C.V.
1970 Born in Tel-Aviv, Israel
Lives and Works in London, UK
EDUCTION
2010 MA in Fine Art, Central Saint Martins - University of Arts, London, UK
2001 Cinematography, Camera-Obscura - School of Visual Arts, Tel-Aviv, Israel
2000 Photography, Camera-Obscura - School of Visual Arts, Tel-Aviv, Israel
1996 Film, N.Y.F.A-New-York Film Academy, New York, US
1993 General Studies, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
EXHIBITIONS
Solo
2012 • Lands In-between, Hamiltons Gallery, London, UK [Installation View]
2007 • Promised Lands, David Gallery, Los Angeles, US
• Intimate Strangers, David Gallery, Los Angeles, US
• Promised Lands, Hamiltons Gallery, London, UK [Installation View]
2006 • Photographs, Goss-Michael Foundation, Dallas, US
Group (Selected)
2019 • Peter and Pan, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
2012 • The Sexuality Spectrum, HUC Museum, New York, NY
2010 • 101 Seconds, The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Leeds, UK
• Lingering whispers, The crypt, London, UK
2009 • Dogma, HDLU, Zagreb, Croatia
• Something for Everyone 2, Hamiltons Gallery, London, UK
• AOP Open Awards, Association of Photographers Gallery, London, UK
2008 • Promised Land, Warehouse Gallery, Teramo, Italy
• Something for Everyone, Hamiltons Gallery, London, UK [Installation View]
2007 • London Photo, London, UK [1] | [2]
• AOP Open Awards, Association of Photographers Gallery, London, UK
2006 • Paris Photo, Paris, France
• AOP Open Awards, Association of Photographers Gallery, London, UK
2005 • AOP Open Awards, Association of Photographers Gallery, London, UK
2004 • International Photography Award, IPA04, London, UK
• International Open Image Award, IOI04, Waterloo Gallery, London, UK
"Highly Commended" Award
2003 • Schweppes Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK [1] | [2] | [3] | [4]
• AOP Open Awards, Association of Photographers Gallery, London, UK
"Judges Choice" Award
• International Open Image Award, IOI03, Deluxe Gallery - Hoxton Sq, London, UK
2002 • Descubrimientos PHE02, PHotoEspana 2002, Madrid, Spain
• First International Saloon of Contemporary Artists, Lisbon, Portugal [1]
2001 • Galerie Art 7, Nice, France
• Ramat-Gan Museum of Contemporary Art, Ramat-Gan, Israel
PUBLICATIONS
Catalogues (Selected)
2009 • Now: Art of the 21st Century, Phillips de Pury, London & New York
• AOP Open Awards, Association of Photographers, London
2007 • Promised Lands, published by Hamiltons Gallery, London
2003 • Schweppes Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, London
Monographs
2005 • Intimate Strangers, Bruno Gmunder Verlag GmbH, ISBN 3861876957
2003 • Views, Bruno Gmunder Verlag GmbH ,ISBN: 3861872854
Anthologies (Selected)
2008 Night Visions - Photo Anthology, Bruno Gmunder Verlag GmbH, ISBN: 3861878925
2007 • Men for Men: Homoeroticism and Male Homosexuality in the History of Photography, 1840-2006, Jonathan Cape Ltd,
2006 • Dateline Israel, New Photography and Video Art, The Jewish Museum New York, Yale University Press ISBN 0300111568
2005 • Self Exposure, The Male Nude Self Portrait by Reed Massengill, Universe Publications – Rizzoli, ISBN 0789313170
FILM
1996 Boulevards of Broken Dreams, 16mm, 10min , New York
AWARDS (Selected)
2007 • PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris - Honorable Mentions
• IPA, International Photography Awards - Honorable Mentions
2006 • PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris - Honorable Mentions
• IPA, International Photography Awards - Honorable Mentions
2004 • IPA, International Photography Awards - People, Self-Portrait
• Inernational Open Image Award, "Highly Commended" Award, Waterloo Gallery, London, UK
2003 • AOP Open, "Judges Choice" Award, AOP Gallery, London, UK
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About
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A CHAOS OF APPEARANCES
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"Forms of multiplicity and incongruity abound... We realize that the fragments are not governed by a secret unity: Charles Kane is a simulacrum, a chaos of appearances."
Jorge Luis Borges on Citizen Kane
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Kobi's work is autobiographical and references the self and identity. He uses the medium of photography as a way of recording experiences, capturing moments from his everyday life to draw on physical, mental and emotional levels.
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In his first series of photographs, he recreated scenes from his days as a soldier in the army. This series entitled ‘Views’ addresses the fine line that divides the homo-social and the homo-erotic aspects of lives of soldiers in the army.Another series from this period is entitled ‘Fragments of Life’, a series of staged images where he leads the viewer into a world of memory, conflict and trapped emotion which Kobi experienced as an adolescent growing up in a deeply conservative and religious society.
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Kobi produced his series entitled ‘Intimate Strangers’ shortly after moving to London, a time in which he was questioning his identity and his emotions in his new life and in the city: "I felt like a stranger and I recognised that Soho was full of people who were strangers to each other and who were searching for intimacy, either through a glance while walking down the street or through an encounter".
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In his series entitled ‘Love Stories’ which was created over the course of several years, Kobi explored notions of the macho and the militant versus the homoerotic in revolutionary Cuba. These notions were very familiar to him from his youth and adolescence in Israel, a time during which his confusion and bewilderment about masculinity were left unresolved. "As a foreigner and an outsider traveling in Cuba, I was able to address and explore my childhood reactions to the macho world that had previously repelled and intimidated me".
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In the first "Land-scapes" trilogy titled ‘Promised Lands’ Kobi explored the concept of identity in a more abstract and indirect way. The images from this series are all landscapes and represent worlds relating to personal identities embedded in his mind. ‘Canaan’ are images from elemental landscapes in Iceland where he recognised extracts from biblical tales taught in his childhood. ‘America’ represents the promise that a land can hold to generations of immigrants, such as those of his parents. ‘Hampstead Heath’ represents a place of promised pleasure, excitement and even maybe love.