Aviv Grinberg is a Tel Aviv based artist whose body of work combines portraits and sculptural acts. In his work, he utilises various materials and mediums to push the boundaries of painting and to bring attention to issues that rise from his social, familial and local surroundings.
Grinberg served his mandatory military service as a warden in military jail. During this time he witnessed and executed a daily routine comprised of endless cleaning orders. All of which could not remove the inherent faults that became evident during this time. Jail, a place where all residents are unified, aligned and given the chance to right their wrongs, proved to be a place where social injustice, segregation and prejudice thrive, where changing and cleansing cannot occur.
This sisyphean nature of social structures, repeated without achieving actual results, became apparent through his own perspective in other surroundings. Among family members, their habits and pathologies left unresolved. Personally, as a member of the LGBTQ community, undergoing the process of self-definition while experiencing scrutiny and struggle for equality. And most recently, in his neighborhood and studio surroundings, where different minorities meet, co-exist and sometimes clash with the municipal authorities due to the continuous neglect of the area.
In his art, Grinberg uses cleaning agents as colors. He samples, isolates and re-examines colors, eventually exposing their dual nature, both toxic and alluring. He sources his materials from old shops in his neighborhood, balancing industrial, mass-produced materials with local consumption. He crosses the lines between painting and sculpting, creating large scale complex installations that speak to the freedom in art in the age of post-medium. His pieces are made from a personal point of view, derived from past and current experiences, but also aim to comment on broad subjects that he feels passionate and compelled to discuss and question.
