Conversations with Tslil Tsemet

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tslil Tsemet.

Hi Tslil, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born and raised in northern Israel, near the Lebanese border. I’ve skipped a military service and moved to Tel Avi and at 19 moved to Jerusalem to study art, eventually receiving my BFA from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Designing 2011

In 2014, I moved to California and began building my career in the U.S., supporting myself as a tattoo artist while continuing to paint. Since then, I’ve exhibited my work in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Israel, and Denmark.

Over the years, my work has evolved from surreal paintings exploring feminism and power dynamics toward increasingly personal work dealing with identity, prejudice and, in the past few years, antisemitism.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Being an artist is rarely a smooth road. There is a tremendous amount of rejection and uncertainty, and you have to continue making work even when you have no idea where it will lead.

One of my more recent challenges has been making work about antisemitism during an extremely polarized time. I want to be able to address difficult and personal subjects without creating propaganda or telling viewers what they should think. Finding that balance between being unapologetic and leaving room for complexity has become an important part of my practice.

More than anything, I’ve learned that an art career requires persistence. You keep making the work, including during the periods when it feels like nobody is paying attention.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a figurative oil painter working between hyperrealism, surrealism and satire. I use traditional painting techniques to create images that can initially appear beautiful or polished, but become stranger and more uncomfortable the longer you look at them.

I’m drawn to contradictions: beauty and grotesqueness, humor and violence, attraction and repulsion. Dark humor and absurdity are especially important to my work because they allow me to approach serious subjects without becoming didactic.

I think what sets my paintings apart is that tension between technique and subject matter. I love the history and craft of oil painting, but I use that language to talk about the strange, complicated and often absurd realities of contemporary life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.tsliltsemet.com
• Instagram: https://Www.instagram.com/the.girl.with.the.brushes
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/p/DWJ-E2XDvG1/?igsi=MWkyeWlsMWkyZzFiag==

Image Credits
Tslil Tsemet iPhone