Michel Tabori: Aphrodisia

We are excited to introduce Aphrodisia, a new series of deeply sensual abstract paintings by Michel Tabori. The works are a leitmotif on love, expressed through the emotional rhythms of color and light.

After years immersed in the magical spell of California light, first as a cinematographer then as an artist, Michel Tabori left his Venice studio five years ago for Paris. Returning to the country of his birth, Tabori says he felt compelled to explore his roots and the atmospheric light of the Impressionists. 

The works comprising Aphrodisia are the result, and are a dramatic departure from Tabori’s preceding work. In Europe, Tabori’s attention shifted from the visceral roar of a Harley Davidson exploring the California coast, to the siren songs of literature, particularly, the Classics of Ancient Greece, Spanish Flamenco and the French appreciation of rêve d’amour, or the “dream of love.” 

Tabori sees these new works as abstract, poetic reactions to deeply personal experiences that explore notions of love, eroticism, identity and gender fluidity. These microcosms of personal anecdotes often begin as photographs, which are then manipulated, transformed and ultimately utilized as reference points within the abstract paintings that evolve. In Aphrodisia, Tabori synthesizes mythologies of ancient Greece with personal memory, to capture, in light and color, ephemeral aspects of a mutable moment.