Ilan Laks puts oil to canvas creating complex paintings which capture light, refracting it through layers of color, meticulously producing the illusion of multi-dimensional depth. He focuses on creating cohesive groups of ten or eleven paintings which he works on concurrently, beginning them in the same month, together they are finished.

“The pieces exist as alone as we are. They are beings like a beaver or a fern. By using chemistry (paint and its outcomes) I use evolution rather then plans. Rather then a new way of looking at something, the pieces are something new to look at. With many paintings there is a time at the beginning where it is the real inspiration for the whole, which is then developed and refined till the piece seems "done". One of the pitfalls to this is that the original beauty can be compromised. And then there is the work that fore goes the refining to preserve that original force, and lets it just tumble out, and it is "done" when the tumbling ends. My work in contrast tumbles out while it refines. Never entering a development stage and never leaving it either. The works tumble out simultaneously for up to a year learning from each other and finding their unique identity, which like a person is as obvious from 20 feet or 2 inches. Like people, the pieces reveal only a small amount of themselves at first. To appreciate the true beauty of complex and interesting people you must go to them and invest yourself. Only then are you let inside. The pieces aspire to be conversations rather then statements. the new work is a group of siblings. ”

Laks’ most recent body of work, entitled Siblings, will be exhibited here in December 2005. This will be his third showing at the Newmark Gallery. Also through the Newmark, Laks is currently showing his paintings at gallerie sous-Terre, in The Nederlands.