The work of Gilad Efrat, whose career began in the mid-1990s, is a fascinating instance of the swinging of a pendulum back and forth between the figurative (based on reality) and the abstract (deliberately detached from reality and focusing exclusively on sensory experiences of color, patches, and line). He started out with an exploration of the relationship between painting and photography, using a process of selective removal and exposure of layers to produce paintings underpinned by aerial photographic images of local archaeological sites. After encountering the “painting apes” of the Houston Zoo in the United States, he was inspired to move from cerebral work to out-and-out abstract painting springing from pure intuition. His depictions of apes, a turning point in his artistic development, feature centrally in this exhibition and catalogue. Essays by Senior Curator of Israeli Art Amitai Mendelsohn and Larry Abramson, who was Gilad Efrat’s teacher, analyze the itinerary of his career, and a great number of large and vibrant images conveys the distinctive character of his work.