The Foundations
Lior Modan
March 13 - April 26, 2025
Opening reception: Thursday, March 13, 6-8pm
Address: 242 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011

Dinner Gallery is proud to present The Foundations, a solo exhibition of new works by Lior Modan. The exhibition will be on view from March 13th through April 26th with an opening reception on Thursday, March 13th from 6 - 8pm. This is the artist’s first solo presentation with the gallery.

Expanding upon his investigation into the instability of images, Modan’s new series of low relief velvet paintings focus on intangible moments and feelings. His works vibrate between real and imagined, consisting of fictional spaces, borrowed imagery and snapshots of daily life.

For Modan, materiality dictates form and has a way of concealing as much as revealing. He carefully builds his surfaces using utilitarian materials such as wood, foam, plaster and sand before vacuum sealing them with velvet. The scintillation and fluidity of velvet provides continually shifting and holographic fluctuations that test our perception. In addition, observations of ethereal events such as smoke, light and wind, are palpable within his scenes.

Included in The Foundations are several of Modan’s “undone plays”. The artist often describes his compositions as stills of plays that don’t exist. They are theatrical, but not theatre, and removed from context. In this way, Modan is constantly obscuring, reshaping and, quite literally, rebuilding significance creating space for a more open interpretation of experience based knowledge. He uses set design as an allegory for making a painting while challenging one’s understanding of the immediate world.

Embracing many dualities and liminal spaces, Modan’s works embody everything and nothing at the same time. They evade definitive interpretations and embrace ambiguity and transience, leading to a transformative experience that encourages the ongoing process of negotiation and exploration.

Lior Modan (b.1983) lives and works in Queens, New York. Modan received his MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University's Sculpture + Extended Media program (2013), and his BFA from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, Israel (2009). Modan’s work has been exhibited in venues domestically and abroad. Recent solo exhibitions include: CPM Gallery, Baltimore (2024), Make Room, Los Angeles (2021), Triumph, Chicago (2017), Golconda Gallery, Tel Aviv (2016), and NURTUREart in Brooklyn (2015). Selected group exhibitions include: the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel, Marinaro Gallery, New York, Peana Projects, Mexico, F2T Gallery, Milan, Italy; Harkawik Gallery, Los Angeles, Coustof Waxman Gallery, New York, WOAW Gallery, Hong Kong, Petach-Tikva Museum, Israel, and Haifa Museum, Israel, among others. In 2022, Modan released a collaboration with Kelly Wearstler named Technicolor. The project consisted of a series of three velvet works, each in editions of 10. His work has been featured in: The Observer, Architectural Digest, Timeout, Modern China, HyperAllergic, Wallpaper Magazine, and NewcityArts.  Modan has been an Artist-in-Residence at the LMCC Workspace Residency (2013-2014, NYC), and the Seven Below Arts initiative (2013, Burlington, VT). Modan received the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem Excellence Prize (2009), the Phi Kappa Phi award (2011-12), the Feed Biennial award (2013), the VSC Joan Mitchell Foundation fellowship (2013).

About Dinner Gallery
Dinner Gallery is a contemporary gallery dedicated to developing and presenting emerging artists. Since its inception in 2016, the gallery has been intrinsic to experimentation, working collaboratively with artists to realize novel and ambitious projects outside their typical realm. In addition to nurturing artists and mounting exhibitions, the gallery also functions as a center for rigorous intellectual exchange, hosting dialogues, lectures, and other community activities.

Gallery Hours
Wednesday - Saturday, 1-6 and by appointment

Press Contact
Elisa Smilovitz
elisa@elisasmilovitz.com | 551.486.3273