Guy Zagursky
Hand over Fist
Guy Zagursky’s new series of works presented in Hand over Fist introduces a technique recently developed by the artist, which one might call “dot-to-dot embroidery” – alluding to the world of children’s arts and crafts, yet executed with remarkable skill and artistry. This technique can be seen as somewhat of a new “jargon”, adding to a rich sculptural language formed by Zagursky and compiling his body of work.
The exhibition contains two types of works – one is a series of metal columns that have been delicately embroidered with colored threads, portraying pop culture images and mainly referencing tacky and ultra-popular tattoos: blossoming roses, pirates, sculls, hearts and other clichés. The second type of works is a group of empty gas cylinders that have also been embroidered with various popular symbols, creating an even greater tension between image and surface and inviting a sense of discomfort.
Applying Zagursky’s embroidery technique on heavy metals requires meticulous work and effort, an effort emphasizing the contrast between the intense labor put into the sculptures and the light-as-air images placed on them. Zagursky is eventually emulating the act of tattooing itself, intensified by craft: he drills each and every hole the threads go into beforehand. All of this, only to immortalize a Micky Mouse image on a useless vessel. Although the result is beautiful, it is clearly a rebellious act against image and craft, mocking the popular tendency of celebrating extremely trivial imagery on the body.
On the other hand, placing these images – silly as they may seem when inked on a forearm – out of their usual context and putting such effort into their reincarnation endows them with newfound dignity.
Hand over Fist is an American take on a British term, referring to the manner in which sailors would compete over the speed they climbed ship poles, originally phrased “Hand over Hand”. As a heavily inked sailor himself, the majority of visuals in Zagursky’s works are taken from the world the classic sailor tattoos. His work is often playful, while still offering a profound view of issues such as contemporary culture, masculinity and body image. In “Hand over Fist” he continues to be preoccupied with such matters and especially with their internal contradictions, co-existing in all aspects of his work – physically and thematically.

Guy Zagursky

Born 1972
Lives and works in Tel-Aviv

Education

2005 - 2007 M.F.A, Fine Art Department, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem.

2000-2004 B. ed Hamidrasha Art School, Beit-Berl

Scholarships and Awards

2018 Fountainhead residency, Miami FL.
2017 Mifal Hapais grant for artists
2009 - 2010 Kunsthlerhaus Bethanien, International Studio Program, Berlin.

2005 Sharet Scholarship Program, America Israel Cultural Foundation Award for Art Achievements.
2004 Sculpture Scholarship of the Sharet Scholarship Program, America Israel Cultural Foundation. Gordon Gallery Award for Art Excellence.

2003 Beit-Berl Scholarship for Art and Academic Excellence.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2019 Solo show, Ashdod Art Museum, Ashdod

2018 Hand over fist, KWADRAT Gallery, Berlin

2015 Nostos, Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv

2012 No Lifeguard on Duty, Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv

2009 Syncope, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin

Follow the White Rabbit, Tache Levy Gallery, Brussels

2008 Still Life with a Metaphysical Inclination, Sommer Contemporary Art Project Room

2007 Placebo, Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv.

2005 Center of Space Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Herzliya.

Selected Group Exhibitions

2018 Achzav, The Cube art space, Jerusalem.
2017 Dreams and Dramas, Artteritory Museum, Riga, Latvia.
2017 Drawings and Sculptures, Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv. 2017 Repositioning, Islamic Art Museum, Jerusalem
2017 Thou Shalt Not, Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem
2017 Cabri Gallery, Kibbutz Cabri

2016 The Kupferman House, Kibbutz Lochamei Hagetaot
2016 Property and Fetish, Bialik House, Tel Aviv
2016 Israeli sculptors, artists house, Tel-Aviv
2015 In Conversation: contemporary works at the Tel-Aviv Museum. 2013 Delusions, Israel Museum, Jerusalem

2013 Flesh and Blood, Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem
2013 Israel Now [Reinventing the Future], MACRO Testaccio, Rome.
2013 Title Deed, Binyamin Gallery, Tel-Aviv.
2012 UNNATURAL, Bass Museum of Art, Miami
2012 Private Corporate VII, Doron Sebbag Art Collection, O.R.S Ltd., Tel Aviv Museum and

Daimler Art Collection, Berlin
2012 Good Night, Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

2011 Curators LTD, Petach Tikva Museum of Art, Petack Tikva. 2011 Dead End, Monart Museum of Art, Ashdod.
2010 Secret Artist, Bank Leumi, Tel-Aviv.
2009 Ten, Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv.

Beyond Limits, Chatsworth sculpture park, UK.
2008 Depletion, Doron Sebbag Art Collection, Tel Aviv Museum, of Art, Tel-Aviv. 2007-8 Boys Crafts, Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa.
2006 Fatamorgana, Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa.
2005 Omanut Ha’aretz, Curator: Doron Rabina, Reeding Power Station, Tel-Aviv.

Artic7, America Israel Cultural Foundation winners exhibition, Ramat Gan Museum. 2005, Gordon Gallery, Tel-Aviv.