Because my work is my passion, I'm involved with my art every step along the way in casting. I have a passion for life and for what makes the world go round: relationships, man and woman, family; this is what my work is about, my work flows, as life flows.

--Itzik Benshalom

Love, anger, and understanding are basic emotions of human interaction that are of interest to Itzik Benshalom.  His sculptures seek to redefine communication and the human experience.  The interlocking soft yet angular forms of Benshalom's abstracted figures convey a sense of connectedness.  This sense of closeness is strongly expressed in BenshalomÍs cast bronze sculpture, First Love.  Perched atop a stucco wall, the two figures are engaged in an intimate moment unaware of their surroundings and solely focusing their attention on one another.  Like a number of Benshalom's sculptures, First Love portrays the compelling and fundamental human emotion of love.

Born in Hadera, Israel in 1945, Benshalom became a merchant marine at the age of fifteen.  This formative experience influenced his work as he traveled the world absorbing new images.  Upon completing his military service in the Israeli Navy, Benshalom knew that he wanted to work with metal -a material that had always fascinated him.  In 1967, he and his brother-in-law set up a foundry specializing in the lost-wax method of casting sculpture.  For 15 years Benshalom worked with other artists, helping them to realize their concepts, until one day, he started to sketch a design he had carried in his mind for over a year.  Of this moment Benshalom has stated, "The day I stopped doing other people's work and cast my first bronze, is the day my life began."

Currently, two of Benshalom's works, Big Vered, 1996 and Facing Couple, 1999, are on view in the sculpture park.  Facing Couple is an impressive example of abstracted human figures imbued with emotive undertones.  This large-scale cast bronze is composed in a manner that is reminiscent of the volumetric, biomorphic works by Henry Moore.  In 2005, Benshalom was given a one-person show at Grounds For Sculpture, which included 25 large to small scale sculptures cast in bronze and fiberglass.

More information on this artist can be found at http://www.itzikbenshalom.com/.

Other works by Itzik Benshalom on view in the sculpture park:

Big Vered, 1996 (on loan)
bronze, 1/9
68" x 49" x 20"
Courtesy of Richard Gabriel

First Love, 2006
cast bronze, 1/9
180” x 75” x 42”
Courtesy of The Sculpture Foundation, Inc.

Facing Couple, 1999
cast bronze 2/6
66" x 146" x 106"
Courtesy of The Sculpture Foundation, Inc.
Photo: Ricardo Barros.com