Clio Art Fair Spotlight: a Review by Ronen Gamil

Artist Ronen Gamil in his studio

“Working in installation, I assemble colorful, mixed-media objects of steel and copper wire, aluminum drinking cans, wood, and fabrics. My goal is to draw connections between the plights of both human and non-human animals and to blur divisions and established hierarchies between these two groups that coinhabit this Earth.

In one installation, twenty-four miniature tents are collaged of aluminum cans and sleek plexiglass grid compositions. In another, an immersive, neighborhood map tapestry marks sites of high-end buildings layered with stripe patterns from my Yemenite ethnicity.

Bright colors often invite audiences to contemplate layered questions in my installations and sculptures. Contrast between form and content plays a key role: colorful surfaces manifest in stark distinction to the darkness of subject matter. This inconsistency playfully misleads audiences to grapple with unpleasant, uncomfortable social or ecological realities."

-Ronen Gamil

Ronen Gamil showcased his work in the past at the 19th edition of Clio Art Fair, held from May 8-11, 2025. Here is our short interview with the artist and a review of his experience at Clio Art Fair!

Ronen, can you please describe your art in four words?

Conceptually layered socially engaged.

What inspires your art?

I see myself in dialogue with socially-engaged artists Nari Ward, Mel Chin, Jeffery Gibson, Shellyne Rodriguez, Marcos Ramirez ERRE, and Maxwell Alexandre.

I am inspired by collage and multi-media artists Wangechi Mutu, Romare Bearden, Sanford Biggers, Swoon, Shahzia Sikander, and Cannupa Henska Luger.

My work might develop towards social practice, in dialogue with artists Theaster Gates, Rick Lowe, Alfredo Jarr, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, John Ahearn, and Rigoberto Torres.

Some of my work aims to be immersive. I look up to artists Barbara Kruger, James Turrell, and Olafur Eliasson.

The ecological aspects of my practice relate to artists Patricia Johanson and Mary Mattingly, and pollination biologist Heather Holm.

Thinkers influencing me include Amira Hass, Avi Shlaim, Ilan Pappé, Noam Chomsky, Abdel Razzaq Takriti, and Shaul Magid on Palestine-Israel, David Harvey, Naomi Klein, and Amy Goodman on capitalism, my late urbanism professor, Michael Sorkin, and Thomas Anghotti on cities, Ella Shohat and Assaf David on Mizrahi questions, Brazilian rapper and podcaster Mano Brown, and Brazilian activist Sueli Carneiro on race and colonialism in the Global South, Indigenous leader Ailton Krenak on interspecies relations, ancestrality, and extractivism, and Ta-Nahisi Coates on race in the US. Finally, I am informed by the Yemenite legacy of silversmiths and embroiderers.

How would you describe your experience at Clio Art Fair?

Performance art every evening, a festive opening with a lively audience, a broad range of artistic practices across exhibiting artists, and installation assistance from kind and resourceful art handlers made for a fantastic experience throughout the Clio Art Fair.

Ronen Gamil, Home(-) and Garden

Lightweight sculpture, Steel, drinking cans, aluminum, copper wire, Plexiglas, 32 x 32 x 18 in Showcased at Clio Art Fair's 19th Edition, May 8-11, 2025