Liorah Tchiprout: Two Eyes Wide Open at the Edge of Dawn

1 Dec 2023-28 Jan 2024

Overview

‘I saw him for the first time at a gathering - two eyes wide open at the edge of dawn’

- from First Time by Celia Dropkin, translated from Yiddish

Liorah Tchiprout’s debut solo exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery, Two Eyes Wide Open at the Edge of Dawn, explores new beginnings. The exhibition consists of paintings, monotypes and etchings, all portraits of subjects who gaze confidently at the viewer or who turn away lost in thought. The paintings, in muted colours punctuated with evocative pinks, yellows and reds, mark the dawn of the artist as a painter working on a much larger scale than before.

Expressions of sorrowful longing and self-assuredness are performed by the artist’s cast of “players” as if on stage. These are dolls are made by Tchiprout in her studio and serve as models in her paintings and prints. Tchiprout also includes other objects from her studio as set dressings - an orange orb lamp becomes the moon or the sun; a corn bunting bird becomes a skylark sharing knowledge and marking the passing of time; the artist’s dog becomes a guardian of safety.

While less descriptive of the content of the paintings themselves, the titles reflect the inner lives of the sitters. Their thoughts, feelings and desires are expressed through excerpts from songs and poetry.

The exhibition’s title is from a poem by Celia Dropkin and is in keeping with the artist’s love of Yiddish women writers. They are often thematically linked through cultural references and explorations of the interior experience of womanhood. Artist references and influences include Paula Modersohn-Becker, Käthe Kollwitz, R. B. Kitaj, Charlotte Salomon and Celia Paul.

Liorah Tchiprout (b. 1992) is based in London. Her work explores girlhood, belonging, and the theatrical, underpinned by a rigorous practice of drawing. She builds physical puppet characters to construct her own pantheon from which to draw images. This methodology allows these characters to sit in between the real and the imagined, drawn from a reality that is constructed.

Tchiprout studied at the University of Brighton, Bezalel School of Art and Design, Jerusalem, and UAL Camberwell.  She was shortlisted for the Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize and The Ingram Prize. She was selected for the Print Futures Award and New Contemporaries 21. Her work is held in collections including Soho House, Clifford Chance, the Ruth Borchard Next Generation Collection and The UK Government Art Collection. In 2023 she was awarded the Sunny Dupree Family Award for a Woman Artist at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition.

Artists

Press

Liorah Tchiprout: Two Eyes Wide Open at the Edge of Dawn | press release
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