lives and works in Vienna, where she studies in Daniel Richter’s painting class at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. In her work, she addresses the connection between humanity and the modern environment, the relationship between humanity and its nature, through painting, drawing, print and sculpture. 

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Photos by Efrat Mazor