Avishai Platek's Theater of Nature, 2026

Theater of Nature unfolds a view of the landscape as a theatrical stage, challenging conventional perceptions of nature. To a large degree, Platek is a landscape painter. Yet the landscapes in his paintings do not hinge on the horizon but offer close-ups. A flower, a shrub, one or two trees, a scarecrow, a wild animal, a structure, a streetlight – these are the main characters in his paintings, as if the landscape were a protagonist, and the artist – a portrait painter. And so, it would be more apt to describe him as “a painter of landscape portraits.”

Through psychological mechanisms like anthropomorphism and pareidolia, Platek transforms the configurations of nature into human figuration through gestures, glances, and emotional expressions. Imbuing the plant kingdom with a humanlike energy allows for a more intimate relationship between humans and nature, conjuring drama that takes shape and plays out in front of us – a “theater of nature.”

The individual walks in nature. He knows its mythology and the legacy of ideologies embedded in it, whether disavowing or sharing them. But he also remembers its wonders, reflecting wistfully on the realms of his childhood. Platek’s work touches on this complex relationship with landscape and challenges perceptions of it through personification.

Platek creates nature perceived as a subjective, singular, present, vital, and sentient being; a theatrical landscape that blends reality (realism) with the fictional (surrealism). He does not propose nature as a sanctuary or mere decoration, but as an entity. In Theater of Nature, there is no neutral backdrop but a living presence with gestures, situations, and states of consciousness. No longer a background – the landscape is a human encounter.

The exhibition 'Theater of Nature' is presented at the Negev Museum of Art, Be’er Sheva.
Curator: Ron Bartos