Nira Chorev — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Nov 26

Nov 26 Nira Chorev

Biography

Born in Boston, MA in 1952, Nira Chorev was raised and received her general studies and arts education both in United States and Israel. From 1972-1974 she attended and graduated from Israel’s Art Teachers College, receiving a BA degree, and from 1974-1978 she attended the School of the Museum of Fine Art (SMFA) in Boston, MA receiving multiple degrees - a Bachelor of Fine Arts, a MA Diploma - and pursued Fifth-Year Post-Graduate Studies before returning to Israel.

Artist Statement

As an artist, I feel a continuous urge to bring to life what I see, the experience. The process I use to create my works begin with a photograph, which becomes the central motif, but which ultimately is integrated into the overall painting.

I find inspiration in my daily life. It is said that artists, poets, writers, and musicians look at the world with different eyes from everyone else, that we relate to life differently. I believe this to be true. As I go about my day, I am drawn again and again to the smallest details of the natural world around me – the straight lines of the pine needles crunching underfoot, the tiny flower that emerges from the soil with a burst of color, the way the sunlight glimmers on the rippling waves. In nature, I have found comfort, stability, and beauty, an antidote to balance the sorrow and loss I carry with me from my own life experiences. Using my camera, I collect these scenes as memories that I will use and develop as part of my artwork. At the same time, by looking at nature and its cycles of loss and renewal, I have learned that life is stronger than death. Through my art, I want people – no matter what their life experiences have been -- to be able to sense the unending possibility of rebirth, joy, and fulfillment.

In the last few months, I have been working on a series entitled “Homes on a Journey.” The name for this body of work, comes from a few poems written by my friend, the poet Maccabit Malkin who, like me, lives in two countries. Over the past decade, I have traveled back and forth overseas, splitting time between my father’s home abroad and my own home here. The constant travel has given me different perspectives on distance and place, so that over time the houses, the sunrises and sunsets, the trees and flowers, and the distance between them, all move and merge into each other and turn into one big landscape that has no boarders. I will continue working on this series until their music singes to me.

Email nirahorev@gmail.com

Website nirachorev.wordpress.com

Country United States