After studying art in Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, Florence and Paris, Dani Karavan started working in the 1960s on theater, ballet and opera decors. But, he quickly moved towards environmental sculpture. The Monument of the Negev (1963-1968) is one of the first emblematic creations of the artist, which success brought numerous commissions for site-specific sculptures around the world. In 1976; he represented Israel at the Biennale of Venice and participated in the Documenta of Kassel in 1977 – the same year he was granted the Israel Price. Taking part in the debate on Public Art, the gallery presented a first exhibition in 1986 entitled “Question d’urbanité”, along with Gérard Singer and Jean-Pierre Raynaud. The artist showed models and drawings of his Axe Majeur, a 3km-long sculpture installed near Paris on which he started working in 1980. This sculpture, which main components are space and time, remains unfinished in 2017. In 1998, he was awarded the Praemium Imperiale Tokyo and the gallery presented again his works in 1999 and 2005.

The profoundly humanist œuvre of Dani Karavan draws its material from natural elements as diverse as sand, wood, water, wind, trees, and light. Each installation has a resonance with the memories of its specific site, true medium of the artist, and is mainly conceived as a place of life, reflection and communion with Nature. From Israel to Japan, from the United States to Korea, from France to Italy, each of the artist’s works invites those who walk through it to experience the essence of the site itself.

Recently, Dani Karavan wishes to return to smaller sculptures, which he calls his works of “chamber music”, using an innovative technique with concrete made of raw earth. The production of these sculptures, invoking the earthen villages of his childhood and remains from Canaanite and Israelite constructions more than 2000 years old, is provided by the gallery. They were presented twice: in a solo show of Karavan at the Museum of Modern Art of Céret (South of France) and in the exhibition “Quinte-Essence – air-water-earth-fire-ether”, celebrating the gallery’s 90^th Anniversary in 2015, and at the Grand Palais for FIAC.

In 2017 a work by Dani Karavan is presented at the exhibition “Kairos Castle” at Gaasbeek Castle in Belgium, with Dutch philosopher and author Joke Hermsen as curator. The artist is also presented on the occasion of the exhibition “Passion de l’Art – Galerie Jeanne Bucher Jaeger depuis 1925”, first retrospective devoted to the galerie, at Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence (France).

In 2018, a work by Dani Karavan is presented at the gallery for the exhibition “Dessins de Sculpteurs”.

www.danikaravan.com