Imaginary Friends
Rakafet Viner Omer
2009
The artist’s book was published on the occasion of an exhibition held at the artists’ workshops at Elifelet, Tel Aviv, 2009. This book contains only drawings without any text. These are the first paintings painted by the artist who started as a text and video installations artist.
The book contains portraits and explores how a portrait can be painted in contemporary art, as well as the way in which a person presents and perceives herself in the media. By drawing these characters, Viner Omer enlivens an imaginary community with which she drinks, sits, converses and argues. This is perhaps the imagined community of the art world.
In these works one can see the beginning of abstraction as well as a strong interest in materials and presence of the painting materials as body materials and fluids, reflecting the organic nature of humanity and the material aspect of human existence which is not always attractive and acceptable in society.
Attached to the book is a single text in a plastic sheet, a proposed law stating that “love should work out.”
- Copies: 500
- Pages: 33
- Dimensions (cm): 20X28
- Reproductions: Oded Lobel
- Place of publication: Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel
- Supported by: Israel Lottery Council For Culture & Arts, The Yehoshua Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts, Ministry of Culture
Painter, born in 1965, lives and works in Tel Aviv.
Rakefet Viner Omer Holds a BA in psychology and film (1990), a diploma in art from the Beit Berl Art College (2000), a degree in art therapy from the Beit Berl Art College (1993) and an MFA in art from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design (2007).
Rakefet has exhibited many solo exhibitions, including at the Sapir Art Gallery, Raw-art Gallery (2022 and 2025),Teddy Artists' Gallery, Jerusalem (2018), Nulovaz Gallery (2017),I.A.I.L.A Los Angeles (curated by Sagi Rafael 2017), Feinberg Projects (2014), Beit Kenner Municipal Gallery, Rishon Lezion (2013), Tabi Gallery (2011), Jerusalem Artists 'House (Meron Sima Prize Exhibition 2010), Kibbutz Gallery (curated by Yael Kaney 2010), Tel Aviv Artists' Workshops (2009),and Janko Dada Museum (2005).
Her work has also been shown in many group exhibitions in venues such as Nahum Gutman Museum, Haifa Museum of Art, Jerusalem print Workshop, Artists' House In Tel Aviv, the project room at Sommer Gallery, Hanina Gallery, Shai Arieh Gallery, Sapir College Art School Gallery, Tirosh Gallery, Santa Barbara Gallery USA, Nordart - the Israeli pavilion in Germany, Kassel Industrial Park in Germany. Larnaca Biennale and more.
Rakefet is the recipient of the Ministry of Culture Award (2008) and the Miron Sima Award (2010). She also receives the Mifal Apais grant for her engraving catalog -engravings - Skeleton. Other catalogs and artist books that have been published: "Golden Sweat" (2022), Dolt Ouy Os (2011), Imaginary Friends (2011), Do You Think Art Should Be So Direct (2005), all of which accompanied a solo exhibition.
She also won Her works can be found in various collections such as Bank Leumi, the Mishkan for Art in Ein Harod and private collections such as Mitchell Presser, Yossi saban, Oded Shatil, Serge Tirosh and more.
