Born in 1956, Israeli photographer Roi Kuper has been working since the mid 1980’s in the photographic medium, exploring and investigating its nature. His explorations take a philosophical and poetic tone, touching on questions of time, place, memory, and death.
Kuper participated in numerous group exhibitions through the years, and his solo exhibitions in Israel and abroad include “Ashdod” (1996) and ‘Gaza Dream’ (2015) at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, “Necropolis” at the Tate Modern, London (2001), “Citrus” at the Herzliya Museum of Art (2001) and ‘The Hinder Sea’ at Ashdod Art Museum (2015).Kuper is the recipient of The Ministry of Culture Prize for Arts (2021), the Leon Constantiner prize, Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2006), The Enrique Kavlin Photography Prize, The Israel Museum (2006), The Gerard levi Prize, The Israel Museum (1995), and more.
His work is included in the collections of the Tate Modern, London, the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Herzliya Museum of Art, as well as in private collections in Israel and abroad.Roi Kuper also has a longstanding academic career and is presently an associate Professor and senior staff member at Shenkar College Multidisciplinary Art School, where he served as the school head between 2016-2020.
In one of his early body of works, “Vanishing Zones” (1991-1994), Kuper created black and white existential images, which echoed timeless scenes from some far away past or an uncertain future. The works in this series are characterized by the disintegrated sensation they convey, the result of a prolonged process of manipulation they had gone through.In his body of work, “Necropolis” (1996-2000), Kuper explored deserted areas in the south of Israel alongside local military semi-archeological remains that are scattered throughout these areas. This body of work is both lyrical and haunting and was methodically photographed in medium format using black and white film, thus producing exquisite high quality silver prints. A group of works from this series has been purchased by the Tate Modern and was on show at the museum during 2001-2002.