About

At the heart of Meno painting is a drive for formal simplicity and a striking attention to color and balance. A master of crisp stripes, lines and opposing chromatic planes, Meno elegantly creates symmetry, asymmetry and an endless array of movement and rhythm, harmony and tension across the canvas with the most meticulous application of paint. His pictorial vocabulary is achieved through combining form, line and geometric separation that he complements by creating blocks and stripes of color, which form the structural basis of each work. Each canvas is strictly composed and subtly balanced, constantly upholding pictorial honesty as well as an arresting chromatic force.

Beginning with small sketches and grids in which he determines his compositions and carefully chosen color palettes Meno skilfully executes these paintings through the use of tape and paint rollers. From a distance, the works deliberately appear machine-made, however, up close the artist’s touch is made visible through small traces and uneven surfaces. These slight imperfections are unobtrusive reminders of the artist himself, and windows into his fastidious process.

Like much of Meno’s work, each painting confounds perceptions with regards to background and foreground. He offers multiple ways of seeing the intermingling forms. For instance, someone might see a certain block of color at first, whilst another might notice the discrete stripes within that same block of colour. And while there is something remarkably alluring about Meno’s sharp contrasts between colors, equally crucial are his unpredictable compositions. From rectangles and various shapes filled with symmetrical alternating stripes, to diptychs and triptychs that repeat patterns or conjoin to form a distinctly assembled motif—it is impossible to know what the artist might do next.

Although unpredictable, Meno Eytan’s work succeeds in giving a sense of familiarity that may be felt by many. He eloquently strips his painting to reveal its essential and purest elements—line, color and form—and does so in a singular manner that feels at once curiously familiar and patently innovative.