Michal Gavish
Crystal Architecture
March 1 – March 31, 2019
To a chemist, urban structures are familiar: they look naturally constructed, growing like
crystals under the microscope. Michal Gavish, originally a scientist studying these
formations, now creates large, handmade prints of cityscapes in the manner of the crystals
she used to research. In her new exhibition, Crystal Architecture, she exhibits prints
deconstructing her new hometown of Washington, DC.
Gavish rearranges her photography-based images of city buildings into geometries that extend
vertically. She recasts familiar city streets into invented layouts, instilling undercurrents of
turmoil in the magnificent, quiet buildings. She builds them into scaffoldings of infinitely long
rows of windows and columns. These careful compositions of multiple lines and rectangles
display magnificent patterns of crystalline-like geometries.
Printed on translucent fabric layers, the vacant structures become fleeting dioramas of
contemporary archaeological sites. These images emerge like thin embroidery patterns that
sometimes appear flat and at other moments are three-dimensional.
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Michal Gavish is a multimedia artist currently living and working in Washington, DC. She received her MFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute. Previously, she had earned a PhD in Physical Chemistry, which continues to influence her art and science practice. Her works have been exhibited internationally in solo shows at the Budapest Museum, LIU and Garrison art centers in New York, Spinnerei in Leipzig, Germany, and Sandra Lee in San Francisco, to name a few. Her work has been in many group shows including at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Stanford University, ZeroOne Silicon Valley Biennale, Venus Knitting in Brooklyn, Sonoma Art Museum in California, Bogota Art Fair, Columbia and more. Gavish writes reviews for SciArt Magazine and lectures extensively on art and science. She has curated group shows in the New York area and was awarded several artist residencies in New York City and Europe.
