NAAMA TSABAR Israel, b. 1982
Tsabar creates sensually driven installations, performances, and sculptures that examine the charged spaces and multi sensory zones of nightlife and their associations with notions such as freedom, excess, and escape. Her work treats the venues themselves as structures of power, enabling a display of fantasy, sexuality, and bravado, as well as providing a shelter from the realities of the outside world. Addressing the implicit gender roles and coded behavior of music and nightlife, Tsabar appropriates and subverts the aggressive gestures of rock and roll and their associations with virility and power. Informed by her experiences as a musician in a punk band and as a bartender, Tsabar probes the culture of rock music from multiple angles, channeling the decadence of urban night culture and its association with danger, seduction, and subversion.
Naama Tsabar (b. 1982, Israel) received her MFA from Columbia University in 2010. Solo exhibitions and performances of Tsabar have been presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum of Art and Design, New York; The High Line Art, New York; Nasher Museum, Durham, NC; Kunsthuas Baselland, Switzerland; Palais De Tokyo, Paris; Prospect New Orleans; Tel Aviv Museum of Art; The Herziliya Museum for Contemporary Art in Israel; MARTE-C, El Salvador; CCA Tel Aviv, Israel; Faena Buenos Aires; Frieze Projects New York; Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York; Paramo Gallery, Guadalajara; Dvir Gallery, Israel; Spinello Projects, Miami. Selected group exhibitions include Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; Elevation 1049 Gstaad, Switzerland; Goodman Gallery, South Africa; TM Triennale, Hasselt Genk, Belgium; ‘Greater New York’ 2010 at MoMA PS1; Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Belgium; The Bucharest Biennale for Young Artists, Hessel Museum of Art at CCS Bard, New York; Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg; ExtraCity, Belgium.
Tsabar’s work has been featured in publications including ArtForum, Art In America, ArtReview, ARTnews, The New York Times, New York Magazine, Frieze, Bomb Magazine, Art Asia Pacific, Wire, and Whitewall, among others. Tsabar is a two-time recipient of an Artis Grant, 2014 and 2010; a two-time recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Grant, 2009 and 2005; the 2009-2010 recipient of the Joan Sovern Award from Columbia University, 2012 Grantee of The Rema Hort Mann Foundation Award, and held residency in 2012 at The Fountainhead Residency in Miami.
Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Kadist Collection, Jimenez-Colón Collection, Tel Aviv Museum, Israel Museum, and Coleccion Dieresis. Tsabar lives and works in New York.
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Naama TsabarWork On Felt (Variation 18) Burgundy, 2017Industrial felt, carbon fiber, epoxy, wood, guitar tuner, piano string, amplifiers81 x 62.5 x 29.5 inches
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Naama TsabarWork on Felt (Variation 9 & 10) Black and Black (Dyptich), 2016Industrial felt, carbon fiber, epoxy, wood, guitar tuner, piano string, amplifiers71.5 x 55.5
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Naama TsabarWork on Felt (Variation 22) Purple, 2019Felt, carbon fiber, epoxy, wood, archival PVA, bass guitar tuner, piano string, piezo microphone, guitar amplifier,73 x 65 x 30 inches
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Naama TsabarTransition, 2019Wood, amp grill cloth, cables, disassembled Boss Katana 100 guitar amplifier, knobs, wires, circuit board, ports, speaker63 x 40.6 x 6.5 inches
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Naama TsabarTransition, 2019Wood, amp grill cloth, cables, disassembled Fender rumble 100 guitar amplifier, knobs, wires, circuit board, ports, speaker51 x 38.5 x 7 inches
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Naama TsabarInversion #1, 2020Wood, strings, polyurethane and latex paint, banjo tuners, metal contact microphones, wiring, cable port66 x 35 x 4.75 inches
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Naama TsabarInversion #2, 2020Wood, microphone, metal, plastic, polyurethane and latex paint, cable port, mixer50 x 58 x 4.75 inches
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Naama TsabarWork On Felt (Variation 4) Gray, 2016Industrial felt, carbon fiber, epoxy, wood, guitar tuner, piano string, amplifiers65.5 × 50.5 × 13.5 inches
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Naama TsabarTransition, 2016Wood, canvas, electronics, cables, knobs, amplifier tubes, speakers56 × 40 × 6.5 inches
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Naama TsabarBarricade #3, 201612 microphones and microphone stands and matching audio equipment62 × 98 × 98 inches
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Naama TsabarBarricade #2, 201612 microphone and microphone stands and matching audio equipment (mixer, EQ etc.)Variable dimensions
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Naama TsabarUntitled #3 (from the Double Face Museum Series), 2016Dye sublimation print, chrome frame, and chrome guitar39.4 x 12 x 13 inches
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Naama TsabarWork on Felt (Variation 22) Dark Blue, 2019Felt, carbon fiber, epoxy, wood, archival PVA, bass guitar tuner, piano string, piezo microphone, guitar amplifier71.75 x 56.5 x 25 inches
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Naama TsabarWork On Felt (Variation 7) Black, 2015Felt, carbon fiber, epoxy, wood, guitar tuning peg, piano string, piezo, amplifier,34.5 x 97.5 x 40.5 inches
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Naama TsabarWork on Felt (Variation 9) Bordeaux, 2016Industrial felt, carbon fiber, epoxy, wood, guitar tuner, piano string, amplifiers71.5 x 55.5
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Naama TsabarDOUBLESILVERBURST, 2010Mixed media with two guitars14 inches x 71 inches x 12 feet
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Naama Tsabar
Inversions 10 Jan - 29 Feb 2020Naama Tsabar has become known for her ambitious installations, performances, and sculptures that parse the boundaries of spaces that surround us—both physical and metaphorical—for which we normally have no access. Cutting into walls and treating hidden interiors as sculptural and musical spaces, Tsabar considers the venues themselves as structures of power, enabling a display of fantasy, sexuality, and bravado. Tsabar upends the implicit gender roles and coded behavior of music and its related subcultures.Read more -
Escape Attempts
17 Feb - 8 Apr 2017Inaugurating its new Hollywood location, Shulamit Nazarian presents Escape Attempts, a group exhibition of seven international artists working in dialogue with the legacy of minimal art. Carmen Argote, Susan Hefuna, Cindy Hinant, Alex McQuilkin, Sarah Meyohas, Virginia Overton, and Naama Tsabar present work that both acknowledges and subverts the practice of their predominately male forebears including Sol Lewitt, Donald Judd, and Larry Bell.Read more
The artists in Escape Attempts employ the formal elements associated with Minimalism. Reduced color palettes and the repetition of simple geometric forms, as well as industrial materials that have a symbiotic relationship to architecture, create new mash-ups that mix formal rigor with sensuality, subjectivity, personal narrative, and contemporary sexual politics.
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Naama Tsabar: Recent Museum Acquisitions
Los Angeles County Museum of Art | Pérez Art Museum Miami | San Francisco Museum of Modern Art July 17, 2020Congratulations to Naama Tsabar on her recent museum acquisitions Los Angeles County Museum of Art Pérez Art Museum Miami San Francisco Museum of Modern Art...Read more -
Naama Tsabar: Melodies of Certain Damage (Opus 3)
December 22, 2018Congratulations to Naama Tsabar on her solo exhibition Melodies of Certain Damage (Opus 3) Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv December 22, 2018 – February...Read more -
Naama Tsabar: Melodies of Certain Damage (Opus 2)
September 6, 2018Congratulations to Naama Tsabar on her solo exhibition Melodies of Certain Damage (Opus 3) Faena Art Center, Buenos Aires September 6 – 8, 2018 'Faena...Read more -
Naama Tsabar: Transitions #4
April 28, 2018Congratulations to Naama Tsabar on her solo exhibition Transitions #4 Kunsthaus Baselland, Switzerland April 20, 2018 – July 16, 2018 'New-York based artist Naama Tsabar...Read more
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Naama Tsabar "Untitled (Double Face)"
Performed at Frieze Los Angeles 2020 February 20, 2020This is an excerpt of Naama Tsabar’s performance “Untitled (Double Face) at the art fair Frieze Los Angeles 2020. “Drawing from her overlapping interests in sonic performance and the hybrid nature of musical instruments—as sculptural objects and conduits of sound—Naama Tsabar (b. 1982, Tel Aviv; lives in New York) tests the limits of audio in art spaces typically more welcoming to the visual. In her gallery-based works, Tsabar invites spectators to pluck and strum her hanging felt pieces and sculptures. She has also constructed percussive or amplified works that are...Read more -
Naama Tsabar "Inversions"
Performed at Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles February 11, 2020On February 11 and 12, Naama Tsabar, along with Nicki Chen-Walters, Diana Diaz, FIELDED, Kristin Mueller, and Sarah Strauss performed on the sculptures in Inversions, in which every work in the show was activated simultaneously.Read more -
Naama Tsabar "Works on Felt"
performed at Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles 2017 February 20, 2017 -
Naama Tsabar "Closer"
performed at Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles 2017 February 19, 2017
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artsy: 7 artists on the self-care rituals that keep them creative
Alina Cohen, Artsy, May 3, 2020 -
art review: Naama Tsabar, inversions
Jonathan Griffin, ArtReview, March 1, 2020 -
galerie: the msot exciting emerging artists spotted at frieze la
Galerie, February 17, 2020 -
ocula: frieze los angeles shows to see
Tessa Moldan, Ocula Magazine, February 7, 2020 -
Art Insider: Instruments in gallery walls, ceramics in the garden, and art in a plumbing store
Lindsay Preston Zappas, KCRW Art Insider, February 4, 2020 -
Artnet News: in la for frieze week? here is out guide to 33 inspiring gallery shows to see beyond the fairs
Sarah Cascone, Artnet News, February 1, 2020 -
LA Weekly: Multimedia artist naama tsabar subverts space, in time
Trina Calderón, LA Weekly, January 31, 2020 -
los angeles magazine: frieze returns to the paramount backlot with installations that speak to the political moment
Brittany Martin, Los Angeles Magazine, December 17, 2019 -
Los Angeles times: frieze los angeles will use paramount backlot to explore truth, lies and hollywood
Deborah Vankin, Los Angeles Times, December 17, 2019 -
bomb: naama tsabar interviewed by naomi lev
Naomi Lev, BOMB Magazine, June 25, 2018 -
artforum: critics' pick - naama tsabar
Wendy Vogel, Artforum, July 1, 2017