Ofer Lellouche (; born 19 April 1947 in Tunis) is an Israeli painter, sculptor, etcher and video artist.
Biography Lellouche was born in Tunisia in 1947. He studied mathematics and physics in Paris at Saint Louis College. In 1966, two months before he was scheduled to graduate, he ran away to Kibbutz Yehiam in Israel. In 1968, during his service in the Israel Defense Forces, he contracted hepatitis and began to paint while recovering. He began his formal art training at the Avni Institute of Art and Design in Tel Aviv under the abstract lyrical painter Yehezkiel Streichman.
He returned to Paris to study with the sculptor César Baldaccini (1921–1998) and earn a master's degree in literature with a thesis on Stéphane Mallarmé. In the late 1970s, he worked in video art and painted self-portraits. During the coming years, he drew and etched self-portraits, often in violent industrial colors.
In 1979, he produced several videos related to the subject of the mirror. In the early 1980s, he began painting landscapes in addition to self-portraits. His 1987 painting "Figure in a Landscape" was exhibited at the 19th São Paulo Art Biennial.
In the early 1990s, Lellouche produced more than 600 etchings, illustrated Stéphane Mallarmé's poem, "Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard", and published the books "Panim" (faces) and "Ein Karem". He also produced large-format paintings, which he called the "Atelier César" in homage to his former teacher. In 1991, he returned to Paris and visited the location of César's studio, where he found some clay models on their bases and decided to make a series of works that would remind him of what he had seen. Since the late 1990s, he has been engaged primarily in sculpture and etching.
In 2023, A major retrospective exhibition were held at the Albertina Museum, Vienna.
Solo Exhibitions 2023 - Ofer Lellouche: New Works and Artist Book Launch, Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel 2023 - A Retrospective, The Albertina Museum, Vienna 2021 - New works, Gordon Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel 2020 - New Sculptures, Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel 2018 - Atelier, Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel 2017 - Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel 2014 - The Hymalayas Museum, Shanghai 2014 - Galerie Ditesheim Maffei, Neuchatel, Switzerland 2013 - Zemack Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel 2012 - The CAFA Museum, Beijing 2011 - Installation of sculpture Head II, Tel Aviv Museum, Israel 2008 - The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, (A head for Meina), Tel Aviv, Israel 2008 - Jan Krugier Gallery, Geneva 2006 - Installation of sculpture “Two”, Garden of sculpture, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel 2006 - The Open Museum, Tefen, Israel 2001 - "Ofer Lellouche self-portrait 1977-2001", The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel 1998 - Musée Fleury, Lodève, France 1997 - Musée des Beaux Arts, Chartres, France 1997 - DeBeyerd Museum, Breda, Holland 1994 - The Genia Shreiber University Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel 1993 - The Calouste Gulbenkian Fondation, Lisbonne, Portugal 1990 - Mabel Semmler Gallery, Paris, France 1980 - Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
References Ofer Lellouche: Self Portrait. Tel Aviv: Gordon Gallery, 1980. Omer, Mordechai: Ofer Lellouche: Self-Portrait, 1977-2001. Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2001. Restany, Pierre: Ofer Lellouche: The Hand that Thinks. Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2001. Lellouche, Ofer: Between Etching and Sculpture. The Open Museum: Industrial Parks Tefen and Omer, 2005. Ofer Lellouche: Head II. Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2012. Bartos, Ron: Ofer Lellouche: Nine. Tel Aviv: Zemack Gallery, 2013.
External links Official website Head For Meina Ofer Lellouche Self Portrait on a Transparent Mirror Video interview with Ofer Lellouche on Art-in-Process.com (Hebrew, Russian translation) Artist Ofer Lellouche in conversation with Eva Glück - Albertina Museum "Time", Ofer Lellouche - Reflections on time and art - video