| Ilana Raviv | |
| Birth Date: | November 29, 1945 |
| Birth Place: | Tel Aviv |
| Nationality: | Israeli |
Ilana Raviv-Oppenheim (born 1945) is a multidisciplinary artist. Her work spans a varietyof media including painting, drawing, etching, tapestry, and ceramic sculpture.
She was born in Tel Aviv in 1945 toItzhak and Fanya Oppenheim. The painter Moritz Daniel Oppenheim was her great-great-grand uncle. Ilana grew up in Israel.
From 1980 to 1990, she lived with her family in theart capital of the world, New York, in order to study, renew herself, andbroaden her artistic vision. During her stay, from 1980 to 1984 she studied at theArt Students League of New York. Among her teachers were Roberto Delamonica, Bruce Dorfman, and the American master Knox Martin.
Ilana Raviv has exhibited in various museums andgalleries of Israel, the US, Europe, and the Far East. Recently Ilana hasexhibited her works alongside the best known of artists, including Knox Martin,Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers, Rosenquist, Chuck Close, Marisol
The great mother figure from Greek mythology is amongthe chief topics in her work, as are other characters from the Bible, fromhistory, and from literature. Her works are built from a variety of flatdesigns, contrasts, and shapes, which create different versions and dimensionsof reality.
Raviv describes her works as "a metaphor which createsand shapes an artificial life on canvas".
In 2008 she received the title of Tel Aviv–Jaffa "Womanof the Year", representing the arts.
Her work is represented in private collections and invarious museums and galleries around the world. A solo exhibition consisting of50 pictures by Ilana was presented at the State Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg between October 2007 andJanuary 2008, and another solo exhibition of 100 pictures was presented at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art.[1] In both museums, she was the first native Israelito exhibit.
Besides the Russian museum exhibits, there is a Holocaust-themedpainting that has figured for many years in the permanent collection of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. In this painting Ilana exposesthe monstrous aspect of the topic more than she trains a direct view on itsconsequences. The painting shows the Ten Commandments consumed by flame, withan emphasis on "Thou shalt not murder." The struggle to survive is expressedonly in the mixture of colors.
Her painting A Tabernacle ofPeace – Homage to Zachariah" (acrylic on canvas, 2.12 meters by 10) openedIsrael's 40th anniversary celebrations in New York at the world's largestsukkah. Later it was displayed for eight years in the main entrance hall of theJerusalem International Convention Center.
Raviv is married and the mother of three. Inthe course of her life she has displayed her creations at many exhibits,including a pro bono exhibit to benefit Seeds Of Peace, which aims to connect Arab and Jewish youth.