1980 - 2000 The group exhibitions of the Painters and Sculptors Union.
1985 - “Port and Sea”, the National Maritime Museum.
1985 - “199 Running Meters”, Haifa Museum.
1985 - “The open hall”, the City Hall, Haifa.
1985 - Group exhibition “PIAZZA ALBERICA CARRARA”, Carrara, Italy.
1986 - 1987 Exhibitions of environmental sculpture “Julyafo 86/87”, Jaffa.
1992 - Exhibition in “The Historical Institute”, Modena, Italy.
1993 - “A Year After”, Maalot.
1993 - “Carving in the Little Forest”, Raanana.
1994 - Group exhibition. Municipal Gallery Caldas da Portugal.
1997 - Exhibition in international stone sculpture exhibition Hualien Taiwan.
2000 - “Jaffa Art 2000” Jaffa
2001 - Art Gallery Ein-Hod
2001 - “Kasttra” Haifa
SYMPOSIUMS:
1985 - “VII Symposia Internazionale di Scultura” , Carrar, Italy.
1989 - “Carving in Basalt Symposium”, Kazrin, Israel.
1990 - “VIII Simposio Internazionale di Scultura Pietra”, Fanano, Italy.
1991 - “International Symposium of Carving in Metal”, Rishon-Lezion, Israel.
1991 - “IV Incontro Internazionale di Scultura su Pietra”, Teulada, Sardinia.
1992 - “The First International Symposium of Carving in stone”. Maalot. Israel.
1993 - “Symposium Mediterranean De Sculpture”, TOULON, France.
1994 - “Simppetra 94”. Caldas da Rainha, Portugal.
1994 - “Carving in Wood”, Lama di Mocogno, Modena, Italy.
1995 - “Finnggranit 95”, Vamala, Finland.
1998 - “International Symposium of Carving in stone”. Maalot. Israel.
2000 - “The First Symposium of Carving in stone” Netania Israel
2002 - Symposium of Carving in stone - Dimona, Israel
2003 - Symposium of Carving in stone – Admit, Israel
PRIZES:
1986 - A praise mark, “The Guest Exhibition”, Chagal House, Haifa.
1989 - The prize of Haifa’s’ Municipality, a praise mark in name of the artist, the professor Herman Schtruck.
1990 - A second prize in “Competition of shaping an Environmental Sculpture”, El-Ram Company, Rishon-Lezion.
1993 - The prize of Haifa’s Municipality, a praise mark in name of the artist, the professor Herman Schtruck.
COLLECTIONS:
Haifa, Israel: The Municipal Theatre Square. Ashdod Israel: Alon Park.
Raanan, Israel. The Sculpture Park, Kazrin, Israel.
The Sculpture Garden, Zrifin, Israel, Maalot-Tarshicha.
The Town-garden, Rishon-Lezion, Israel. Provinzia di Modena, Italy.
Commune di Teulada, Sardinia, Italy. Toulon Municipality, France.
Lama di Mocogno Municipality . Italy. Calda da Rainha, Portugal.
Vamala, Portugal. Hualien Taiwan, Switzerland, Privet collections.
Rami Gavish`s celestial temples, chiselled in black gray granite, carry us to higher regions, to other dimensions.
As out of a silent prayer, as though out of perfect meditation, apertures open toward the light, toward unfamiliar regions, inviting us to behold and discover through them, additional possibilities. A stair way leading to, and ending in, a familiar yet different sphere, leading us through a deep meditative experience, out of and into a prayer.
Gavish cuts into the granite with rigorous precision: clean perfect lines hew the tough material, enabling the ideas to reach an exact and true utterance. His technical ability is absolute and allows him to touch the highest levels of expression. His inner needs cause him to be repeatedly occupied with the same subject, urging him to reach a compleate summarization of his work of art. Each one of his sculptures in this sequence is a personal prayer, a shrine to god in the heavens.
The early sculptures by Gavish were interesting because of his use of the material he worked with. It was marble and it was so wonderfully treated. That this treatment caught the eyes, even when the form was not yet interesting. He caressed the marble, he gave it all the love one gives a loved wife. Under his hands the marble blossomed, was shining, no more cold, but really warm in its different nuances. The reason for this love affair became clear when he told that he had lived four months in Carrara. There he discovered the beauty of this stone, there he learned how to work on this marble, so that it could breathe. He became enchanted by this material and his love found its expression in the treatment of this beautiful stone. Without this experience at Carrara one can’t understand his work.
He is not an artist who searches art of today, he is not interested in styles, and he is only interested in the material under his hand. Once it was marble, today it is basalt. It is basalt. It was once basalt, and it may become again granite or marble. In any case it is something hard to handle, something made for eternity, and therefore it is understandable that he looks for forms which are timeless, not belonging to a certain period. His forms are classic, beautiful. A beauty which may last for ever, just as the material it is made of.
Gavish had an exhibition at kibbutz Hazorea, here one saw forms built of marble, granite and basalt. They were all simple, obeying the law of the stone he handled. They were round or angular, nothing superfluous added. He only stressed the quality of the material. He rounded or carved it to show off its beauty.
His last works are built of basalt. They are not polished like marble, you can’t caress it because basalt is granular, and it is heavy and has its own character. Its inner body is a mixture of white and grey.
Gavish uses this lively mixture to enliven his sculpture. He bends the stone, so that we see the parallel white lines of the material on the outside and its mixture of white and grey spots on the inside.
One sculpture is a bent reclining form. Here the curve of the body is elegant and more so even, the design of the material in its sides contrasting the cuts on its back.
One sees a bent form, ship like, fixed on a high pillar, which is vertically striped to stress the roundness of the boat form above.
Gavish built an arch out of basalt: one side thinner with horizontal stripes cut in it, while the broader side has more intervals between the cuts, and they are spread over the stone to show its quality.
Then there is a bottlelike form enlivened by crisscrossing cuts, changing the rhythm according to the form of the bottle.
In one sculpture he takes a pillar and bends its edge back, or in another pillar turns it around in its middle and shows its opposite exterior. In another work he stresses the smooth surface in contrast to its rough inside` or on taking an oval egglike form and twisting it, he built a pillar, rounding its top, so confronting inner and outer areas – one is polished and the other is rough – so really playing with the possibilities of his material.
There is a big round basalt stone, one side of it is cut and divided by parallels to a sharp plain surface – against the roundness of its back. There are high vertical forms with a hole in the middle or with two legs of an arch, which is so narrow, that it permits only a glance through the stone, whose inside is as polished as its outer side is rough.
All the forms are not unique, they are timeless but they are individual and original thanks to his handling of his material.
Gavish`es love of stone expresses itself in these wonderful, harmonious forms, which do not belong to today, but to all times, and that is their strength and beauty.
