b. 1977 Tel Aviv, Israel

Elad Lassry’s photographs, videos, and manipulated found images address the grammar of photographic representation in ways that engage issues of authorship and originality while pushing conventions of composition and display. Many of Lassry’s images, such as Untitled (Red Cabbage 1) (2008), have the feeling of slightly skewed advertising still lifes from the 60s and 70s" but while the “look” is right, what they could be said to be “selling” is unclear. Even the images Lassry has appropriated from actual magazines, such as Drinks, Cheese (2008), have had their utilitarian aspect excised (here, by a strip of foil that obscures the ad copy), drawing attention to the manner in which the image is constructed. Lassry’s work can be seen in a continuum of artists over the past two decades who manipulate or mimic mass cultural images. Although Lassry’s appropriations have a hint of irony, his goal is not to critique the system of mass market advertising. Rather, he exploits the colors and the graphic snap of glossy ads to celebrate the strangeness and the beauty of the photographic image, offering us a renovation of the ancient convention of the still-life.