Tavi Weisz

Tavi Weisz holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest (1999). In 1995 he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Academy of Visual Arts in Cluj, Romania; and a Civic Education Diploma in Art Contemporain et Institutions (Université de Paris II.) He has lived in Ottawa since 1999, has taught classes at the Ottawa School of Art, and since 2002 he has had his own studio at the Enriched Bread Artists collective.

Weisz’s work includes abstract paintings and assemblages using a variety of mixed media painting techniques. Figurative images are occasionally embedded in an abstract background. Melted beeswax is applied with an iron and layered with oil paint worked onto the canvas surface with brushes and cloth. Often paint is applied through objects like a circular perforated screen or it is dripped on the canvas. Sometimes Weisz adds objects, like a bicycle reflector, small toy cars and action figures, or photo transparencies. This style and paintings, “dense and textured, show Weisz’s mastery of colour”. (Anita Euteneier, February 10th, 2005 Artswatch – Ottawa Xpress). The viewer is forced to gain understanding through emotions without any preconceptions and through the tactile qualities of the surface thus establishing a certain connection, even catharsis between image, eye and soul.

 

Tavi’s most recent work was on display in his studio at the Enriched Bread Artists annual open house; Ottawa Citizen art critic Paul Gessel wrote positively about the whole event and commented on Tavi’s work: “Tavi Weisz has filled his studio with intense, eerie paintings and photographs exploring the dark side of life”. (Ottawa Citizen, October 18th 2007).

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