Gideon Rubin’s enigmatic paintings explore identity, history and the inheritance of trauma through faceless yet evocative figures. Drawing on various sources including cinema, pop-culture periodicals and art history, Rubin investigates mythologies of the recent past. His expressive mark-making, muted palette and use of negative space evoke a quiet intimacy, while the absence of facial features shifts focus to clothing, gestures and surroundings, allowing viewers to project personal memories onto his subjects. By erasing details, he reveals new identities, creating mental and psychic portraits that invite reflection.

Artist portrait. Photo: Courtesy of the artist

Gideon Rubin (b. 1973, Tel Aviv, Israel; lives and works in London, UK) has had numerous international group and solo exhibitions; most recently: ‘Moon Above Water’, Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris (2024); ‘Living Memory: Louise Bourgeois, Nicolas Godin & Gideon Rubin', curated by Beth Greenacre at All Saint's Chapel, London (2023); ‘Black Book’, Gideon’s solo show curated by James Putnam, was held at the Freud Museum, London in 2018. In 2023, his second major monograph, Look Again, was published by Anomie Publishing with accompanying texts by Jennifer Higgie, Dr Matthew Holman and Varda Caivano. Rubin is represented by Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, Cologne, St Moritz; Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco; Fox Jensen Gallery, Sydney, Auckland; Monica de Cardenas Gallery, Milan; Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv and Maho Kubota Gallery, Tokyo.
- Provenance
  Donated by the artist