Ilan Averbuch

Ilan Averbuch (; born 1953, Israel) is a sculptor living and working in Long Island City, New York. Averbuch creates large-scale monumental artworks and installations for gallery and museum exhibitions in addition to outdoor public spaces.

Biography Ilan Averbuch was born in Israel, in 1953. He then served in the Israeli Army, fighting in the Yom Kippur War. From 1976–1977 Averbuch traveled to North and South American living between the Cordilleras and the Amazon region, a formative trip that solidified his intention to become an artist. He moved to London in 1977 to attend the Wimbledon School of Art. In 1979 Averbuch moves to New York City to attend the School of Visual Arts to complete his B.F.A. His work appears across the globe in India, Israel, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and throughout the United States. A recent work, Tappan Zee (2020) depicts a row of seven abstract steel figures carrying a stone canoe. The sculpture pays tribute to the indigenous Native American Lenape tribe and their history along the Hudson River. Avanim Vetseadim (Steps and Stones) (2008) is located at Gezer Park in Leawood, Kansas. A stone ladder positioned within a pond, reaches toward the sky, creating a reflection in the water that stretches downward. The installation comprises a 21-foot high upside down tower composed of large flat stones. It stands over an inverted pyramid burrowing 10 feet below ground. The pyramid offers a quiet and contemplative space, while the precariously leaning tower is unsettling. Another work, Terra Incognita (1995), creates an enormous gateway made of wood and massive blocks of stone. In 1986, the artist is invited to Berlin to build a sculpture commemorating the city’s 750th anniversary. Wheat in Berlin evokes the silhouettes of figures marching down the railroad tracks, is made of recycled railroad tracks and discarded stones, remnants from the aftermath of the Second World War. (Macanuel, 2017). The university currently owns three pieces that are displayed throughout their campus. Averbuch returns to India in 1998 to build Calcutta Ladder, a 28-foot copper ladder, installed in the interior atrium of a corporation in Kolkata. thumb

Selected works Songs of Love and Hate (1988), Queens, New York Harp, the Sea, and the Quiet Wind (1989), Tel Aviv, Israel Deus Ex Machina (1991), Open Museum, Tefen, Israel Little Prince (1995), Portland, Oregon Terra Incognita (1995), Portland, Oregon Divided World (2000), Lavon, Israel Dove Tower and the Steps to the Bottom of a Pyramid (2004), Storrs, Connecticut The Eye and the Horizon (2006), Stapleton, Colorado South Tacoma (2008), Tacoma, Washington Landmark (2008), Phoenix, Arizona Under the Shadow of a Big Tree (2009), Tamarac, Florida The Bell, The Flower, and the Wash (2009), Scottsdale, Arizona Avanim Vetseadim (2009), Leawood, Kansas Monument for Time (2010), Herriman, Utah The House and the Boat (2012), Bellingham, Washington Water (2013), El Paso, Texas Theater of the Wind (2016), Tempe, Arizona Mammoth (2018), Ellensburg, Washington The House in the Boat the Boat in the House (2019), Nieheim, Germany Tappan Zee (2020), South Nyack, New York As Far As The Eyes Can See (2020), Lubbock, Texas Ilan Ilan (2020), Ramat Gan, Israel

Exhibitions Averbuch’s work has been exhibited internationally with major solo exhibitions in the United States, Germany, Israel, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Canada. In the 1980s Averbuch exhibits with OH Harris in New York, with solo exhibitions in 1981, 1983, 1985, and 1987.

In 2005 the Katonah Museum of Art exhibits Averbuch's sculptures on the museum's front lawn and in the sculpture garden. In The End of Utopia (The Big Balloon is Far), situated in the front of the museum, is an assemblage of wood, glass, and stone. Wooden slats are arranged in a grid mirroring the shape of an aerial balloon, with a basket made of stone blocks that never made it off the ground. His drawings were on view in the Pryor Gallery until November 13, 2005. The drawings mark the process of creating sculptures, a place to work out ideas and to integrate the site-specific works into the environment they are to occupy.

Ilan Averbuch's work has been shown at the Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Art in the Park, New York; Bronfman Centre, Montreal; The Brooklyn Museum, New York; Fort Tryon Park Project, New York; Het Apollohuis, The Netherlands; Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York; Hunter College, New York; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; The Jewish Museum, New York; Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York; Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; List Art Center, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island; Poland Historical Museum, Lodz, Poland; MoMA P.S. 1, Long Island City, Queens, New York; Robert Moses Plaza, Fordham University at Lincoln Center, New York; Socrates Sculpture Park, Astoria, Queens, New York; Tefen Museum Sculpture Garden, Israel; Tel Aviv Museum, Israel; Tel Hai Art Center, Israel; Tel Noff Sculpture Garden, Israel. thumb Ilan Averbuch, Ilan Ilan, 2020, Ramat Gan, IsraelThe artist's work is represented in numerous public collections, among them: Brock University, Ontario, Canada; Bronfman Centre, Montreal, Canada; Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel; Kunstlerhaus, Bethanien, Berlin, Germany; Prudential Insurance Company of America; Newark, New Jersey; Runnymede Sculpture Farm, Woodside, California; Tefen Museum, Israel; Tel Aviv Museum, Israel; Tel Hai Art Center, Israel; Tel Noff Sculpture Garden, Israel; and Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX.