Ada Ovadia | ZIZI G

Ada Ovadia | ZIZI G | Solo Exhibition

Gal-On Gallery, Tel Aviv

April 2012

In her first solo show organized by Parasite Ovadia showed paintings in acrylic on paper executed in the past year. Ovadia’s paintings are populated by the grotesque figures of men, women, beasts or skulls. Tied together by strong physical interrelations, the figures are assigned positions of submission and domination: The female figures, which appear to be over-feminized and vulnerable, are usually portrayed along with a complementing domineering male figure, whether human or animal. In a painterly realm that is equally playful, shiny and disturbing, what first may seem as everyday actions soon unfold as dubious operations devoid of sense. With considerable sensitivity, Ovadia’s paintings spawn a rich figurative fantasy world. They expose intimate tableaux, life fragments or waking dreams transferred unto paper. Through an intricate interplay of gazes, at times piercing and at times evasive, they invite the viewer to pause and partake in an unsettling relationship: These painted demons, who force us to return their gaze, thus generate a continuous movement of looks within the painting and outside it. Text by Orit Bulgaro.