Art-making functions, in part, as a way to lend form to material. This means that artists are especially attuned to the dramatic changes that are reshaping our material environment. From extreme changes to our climate system, through the utter confluence between the natural and the artificial, humanity’s imprint on the planet is so entrenched that scientists now speak of a new geological era – the era of man, or the Anthropocene. The nine artists included in this exhibition respond to the transformations in our environment in various manifestations, not as themes in their work but as source material.

The concept of substrate In biochemistry refers to the molecule on which an enzyme acts, causing a chemical reaction. Similarly, the artworks in “Substrate” offer physical testament to an environment in flux, at times actively undergoing a material transformation of their own. The exhibiting artists adopt different methods of controlling natural processes and bring about a new materiality, one that is hybrid, vibrating. The works on display do not lend themselves fully to our gaze or to immediate interpretation. Even when they may seem as ‘conventional’ art objects – such as a painterly relief or an object displayed on a pedestal – they have an elusive quality that speaks to the forces that are reshaping our physical surrounding in real time.

“Substrate” is CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo’s annual group exhibition, with contributions by artists Mor Afgin, Eitan Ben Moshe, Nina Canell, Flora Deborah, Ella Littwitz, Virginia L. Montgomery, Lucie Stahl, Netally Schlosser, and Yaara Zach. The exhibition is curated by Tamar Margalit, and it is supported by Factory 54, Suzy Shammah and the Ainosemaj Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles; additional support is provided by ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, BUILDING, Milan, Sotheby’s Israel, Galila’s Collection, Belgium, Givon Art Gallery, Tel Aviv, and those who wish to remain anonymous. 

1

“Substrate,” 2023

View of the exhibition at CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo; artworks by Flora Deborah (left) and

Mor Afgin (right)

Photo: Daniel Hanoch

2

Yaara Zach

Cocoon, 2023

Latex, plastic tubes, rubber, silicon, iron wire, string, cable, variable dimensions

Courtesy of the artist and Givon Art Gallery, Tel Aviv

Photo: Lena Gomon

3

“Substrate,” 2023

View of the exhibition at CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo; artworks by Lucie Stahl (left) and Nina

Canell (right)

Photo: Daniel Hanoch

4

“Substrate,” 2023

View of the exhibition at CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo; artworks by Ella Littwitz (foreground)

and Nina Canell (background, left) and Eitan Ben Moshe (background, right)

Photo: Daniel Hanoch

5

“Substrate,” 2023

View of the exhibition at CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo; artworks by Netally Schlosser (left) and

Eitan Ben Moshe (right)

Photo: Daniel Hanoch

6

Virginia L. Montgomery

Butterfly Birth Bed, 2020

Video still

Courtesy of the artist