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Remarkable. It's the only way to describe an exhibition of paintings by Tal Slutzker (b. Israel, 1986), a 14-year-old dynamo who paints with incredible passion for his age and possesses the painterly credentials of an artist many years his senior.
In the main Slutzker's subject matter revolves around classical mythological figures and phantasmagoric episodes coupled with an infusion of self-portraits and look-alikes of immediate family members.
Single subjects like Medusa, Icarus, satyrs and reserved self- portraits are accompanied by large descriptive works depicting mythic events from the legends of Hercules, Pan and Poseidon.
Slutzker's compositions are basic and uncomplicated while his anatomical descriptions, although often weak in the structured drawing, project a sense of solidity and correctness. This is due to his concentrated effort to apply pigment in a crusty ala prima technique, and use of the dramatic effects of shadow to emphasize, rather than render, the human form.
Although he has had brief encounters with teachers of art history and painting techniques, Slutzker is self- taught. Born in Israel to Russian parents, he is totally immersed in his art. In a video film aired at the exhibit he describes his artistic objectives and his needs with clarity and precision. It is also evident from the film that the Slutzker household is a veritable atelier, in which life revolves around Tal's artistic pursuits.
Still the teenager, however, and carrying the heavy psychological baggage of that age, Slutzker resourcefully plunges into his world of art to define his needs and reach out for self-discovery.
In keeping with his predilection for mythological characters, he sees himself as a narcissistic figure absorbed in his immediate environment, evident in the numerous stand-alone self-portraits. A cool blue-green canvas, painted in a romanticized Pre-Raphaelite idiom, portrays a young Narcissus (Slutzker) at the pond searching his own reflection.
Slutzker's sweeping mythological narratives are both brutal and monumental in scope. Quite often expressions and gestures are exceedingly melodramatic or compositionally over-zealous.
Considering that a number of these major canvases were painted when Slutzker was...