Tami Bahat: Past is Present

Tami Bahat: Past is Present July 12 — August 30, 2019

Catalyst interviews Tami Bahat about her work and her recent exhibition at Catherine Edelman Gallery.

Image: Tami Bahat interview conducted by Feature Shoot. Article includes several images of Tami Bahat's work.

CATHERINE EDELMAN GALLERY PRESENTS THE WORK OF TAMI BAHAT IN HER CHICAGO DEBUT, PAST IS PRESENT

Catherine Edelman Gallery is pleased to host the Chicago debut of photographs by Tami Bahat in a one person show, Past is Present. The exhibition opens July 12 and runs through August 30, 2019.

There will be an opening reception on Friday, July 12, from 5:00 - 8:00pm. The artist will be in attendance.

Los Angeles based photographer Tami Bahat (1979, Tel Aviv, Israel) will tell you she was born in the wrong era. At an early age, she realized her curiosity and interests were more aligned with the sensibility, formality, and style of dress from the Victorian era. She gravitated to photography as a teenager, “intrigued by the medium's ability to mold the obvious into the interesting, the commonplace into the comment-worthy.” With support from her parents, who are both in the arts, she rejected the traditional path of art school and learned the history of art from books, museums and family trips, where she was exposed to the paintings of Vermeer, Botticelli and Rembrandt, whose works have had a lasting effect.

Tami Bahat’s photographic tableaus harken back to these old masters, when window light revealed quiet moments. Using iconography from the Victorian era, she assembles intimate scenes for viewers to contemplate: In The Writer, 2015, a gentleman rests his arm on a piece of paper illuminated by the flickering light of a candle; In The Dispute, 2016, two chairs sit back to back, one with a woman in profile dressed head to toe in a vintage muted colored outfit, and in the other chair sits a baboon in profile, relaxed and poised; and in The Feline, 2017, a cat sits triumphantly on a table filled with fruit, growling at the viewer, as a fish lays at its feet. Through lighting, subject matter and metaphor, Bahat’s images transport us back to an era void of technology, when simple pleasures like writing, painting, or reading was the norm.

As part of Past is Present, Tami Bahat will create various rooms styled from the past, that incorporate her vintage framed photographs on the wall. Visitors will be able to walk into a bedroom setting, a sitting room, and reading area, transporting themselves to another time when the past is present. By creating these installations, the artist invites the public to slow down and absorb the subtle nuances that exist within her work, reflecting on the quiet joys that are so often overlooked.

Tami Bahat is a fine art photographer from Tel Aviv, Israel. Raised by a former dancer and a graphic artist, Bahat’s family resettled in Los Angeles when she was a child.

Championed by parents who encouraged her artistic expression, Bahat experimented in various media, finding her voice as well as her place in the world. She left school at the age of fifteen and was given guidance by her father, who had taught at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. He encouraged her independent study, through workshops and seminars of art history, photography, sculpture and design, further enhancing her creative vision. A series of family trips around the world exposed Bahat to humanity as a whole and the myriad ways that people live, providing her with a keen awareness of the beauty and loss that an earthly existence brings, an undertone in much of her work.

Bahat’s fine art career began in earnest in 2010, when the editor of the U.K. publication, Nikon Owner Magazine, noticed her photographs. He was struck by her bold and imaginative approach and featured one of her portraits on the cover, and an article about her practice. Since then, she participated in a series of photo events and speaking engagements within the United States.

Most recently, her work has been exhibited at photography events internationally, including Fotofever (Paris), AAF New York and Hong Kong, as well as the LA Art Show. Bahat was selected as a Critical Mass finalist in 2016 and invited to attend Review Santa Fe 2017. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

Dramatis Personae images are available as 8 x 10" for $2200 or 5 x7" (or smaller) for $1500, 11 x 14" for $2700 and 14 x 18/20" for $3300. All images are pigment prints made in editions of 10, 10 and 5 respectively. Prices include framing.

Please call: (312) 266-2350 for prices of specific pieces.
Prices are print only unless otherwise indicated.