Nothing Is As It Seems: Itamar Fried Unveils New Solo Exhibition in Tel Aviv
Photographer Itamar Fried explores memory and perception in his new Tel Aviv exhibition, "A Place in Time," opening November 26 at Litvak Contemporary with striking night photography.
White cockatoos rendered in stark black, nocturnal landscapes transformed into charcoal sketches, and Australian eucalyptus trees evoking childhood memories of Israel. These striking visual inversions form the core of "A Place in Time," a solo exhibition by photographer Itamar Fried opening on November 26 at the Litvak Contemporary gallery in Tel Aviv. Curated by Hadas Glazer, the exhibition invites viewers to question the boundary between objective reality and subjective memory.
At the heart of the showcase is the AFTERIMAGES series, captured predominantly during night excursions in Israel and Australia. Fried ventures into nature in total darkness, selectively illuminating elements with artificial light sources before inverting the image colors into negatives. This meticulous process transforms dark areas into glowing highlights, rendering plants, trees, and birds into intricate engravings reminiscent of traditional Japanese prints and charcoal drawings.
Exploring Memory and Visual Perception
The series title references the physiological phenomenon where an image persists in the eye long after the physical object has vanished. Through this optical distortion, Fried examines the deep chasm between what our eyes record and how our minds store places and experiences. Alongside these nocturnal works, the exhibition features a singular, striking photograph of a young fig tree discovered by the artist in a London market. Unlike the inverted pieces, this staged image incorporates ripe fruit borrowed from another tree, blurring the lines between documentation and fiction.
Born in New York and based between Israel and Australia, Fried is a graduate of Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and holds a master's degree from the Royal College of Art in London. His works have previously featured at the Ramat Gan Museum of Israeli Art and London's Saatchi Gallery. "A Place in Time" opens on November 26 at 20:00 and runs through January 8, 2027, at Litvak Contemporary, located at 3 Shvil HaMif'al, HaMelacha Compound, Tel Aviv. Gallery hours are Wednesday and Thursday from 11:00 to 18:00, and Friday from 10:00 to 14:00.
