David Leviathan

David Leviathan (; born 6 August 1950) is an Israeli painter, sculptor, and poet.

Biography David Leviathan was born and grew up in Kibbutz Givat Brenner in Israel. Right after completing his military service, in the year 1972, he attended the Avni Institute of Fine Arts. During his studies there, he became an assistant of his teacher – master, the artist Yehezkel Streichman, and later on he was teaching there himself.

In the year 1977 he gave up painting and for the next two years was occupied with trying to compare the monthly cycle in women to cycles in nature, by creating different kinds of 3-dimensional objects.

Towards the end of 1979, he moved to Amsterdam, and while being touched by the book The Fall, written by Albert Camus, he composed oil paintings trying to deal with Camus thoughts, and thus titled his first one-man show in Amsterdam, "The Fall".

During the following years, while using the Four Elements (Air, Water, Fire & Earth) as a major theme for his abstracts and Human Heads (some of them painted on huge canvases, like 350x300 cm` and similar), he used to spend two weeks every year (1981–1989) on a Greek island (each year on a different one), letting a donkey carry his equipment while travelling, to achieve a greater perspective for developing his work, relating those Vibrant Elements and Heads.

In the year 1992, Leviathan received Dutch citizenship, and the next two years he was travelling between Amsterdam and Paris, living and working in them both. He moved back (temporarily?) to Israel to create, and the white color started taking a major part in his work.

A major motif in his work is questioning death within the cyclicality of Life and Death, in which he uses a lot of images of old women, devoting special attention to their facial expressions, and in many cases befogging the images, trying to comprehend as deep as possible spiritual feeling, to create a certain type of atmosphere, and, in some cases it is the tension point between coming to fruition and withering.

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions 1978 – Sara Levi Gallery, Tel Aviv 1979 – "The Third Floor Gallery", Jaffa 1979 – "New gallery", Tel Aviv 1980 – Galerie "Artes", Amsterdam 1986 – Galerie "De Looier", Amsterdam 1989 – Sara Levi gallery, Tel Aviv 1991 – Galerie Witteveen, Amsterdam 1991 – Smith Andersen Gallery, Palo Alto, California 1991 – "De Gele Rijder" Kunst centrum, Arnhem 1992 – "The Work Shop", Paris 1992 – Museum "De Librije", Zwolle, Netherlands 1995 – Horace Richter gallery, Jaffa 1999 – Tel Aviv Performing Art Center 1999 – Givaataim Theatre (Tel Aviv) 2000 – Horace Richter gallery, Jaffa 2003 – "Artists Residence House", Herzlia, Israel 2006 – Düsseldorf cultural department, (Germany) 2010 – "Artists residence House", Hadera, Israel

Group shows 1977 – The Jerusalem Theatre gallery 1977, 1978 – Tel Aviv Museum, – winners of the AICF 1977 – Haifa Museum 1992 – "Le Genie De La Bastille", Paris 1993 – Le Grand Palais, Paris, Biannual "group 109" 1993 – "Art International", Amsterdam and Tilburg 2004 – "Salon Des Artistes Indepandants", L`espace D`auteuil, Paris 2004 – "Salon International, M.C.A, Cannes, France 2004 – "Alternative gallery", Jaffa 2006 – Wilfried Museum, Hazorea, Israel 2013 – Salon "Business Art", Paris

Scholarships and grants 1975–1978 – Material scholarship from AICF 1979 – Scholarship, Israeli Ministry of Education and Culture 1987–1988 – material scholarship, Netherlands Ministry of Education and culture 1989 – Werkbeurs (grant), Amsterdam municipality 1989 – Presentation beurs, "Stichting Fonds Voor Beeldende Kunsten, Vormgeving En Bouwkunst, Netherlands 1991 – Werkbeurs, Amsterdam municipality, the Cultural department 1992–1993 – Werkbeurs, "Stichting Fonds Voor Beeldende Kunsten, Vormgeving En Bouwkunst", Netherlands 1993 – Presentatie beurs, "Prins Bernard Fonds", Amsterdam 1993–1994 – Werkbeurs, "Stichting Fonds Voor Beeldende kunsten, Vormgeving en Bouwkunst", Netherlands