BIOGRAPHY

Gideon Rubin (b. 1973 in Tel Aviv, Israel) frequently deals with the subjects of memory, history and identity - each painting is a fragment of a larger story, a moment in time. Working from photographic source material, Rubin voraciously hunts for old film stills and vintage photographs, scavenging for images on the Internet for each new work.

Scenes of childhood and moments of introspection are motifs that often recur throughout Rubin’s work, with each painting occupying the space between figuration and abstraction. Moving away from the specificities of a particular person, event or moment – Rubin offers the viewer distance from his subjects, so that the work can remain open to interpretation, to fluctuating personal histories and to a multiplicity of meanings.

Rubin’s sumptuously painted figures are removed from their original context, maintaining their anonymity and so the viewer is forced to focus elsewhere; on the tilt of the head, the position of a hand or the space between the figures – all of which brim with detail and narrative possibilities.

He studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York before getting his M.F.A. from University College London - Slade School of Fine Art. He lives and works in London.

His work has been the subject of important solo and group exhibitions at k11 Art Museum, China (2022); Rubin Museum, Israel (2020); the Freud Museum, UK (2018); the Chengdu MoCA, China (2016); the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, CA (2016); and Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel (2015), among others.

Rubin is represented in prominent public collections worldwide including the Collezione Fondazione San Patrignano, Italy; Fondation Frances, France; Herzliya Museum for Contemporary Art, Israel ; McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, CA; Museum Voorlinden Collection, Netherlands; Rubin Museum, Israel; Ruinart Collection, France; The Seavest Collection, NY; Sender Collection, Germany; the Speyer Family Collection, NY; and the Zabludowicz Collection, UK, among others.