Tirtzah Bassel (born 1979 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States) is an Israeli artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from Boston University and studied drawing and painting at the Jerusalem Studio School in Israel. She is a faculty member in the Department of Visual and Critical Studies at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and is a resident of the Chashama Workspace Program in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Tirtzah Bassel finds ideas for her work in everyday life. Seemingly banal situations in which routine actions are performed become the subject matter for her drawings, paintings, and site-specific installations. From airport security pat downs to shoppers trying out a bed at Ikea to the enraptured audience at a TED Talk, Tirtzah Bassel’s paintings probe the line between intimacy and vulnerability inherent in these moments. Through close observation, each piece becomes an invitation to reexamine the permeable boundaries between the public and private spheres, and to reconsider the very structures that shape our lives.

Tirtzah Bassel, Trader Joe's, 2013, oil on canvas, 182,8 x 304,8 cm, Galerie Thomas Fuchs
Trader Joe's, 2013
oil on canvas, 182,8 x 304,8 cm