Butterflies in the dark – פרפרים בחושך: Eliezer Sonnenschein

‘Butterflies in the Dark’ Eliezer Sonneschien’s first exhibition with the gallery and his first ever exhibition which is entirely comprised of paintings. Most of the works, oil on wood were painted between 2020-2022.

The paintings are landscapes, views of the North of Israel, Sonnenschein’s current home and refuge. The north is both beauty and trauma as the artists suffers from PTSD (being a Lebanon’s War veteran). Sonnenschien refers to landscape paintings as a kind of portrait, he says “in my understanding, a portrait is a lingering moment in which the painting looks back at me, into my heart”. This series of paintings deals with the artists gaze and reflection also through references to the myth of Narcissus, offering a different interpretation of it - Sonnenschein’s Narcissus, being born out of rape between Cephissus, the God of the River and Liriop, a nymphe, stares at the reflection of his terrible origins, eventually drowning in the trauma of his past.