Collection: Ovadia Alkara Artist Biography and Art Gallery Collection

Ovadia Alkara was born in Abdulla Alkara in Daliat El-Carmel, Israel in 1939. Alkara's artistic journey began in his youth, when he resided in the artists' village, Ein Hod, where he was exposed to the works of leading modernist Israeli artists such as Mokadi, Rudi Lehmann and Marcel Janco. He began painting at the age of 16 and immediately upon release from the army, he went to Europe and studied at the Ecole Del Beaux Arts in Paris.  Alkara's range of style developed over the years from oriental paintings of his Druse home town to neo-expressionism and neo-fauvism.  The art works of  Ovadia Alkara reflect his search for artistic expression, his use of colors and dynamic brush movement create dense and rich compositions which distinguished by ornamental patterning of oriental carpets. The themes of his paintings are survival, defense, and the cruel struggle for existence of which only the strongest prevail. According to Ovadia Alkara this is the basis of life, common to all living creatures.

In his paintings Ovadia Alkara relates to man and animal, criss-crossing between them, creating analogies and mixing one with the other. Each painting represents a different aspect, such as: hunting, prey, murder, suicide, wrestling, cannibalism, chase, escape, and wandering. The works reveal a chaotic existence, devoid of order, logic or hope, a life ruled by blind impulse, and dominated by the laws of the jungle. The artist draws his themes from reality, whether through his own direct experience or the secondary experience flooding through the media. In his expressive way, Alkara translates and interprets this reality and represents it through his poetic vision and experience, of the artist living in New York, a crowded metropolis where the frictions between man and his environment is especially acute. On another plane, the paintings might suggest the artist's innate insecurity, alienation and tension, life on the fringed of society, like an acrobat on a tight rope.

Ovadia Alkara Artist Biography and Art Gallery Collection lives in Israel and New York and he is a member of the Ein Hod Artists Village. Alkara's One-Man Shows include: 1964 Hagefen Gallery, Haifa, Israel 1965 Artists' Village, Ein Hod, Israel Dov Gallery, Philadelphia U.S.A. 1966 Sheskin Gallery, New York U.S.A. Israel Gallery, New York, U.S.A. 1968 Israel-America Cultural Foundation New York 1970 Caravan Gallery, New York, U.S.A. 1971 Museum of Modern Art, Haifa, Israel 1972 Old Jaffa Gallery, Jaffa Israel 1974 Goldmann Gallery, Haifa, Israel 1975 Mabat Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel 1978 Engel Gallery, Jerusalem Israel 1982 Mabat Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel Alkara's works are in the permanent collection of many museums and collections. In 1983, Alkara won an acquisition prize at the Treinnale of Israeli Graphic Art, Haifa Museum of Modern Art. In 1985 he was a visiting artist for a series of lectures about his work at the Floating Art Center, along the coast of the Mississippi River.