Erez Neumark
My art is a little about creating something beautiful, and a lot about creating something meaningful.
Message
Born in Israel and raised in Belgium and Africa, Erez Neumark is an oil painter now working out of his studio in Herzliya, Israel. This early exposure to vastly different cultures and landscapes laid the foundation for his current visual vocabulary. Before committing to the canvas, Erez built a career in business—a background that brings a distinct sense of discipline and structural focus to his creative process.
His formal transition into fine art was anchored by an intensive two-year professional apprenticeship under the mentorship of artist Ron Chen in Tel Aviv, where Erez refined his classical sketching, color theory, and oil painting techniques.
Neumark’s work emerged later in life, sparked by a period of profound personal crisis and a subsequent confrontation with a surreal visual phenomenon that altered his worldview. To translate this experience, he works across two distinct styles: meticulous, layered representational paintings and raw, intuitive palette-knife abstractions. Since committing to his practice, Erez has showcased his work across Israel in a curated solo exhibition and multiple group shows.
Statement
My journey into oil painting began late in life, born directly out of a period of deep personal crisis. Because of this, my studio is, first and foremost, a space of self-discovery. My current work centers on giving physical form and meaning to an unexplainable surreal phenomenon I witnessed—an event that fundamentally altered my worldview and now drives my creative life.
To articulate what words cannot, I divide my practice into two distinct physical processes that approach this singular narrative from different angles. For my representational pieces, landscapes, and figures, I start with an underpainting and move on to building the layers. In contrast, my abstract works are entirely intuitive. I work mostly with palette knives to let my hand take the lead.
While these two techniques look and feel vastly different, they share the exact same inspiration. By shifting between meticulous structure and raw intuition, I am able to piece together the meaning of my own experiences, hopefully creating an emotional bridge to my audience.