Michael Druks was born in Jerusalem (1940), but grew up and went to school in Tel Aviv, and (in the ’60s) became involved in dynamic theater and art circles there. Within a few years he was a success story, his work was shown in leading exhibitions, and he was acclaimed as one of the best young artists in Israel (1969-1970).
At this decisive stage in his life and work Druks traveled abroad, and after several months in Holland settled permanently in London. Despite his distance from the “center” of Israeli art, however, Druks has become etched in the local consciousness as a major Israeli artist, and his works have continued to be shown in almost every constitutive exhibition of Israeli art. His work, created mainly in London, has been perceived as connecting at its very core with the nerve intersections of this place (the portrait Druksland, for example), and has been included in all the major exhibitions that have contended with challenges such as characterizing Israeli art, mapping its orientations, and identifying milestones in its development. The list of exhibitions he has taken part in marks out the route along which Israeli art has defined its identity through a period of some thirty years, and from this perspective he is one of the artists who best represent Israeli art with its diverse orientations.
The Israeli public has indeed been exposed to his work in an ongoing manner, but has never had the opportunity to view and to gain a deeper appreciation of the expressive power of the totality of his work, which also includes a rich chapter of painting. The exhibition and the book Travels in Druksland propose a broad and comprehensive retrospective gaze, which includes reconstruction of constitutive installations works and performances, films, video works and painting that have become milestones.