MICKY GOLDSTEIN | I'm Not Afraid of The Dark

Micky Goldstein's world is a hot air balloon, wandering in time and space. His body of works tells a story in short pictures, scenes, and anecdotes from the realm of childhood, mixing together imagination and memory. His ideas stretch the boundaries of the room, the house, the world, and find a new order on the canvas.

In this exhibition, Goldstein finds the courage to dive into the depths of memory to meet the child he was - the alter-ego that stars in his paintings - a sensitive, introverted, and playful child who covers up everything he lacks with indifference and self-deprecation.

He refers to his childhood heroes - international comic artists such as Kino, Mordillo, and Herve - as his artistic forefathers. Motifs of comics enlarged to a grand scale and translated into oil on canvas form his powerful yet playful artistic language. The paintings often combine handwritten texts, present not only as part of the composition, but also as a reminder of the "inner child" whispering fragments of thoughts to him. 

His sculptures seem like line drawings in the air, materialized from elements and motifs found in the paintings: a house, a flower, a bench, a toy car, or a lamppost come out of the picture and into life.

The new exhibition, though created in the difficult times of the pandemic, is an optimistic one. It derives from a peaceful, loving place: from the viewpoint of a mature artist who holds within him everyone and anything he has been along the way. When entering Goldstein's world, a magic door opens towards a bittersweet world of memories - from the days when the future was an open promise and everything was still possible.

Curator: Hagit Peleg Rotem