Reut Ashkenazi • Autodidactic realism

Elizabeth Kruglov is a local creator and entrepreneur who owns a Haifa art gallery called La-Kal or local located in the flea market. Every week, she will tell about a different Haifa creator or artist. 

If you Google the website of Reut Ashkenazi, you will find three lines in the 'About' tab: 

• Born in 2001 (23 years old)
• Lives in Haifa
• A self-taught oil artist

It's been less than a year since I met Reut, a young girl, with a pleasant walk, light years away from the brazenness that usually oozes from creative children at these ages. However, her work is mature and not childish and rather cheeky. She uses meticulous oil in realistic tones and she speaks her young world in an effortless way combined with a classical artistic language, something that is not typical for the world of Israeli art, especially not in this age group.

The figures she chooses to paint often do not make eye contact, and are often in moments of contentment or an almost renaissance mood - "they are in their own right", quiet and clean of papers. They are not the typical subject of the contemporary painter. The sizes of her works are also usually small, not trying to take up more space than they need. In doing so, they will make the observer come closer to them, and make the observer almost a part of the space or the scene that the artist records.

The art of evil

At the age of 16 Reot locked herself in a room and taught herself to paint in oil. Out of love, passion and curiosity Evil creates a place for her world and we get to share it with her. Her creative process usually begins by going out into the world and photographing fragments of light and shadow, which catch her eye, and she transfers this movement to her canvas. By building up layers of oil paints, her paintings are created in a modest studio in her home.

Reot Ashkenazi is one of the realism painters of our city's young women. Without a degree from a fancy art school and without a long and tedious list of exhibitions in which she took part, she simply paints and sells. In the last two years, she has been studying at Matan Ben Canaan's studio, and there she is polishing her skills, into pure and simple realism. 

The connection of evil to realism

Reut says that her creation stems from the need to connect with reality. In her works she depicts everyday scenes that include the people who surround her. In my opinion, small moments are completely her specialty. I heard about Reut for the first time from Eran Pranger (another talented painter) who said to me in a nonchalant manner, 'How do you not know Reut?!' and since then, as they say, "the rest is history".

The first sale of Reut

I had the privilege of selling her first work of art for Reut in my gallery 'La-Kel' which is located in the flea market as part of a group exhibition called Jomofomo at a price that wouldn't put Kadishman to shame, and then match her with an auction house from the center. Since then, he hasn't stopped selling Reut's works at auctions to private collectors, and I have a feeling this is just the beginning.

I wonder what would happen if we told you that evil walks among us, maybe even sitting next to you in your neighborhood coffee shop? Will this make local art lovers not make the detour through Route 6 all the way to the center to buy a local piece? We hope that we may have been able to shorten the way for you.