Michael Halak
Michael Halak was born in Fassuta Village in 1975, He lives and works in Haifa.
Michael Halak paints in a remarkably skilled realistic style. His works belong to the western tradition of realist, illusory paintings. Halak always paints from observation – directly or by means of photographs – turning his gaze towards his immediate reality, and capturing various interiors or exteriors. The illusion of reality represented on his canvases is seductively beautiful, yet at the same time it is revealed to carry a disturbing charge that involves disruption and disintegration. Signs that allude to states of distress, destruction, and crisis are reoccurring motifs in his compositions.
The underlying question that shapes Michael Halak’s work (as well as his life, being born into a Palestinian Christian family), concerns the connection between man and place and related to themes of presence and absence, identification and dis-identification, witnessing and silencing, memory and imposed oblivion. Another important axis in his work is the tension between belonging and estrangement.
Halak earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from the Fine Art Department at the University of Haifa, and a certificate of studies from the Florence Academy of Art. He has shown at the Florence Academy of Art, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and Haifa Museum of Art. He received the Rappaport Prize for Young Artist, the Young Artist Prize from the Ministry of Culture and Sport, and a Scholarship from the America – Israel Cultural Foundation.
Michael Halak
Born: 1975,Lives and work in Haifa
Education
2007-9 MFA, the Art Department, University of Haifa
2005 summer session, Florence Academy of Art, Italy
2002-2004 Art teacher’s certificate,University of Haifa
1999-2002 Bachelor Degree in Archeology and Fine Art,University of Haifa
1996-1998 Graphic Design,Western Galilee College, Wizo College Branc
Selected Exhibitions
2019 25 years to Noga Gallery of contemporary, Tel Aviv
2019 A look at the promise land, beit hankin art gallery, israel
2018 House…House, Walled Off Hotel Gallery, Bethlehem
2018 Motion Trap, IDRIS, Artist Run Space, Tel-Aviv
2018 Self-Collection, Beit Hagefen Gallery, Haifa
2017 Salon Hacubia 2017, Hacubia Gallery, Jerusalem
2017 Memories From the Future, Noga Gallery of Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv
2017 Third Identity, CAP Kuwait, Kuwait
2017 Ingathering, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv
2016 Roots of Identity, Art on 56th Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2016 The Winners 2015, Herzliya Museu of Contemporary Art, Herzliya
2016 P.O.B Art Collection, Bethlehem
2016 Drawings, Noga Gallery of Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv
2015 The Museum Presents Itself 2, Tel-Aviv Museum, Tel-Aviv
2015 The Palestinian Arab House (Haifa 1860-1930), Haifa City Museum, Haifa
2015 Vision of Place, Stedman Gallery, New Jersey, USA
2014 SummerSet, Noga Gallery of Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv
2014 Cracks (solo), Noga Gallery of Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv
2014 Portraits, Shenkar Gallery, Ramat Gan
2014 Wonderland, Espace Oscar-Niemeyer, Paris
2014 Wisdom of Crowds, Beit Hageffen Gallery, Haifa
2014 Profile Is Aggression Too, Gallery -1, Tel-Aviv
2013 Galilee Paint Art Fair 2013, Hatzour Hglileet
2013 Realytizm, Grand Art Gallery, Haifa
2013 Wonderland, The German Bundestag, Berlin
2013 Territory, Oranim Gallery, Oranim Collage
2012 Faces and Landscapes (solo), Tel-Aviv Museum, Tel-Aviv
2012 Spring 2012, MECA: Middle East Center for the Arts, New Jersey
2012 48-67, The House of Culture & Arts Gallery, Nazareth
2011 Certified Copy, Beit Hgeffen Gallery, Haifa
2011 The Armory Show, New-York City
2011 Winners of 2010, Ramat Gan Museum, Ramat Gan
2010 July, Noga Gallery, Tel-Aviv
2010 Window to reality, Haifa Museum, Haifa
2010 Dream a reality, Pyramid Gallery, Haifa
2010 Fresh paint art fear 3, Tel-Aviv
2010 Following the chocolate soldier, Shinkar Gallery,Ramat Gan
2009 Men in the sun, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel
2009 MFA Exhibition, the Dr. Hecht Art Center,Haifa University
2007 Portrait, Beit Hageffen, Haifa
2007 Desert Generation, Meneer de Wit Gallery, Amsterdam, Holland
2007 Portrait, Municipal Gallery, Tamra
2006 A Different World, Sawa Gallery, Shfaraam
2005 Alumni exhibition, The Florence Academy of Art, Florence, Italy
2002 Alumni exhibition, The Art Department, Haifa University
Awards
2011 The Rapports Award for Young Israeli Artist, Tel-Aviv Museum
2010 The Young Artist Award 2010, Ministry of Culture and Sport
2009 MFA Distinction scholarship, Haifa University
2007 Distinction scholarship, Haifa University
2005 Residency scholarship in Florence, the America-Israel Culture Foundation
September 7, 2017
March 20, 2014
Apr 04, 2014
Mar 20, 2014
Mar 19, 2014
Apr 03, 2012
Recent News
January 30, 2015
Michael Halak, The Usual Suspects, Oil on Canvas, 40x30cm each, 2010
September 6, 2014
Ori Gersht, Ghost series (Olive 20), C-Print, 120×150 cm, 2014
February 28, 2014
Michael Halak, Olive, Olive Oil and Oil Press, oil on canvas, 180×120 cm, 2014
January 23, 2014
Michael Halak,fragile, oil on canvas, 40x30cm,2011
August 22, 2013
Michael Halak,King of the Jews, 2011, Oil on Wood, 60x60cm