Gilad Efrat's (born 1969, Beer-Sheva, Israel) heavily re-worked surfaces contain thickly applied layers of paint in bold colors, which are then wiped away in rapid succession with palette knives and other tools, creating richly varied surfaces. Made in a very short period of time (in some cases as little as 24 hours), the paintings convey a frenetic energy, and a harried relationship to archaeological time and movement. Through this process, Efrat reveals paint layers as new and competing phases of time and effort that jostle for space and supremacy on the canvas.
Gilad Efrat received a BFA from the Bezelel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem, in 1995 and an MFA from the same institution in 2003. From 2004-2006 he lived in Houston, TX, while participating in the Core Artist-in-Residence Program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Efrat has been included in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Europe, the US and Israel, including Ape Scape, Museum of Art, Ein Harod, Israel (2010), Common Place, Galleria Oredaria Arti Contemporanee, Rome (2008), Archeological Site, St. Augustine Church, Erfurt, Germany (2004), three solo exhibitions at the Noga Gallery of Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv (2000, 2002, 2004), and five solo exhibitions at Inman Gallery in Houston, Texas (2006, 2008, 2012, 2015, 2017). A leading contemporary painter in Israel, Efrat was most recently the subject of a large-scale solo exhibition at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, titled Gilad Efrat: Inside Painting, which opened July 16, 2019, and ran through January 4, 2020.
Efrat lives and works in Tel-Aviv where he is a Professor at the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design.