Visual artist R.E.L a.k.a. Ariel Zachor, born in Israel and living in Amsterdam for almost 20 years, will exhibit his work at Studio Apart in Amsterdam, Prinsengracht 715, from 14 December 2007 till 22 January 2008. Herewith, Studio Apart will have the honor to host the debut of R.E.L’s new exhibition “Pencil Therapy”, consisting of a series of exceptionally large scale and realistic pencil drawings.

With “Pencil Therapy” R.E.L exhibits his pencil drawings for the very first time. Two years ago he started working on this project, recently having resulted in 13 large pieces of art. The themes elaborated in his drawings are based on R.E.L’s personal experiences in the Amsterdam nightlife. R.E.L. made the pencil drawings after pictures he had taken of friends, lovers, acquaintances and people he had just run into. For a number of works R.E.L composed collages of various images by means of which a new context was created, and the images put together have a whole new story to tell.

R.E.L’s fascination with the Far East shows in the characters he portrayed.

The pencil drawings are very labour-intensive and it takes about 2 to 3 months to complete one work. R.E.L calls his technique old fashioned and traditional, but his style is contemporary.

For R.E.L creating “Pencil Therapy” was an expression of mourning after a great personal loss. In making his pencil drawings the artist has found the peace and quiet he needs. Hence the title of this exhibition: “Pencil Therapy”. Formerly living his life in the fast lane, his private life as well as professionally (R.E.L used to be a nightlife-photographer and he performed as a VJ at parties), the artist now deliberately takes the room to put a lot of time in his separate works.