Lauren Powell Presents:

~ Avner Chaim ~

Smiley Symbols on Paper

Avner Chaim’s bold, radical efforts to reclaim a symbol stolen by hate 100 years ago will push you outside of your comfort zone and really make you THINK. He aims to create a challenge for the viewer, a surface that makes you want to look away as much as remain to examine, ideally something you’ve never seen before in our commodified Art Market where everything has been done and done again. Avner is interested in the absurd and creates paintings he believes most people might not want to own or hang in their homes, as their perspectives may not provide avenues to rethink this known historic propaganda of hate. Look closer and you might observe that the crisp, clear patterns full of joyful color and movement are executed masterfully. Adding a smiley to the symbols renders them as pathetic as they are cute and instantly full of life. Some drawings are fast and others appear painstakingly slow, but Avner believes that “once you put a smile on a swastika it takes all the air out of it.” And while these daily drawings do often become sources for his large paintings, they are not considered preparatory and are works in and of themselves by the artist. For me, the hope, joy, and possibility in reclaiming something stolen by racist, ignorant, hateful ideas feels overwhelmingly beautiful and this power radiates from the figures’ faces, removing the preconceived horror, and reminding me that images can be flexible.

Aware that this work is challenging for many and a common gut reaction may be to cringe, I think understanding more about the past might expand one’s perspective making room for a significant positive impact on the future. The swastika is one of humankind‘s most known symbols and, long before the nazis, has been an important symbol in practically every culture and society since the beginning of civilization. Dating back to Roman mosaics in 2nd century AC, this legible, dynamic, & geometrically pure symbol began it’s course standing for good fortune, fertility, light and water. The Smithsonian shows swastikas in the late 1890’s present in multiple continents, pagan and primitive, representing magic and the divine. This positive marking possessed a strong spiritual significance, it has often appeared emblazoned onto altars, rugs, and floors. It can be seen from the feet of Buddha in the far east, to the border pattern of the floors at BAM in Brooklyn installed in the early 1920s, to all over North American Native sites on coins, vases, pottery, stone pedestals, and altars. Even the boy scouts and coca-cola used it as a peaceful, calming symbol of good luck in the early 20th century before hitler co-opted it as a mark of authority, hate, and nazi pagentry in an attempt to create a symbol as powerful as his enemy’s: the communist’s sickle & hammer, the American stars and stripes. A symbol on a publication he read at the time, in 1921 he put it in a circle and declared it his party’s marking until 1933 when it became the symbol of the Third Reich. Understandably so, it has not been touched much in the US or Europe outside of a few artists, recently Georg Baselitz at White Cube in 2015, and Judith Bernstein at Paul Kasmin Gallery in 2017.

Beyond this universal history is Avner’s own family history. He grew up in Israel - a mix of parents from both the east (Iran & Iraq) and the west (Poland & Austria) - and his grandfather’s entire family was killed in the Holocaust. Avner remembers family trips to ancient archeological sites where he spotted the swastika everywhere, and believes the symbol is “...so successful because it is formally very stable yet full of movement. It’s abstract yet carries all this meaning with it. It’s really amazing how in 20 years the Nazis managed to totally destroy it’s meaning. I want to make images that matter. I would like to think that if it took the Nazis 20 years to recontextualize this image, I might have a chance at it too..(and) Baselitz did it recently and was one of the reasons I started, if a German is going to take it on, so should a Jew !” - AC

Learn more about Avner’s work here: https://www.avnerchaim.com/ .

Avner Chaim (Haifa, Israel b.1992) is a painter who lives and works in New York, NY. He received his MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York, NY in 2017 and a BFA from the Department of Multidisciplinary Art at Shenker College in Tel Aviv, Israel in 2015. He has been included in shows at As of Now Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, Life Lessons Garage in Far Rockaway, New York, the Garrison Art Center in Garrison, NY and several locations in Tel Aviv and around Israel. His work has been included in New American Paintings Issue #123, April 2016, and lives in two prominent collections in Israel.