Yana Rotner
Photo: Daniel Milman
Yana Rotner (b. 1988, Bendery, Moldova) is an Israeli artist and photographer based in Tel Aviv. She is a BFA graduate of the Department of Photography at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, and holds a master’s degree from the Interdisciplinary Program in the Arts at Tel Aviv University. Currently a Ph.D. candidate in Philosophy, Art, and Critical Thought program at the European Graduate School. She was an exchange student at the Academy of Visual Arts, Leipzig, Germany (2013), and participated in the Snehta residency program, Athens, Greece (2016).
Rotner’s work method consists in filming brief sequences using a 16mm camera. She then develops a selection of photographs cut out from the film and prints them on paper. Using this process, the reductive photographic moment which captures an image can be circumvented and a continuous sequence of images reflecting the passage of time can be recorded. This allows the artist to be in the flow of time and later to select the images best rendering the fraction of a moment, which memory did not have time to record. Prolonging this methodological direction of deconstruction of photography, Rotner works in the darkroom creating Photograms (camera-less photographic images) by using transparent fabrics and cut papers, then creates a composition based on these elements which the artist exposes to light sensitive photographic paper resulting in unique images.
Rotner has participated in shows in various venues around the world, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Leipzig (2014); Kunstverein Nürnberg – Albrecht Dürer Gesellschaft, Nuremberg (2015); Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv (2019); CCA – Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv (2020); Bialik Museum, Tel Aviv (2020); Nassima Landau Art Foundation, Tel Aviv (2021); The Museum of Israeli Art, Ramat Gan (2021); Galerie Chenel, Paris (2023) and The Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv (2024). In addition, she curated the exhibitions “The Darkness” in her studio (2019) and “Looking at her Reflection” online (2020).
Her works are held in the collection of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel-Aviv, and the collection of the L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art, Jerusalem, and in private collections in Israel, Europe, and the USA.
