About

Hi,

My name is Yifat Gat, a painter and graphic designer with a deep passion for creativity and personal growth.

My motto, "I draw, you draw, they draw, we all draw," reflects my belief in the universal power of art to connect and inspire.

As a secular Jewish woman who believes in God and loves Bible stories, I approach spirituality and identity with an open mind, blending personal reflection with artistic expression. Originally from Israel, I now live in Marseille, the vibrant heart of the Mediterranean and Provence.

I am a proud mother of five homeschooled children, four of whom were born naturally, and I wrote a book sharing my tips for natural birth. Throughout my homeschooling journey, I developed the "Home-Work-Self" system to help me stay centered amidst chaos and create balance for both my children and myself.

Living in a Brooklyn-esque neighborhood filled with artists and a diverse community, I draw inspiration from the rich cultural tapestry around me.

Having lived by the sea all my life, the Mediterranean blue is my oxygen. Living between Italy and Spain, I also get to swim in the blue of Matisse and the other masters of the region.

My love of flowers connects me to nature’s beauty—the park behind my house, the flower markets, and the fields of lavender. I embrace nature's power to nurture creativity and resilience in all aspects of life.

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CV

B. Israel 1969.

Lives and works at the south of France.

Yifat works on paper, canvas and in situ.

Yifat’s work is line based, and scales easily with murals and floor works.

Yifat started her higher education in theatre design and completed it in fine art.

Since she has been involved in curating, publishing and teaching.

Yifat moved to France at 2007, and participated in various Galleries and Museums projects

Her work has been shown in NY, London, Paris, Tel Aviv, Marseille and more.

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I draw

You draw

They draw

We all draw

“Drawing is returning back to basics, like a reset button. It is a way to return to the intimate world of childhood, thoughts, ideas and emotions. In an overwhelming and complicated world, Drawing is a moment of simplicity. Outrageous or refined, funny or heartbreaking, drawing is the Netflix of our soul without subscription fees.

A drawing practice can bring moments of magic, freedom and humanity. It can help recharge, meditate, research, plan, remember, empower, communicate, celebrate and inspire. 

Anyone can draw. There is no failure in drawing. Drawing is a personal act. A practice, like taking a shower, everyday we need a new one.

Drawing is a safe place. No one hacks our notebooks or sells our data. There is no hidden agenda. Our notebooks never run out of battery and we don't need 1000 euros to get a new one. Drawing is a timeless moment between you, yourself, other people and the universe. It’s yours. ”

Claire Colin-Collin in conversation with Yifat Gat 

C: Where do you start?

Y: By taking the time to go to the workshop. If I'm here, I'm working. Or maybe I have a new idea that’s chasing me. It may be a certain image that came to me, a mixture of colors, or a new format I want to try.

C - And how do you start the painting?

Y - Lots of white gesso normally. It takes me a certain time to cover the entire space of the canvas, to be able to “feel” it, to start having ideas, and to lay down some foundations on which I will work later.

C - I see spaces within a space. Lines creating space. An abstract space, a mental space. Do you draw in the space of the canvas or do you draw in the space of the canvas?

Y – Both. I really like playing this game of “different spaces”, I like to alternate between the two. I have looked a lot at medieval icons, which for me are the masters of flattening 3D perception. I love operating this way, pretending to work flat and then going against my own rules.

C - Exactly, what are you looking at, in terms of landscape and in terms of art?

Y – Ha! All. Machinery, architecture, town planning, technical drawings, everything made by man interests me. But also the flowers, the light. I like the entrance to the city of

Marseille, the relationship between this big horrible bridge and the blue water of the Mediterranean, the boats, the trains, the airports. I love boats. Looking at this, it might seem like they are always moving, even though they are still.

C - Your painting seems to me to take place in stages, with overlaps, and times between.

Long times? Covers too. Are you deleting?

Y - Time between coats can be anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. I like to make twenty small paintings at the same time, and let go of the ones that are ready. Then repeat the others, etc... Until I have nothing more to add. And there, all are finished and I cover my work wall again with twenty blank canvases: a moment full of confidence, which quickly becomes complicated again.

C - There is solitude in your work.

Y - Is it true? I never thought about it, what does that mean? I remember Agnes Martin saying “I draw with my back to the world”. I rarely feel this way, I rather feel like I'm in the middle of a great conversation with all the painters I observe. When I make a decision, I might feel alone - I'm even very afraid sometimes of the risks that I feel I have to take - and after having them.

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Yifat Gat (born in 1969 in Israel) lives and works in the south of France. She develops an artistic work of abstract painting on canvas, paper, floors and walls. Coming from an initial training in scenography, she confronts painting with its performative and in-situ dimensions. His work has been exhibited in New York, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, London and Israel.

“Just as a screen is a window into the world of a video game, a painting is a glimpse into our creative process: where we painters are warriors, and where we score points as we grow braver , clairvoyant and free. »

Presentation of the artistic approach

My artistic practice is based on studio work. Through my research, I develop a vocabulary that allows me to use various techniques in different contexts. My universe is entirely interdependent and constantly evolving. It was Einstein who said: “All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are aimed at ennobling the life of man, taking it out of the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom. »

I do my best to represent this direction through my creative work, my projects for audiences and performances. My vocabulary is based on a geometry drawn by hand, imbued with a poetic humor made of repetitions and variations. Structures, vibrations and the history of our existence are the three basic elements of my vortex. I see my work as an endless mission, which I call “the process”. The works produced are like windows or holes that make this process visible and my vocation is to share it with other professionals, other artists and the public.

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Yifat Gat or the vibration of the presence – Philippe Verrièle 

Because the person does not hear much, the facility would be to hear only one or the other of the various practices of Yifat Gat. And, according to moods or tastes, retain her oils and acrylics with thick material marbled with drips or the immense “in situ” drawings during which she seems to measure the site by a meticulous rite. Or the ways of ephemeral engravings made by touching a layer of marble dust deposited on a surface. Or these black and white drawings-paintings which refer to enigmatic symbols… The critic who must classify – it is his etymological function – loses his bearings in wanting to separate each of the techniques that this artist born in Tel Aviv in 1969 and installed in France since 2007 combines and alternates with disconcerting lability. […]

This apparent multiplicity of practices deludes the observer. She hides that Yifat Gat is only looking for one thing: what vibrates. […] She lets a vibration occur, tries to bring it to the fairest, lets it express itself and evokes this kind of epiphany as an almost political project. She herself writes: “If we can note the vibration, painting can educate us in freedom. And if this is so, painting becomes a political act. The question is therefore not to represent or figure a vibration but to embody it. This vibration therefore comes from the depths of the very body of the artist, like a pulsation nourished by all these rhythms that inhabit us and interact with the universe. We find the notion of cadence which marks the relationship of the dancer to the rhythm. But this cadence would gain its inscription in each work that records it as a seismograph of being could have grasped the artist’s relationship both to the moment, to the material he rubs shoulders with, to the space he encounters. he occupies… Vibration as a carnal response to reality. This last notion escapes apprehension so much that it is necessary to multiply the nets to grasp it.

This can indeed disconcert those who only stop at one or other of the various techniques practiced by Yifat Gat, but the result is less about the appearance of what is produced than about the finesse of the apprehension of the internal vibration. This explains why she can change medium with great ease and translate an ephemeral engraving experience made in 2016 for the London fair into a new work experience on canvas. Basically, the challenge is the same: to rediscover presence. We must never overlook how much the career of this visual artist has been nourished by the relationship to theater and dance, to the presence on stage that these disciplines require. More than a visual experience, these works testify to a singular moment, specific to dancers but shared by singers and actors when they stop playing to be. It’s about being there. To vibrate in tune, echoing the world, and to make its trace as less “manufactured” as possible without depriving it of its materiality. Immense challenge always repeated, which recalls in the permanence of the artefact produced the daily miracle, which is realized when a performer enters the stage, which is always a miracle even though we do not always realize it: that of presence as the vibration of being.