oaz Vaadia is an internationally known sculptor who discovered his unique style in 1985 when he began hand-carving slices of slate and bluestone, stacking them into graded representations of man and woman. Vaadia was born 1951 in Gat-Rimon, Petach-Tikva, Israel, where he grew up on his parent’s farm. His family's connection with the earth emerged in his earlier abstract, monumental effigies and still continues today in his layered figurative works.

Boaz Vaadia Asaf and Yo'ah 2001 Bronze, Bluestone, Boulder 78 x 100 x 100 inches Time Warner Center, New York, USA

Vaadia attended the Avni Art Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel. In 1975, aided by a grant from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, he came to New York City. There Vaadia studied at the Pratt Institute and the Brooklyn Museum Art School. His decision to focus on producing art led him to a succesful career without obtaining a final degree.

Vaadia established his studio in SoHo just before a new community of working artists emerged. Like many young artists he struggled to make a living. While working in construction jobs on the side he discovered slate and bluestone as perfect materials for his art. Vaadia used these materials to make personal totems that evoked primal energies and ritual. In 1976 Vaadia had his first show at the Hundred Acres Gallery in SoHo. Ten years later, in 1986, he had his first figurative show at the OK Harris Gallery in SoHo. The entire show sold out in 3 hours.

Vaadia’s works grace prominent public spaces and private collections around the world, including the Time Warner Building, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the Hakone Museum, Hakone and the private collection of Elton John.

Boaz Vaadia lives and works in Williamsburg, New York. His sculptures vary in price between $8,000 for a very small piece, to $300,000 for larger stone pieces with two figures.

Boaz Vaadia: Yes, that's correct.

Art Interview: What was it like?

Boaz Vaadia Ba'al-Zevuv 1999 Bluestone 50 x 35.5 x 35.5 inches Private Collection Florida, USA

Art Interview: How is there a connection to the earth within your work?

One of the things that I was convinced of was that you could only find that kind of love for the land and the willingness to give your life defending it, in Israel. But what I found when I started traveling around the world was that this love is actually a universal feeling. Many different ethnic groups from very different countries have the exact same connection. I've talked with people from American Indians to Palestinian farmers and I’ve found that anybody who actually works the land and even people who don't, still in some way have that kind of connection to the earth.

Art Interview: Was your father always a farmer or did he have other businesses before the farm?

Boaz Vaadia: He was always a farmer.

Art Interview: Was your family a middle-class family?

René Sautin (1881-1968) Vue d'Honfleur 1924 Oil on Canvas 54,5 x 64,5 cm

Art Interview: Did your father have any fears about you becoming an artist?

Boaz Vaadia: My parents were always supportive. I am very dyslexic and I had problems studying because of the disability, especially with reading and writing. So, it was pretty obvious that I was not going to go into the sciences or be an academic due to my handicap. In some ways dyslexia had something to do with my career choice.

I think my parents worried about my ability to make a living but they gave me full support to do whatever I wanted. I was actually very lucky because I always received recognition for my talent as a young man. I got a full grant in Israel from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, which allowed me to study and work in New York. That gave me the capacity and financial support to do my work for two years in a loft in SoHo. My first show was within a year after arriving in New York, on West Broadway. I received a very positive response to my work.

Boaz Vaadia Untitled 1971 Painted Metal 16 x 48 x 14 inches

Boaz Vaadia: I studied at the Avni Art Institute in Tel Aviv. It had a four-year program and I took 4 or 5 hours of classes there every evening. It was more of a studio setting but they had some academics. I actually started at the school at a very young age; I was accepted when I was about 14. Most of the students there attended after returning from the army, so there was a big age difference.

Art Interview: What kind of work were you doing while you were there?

Boaz Vaadia: I was working in a ceramics studio and studied with some teachers there. I had the keys to the school, so I was there every day, working. One thing I’ve consistently done during my career is work every day in my studio, regardless of what was scheduled. Even if I had a full-time job, I would still work 6 hours a day in my studio.

Art Interview: Did you leave Israel because of the grant?

Boaz Vaadia: In the early 70's you could feel the energy of the art center move from England to New York. I was very lucky because after I returned from the Army I was able to teach at the Avni Art Institute where I had studied. Then I got the grant and there were two places I was attracted to: I had thought about going to Cararra, Italy to work because of the stone and the history of stone carving you can find there. I was also interested in New York because of the stories that I had heard about what was happening in SoHo at the time. I had some friends in New York. So I allowed myself to go to where I thought the action was. I wanted to be exposed to all of those energies and juices that were going on at the time.

Boaz Vaadia Untitled 1975 Stone, Wood, Fur, Leather 24 x 32 x 10 inches

Boaz Vaadia: Yes, I came to New York in 1975.

Art Interview: When you arrived you started studies at the Pratt Institute, is that correct?

Boaz Vaadia: That is correct. I came to the United States on a student visa and was accepted into the Pratt Institute. I studied there for one year, and had my first one-man show in SoHo. When some of my professors at the Institute asked me to introduce them to my dealer I realized there wasn’t much more that they could give me so I quit and didn’t get a degree there.

Art Interview: You don't have any degree?

Boaz Vaadia: I don't. The Avni Institute had a four-year program, but I never finished it. There were times when I was teaching that I would say to people, "Look, you can do the degree. But the degree is only a safety bracket; it's not something you need to be an artist. It's something that your parents might want you to have so you might be able to be a teacher.” I jumped into being an artist all the way, and I knew that's what I would do all of my life.

Art Interview: You had no fear of not being able to find a market?

Boaz Vaadia: Actually, when I made the decision to be an artist I never even imagined that I could make a living out it. When you're that young, you don't have the capacity to fear.

Art Interview: Did you have to work at part-time jobs or full-time jobs to support yourself in the beginning?

Boaz Vaadia Untitled 1982 Slate Shingles, Leather 20 x 7 x 4.5 inches

As an artist you work in two parallel lines. The first line is the creative process, and what you do with that creative process, and then the second line is the artistic success; the commercial implications, and who-you-know implications, and all of the things that are a part of any kind of professional success. The creative aspects and the business aspects of an art career are almost schizophrenic. I manage to separate these worlds and wear my artist overalls and my business suits very well. But, "What is a success in art?", is a very interesting question. Is success in art commercial success? Is it having the capacity to stay creative and productive in your studio all your life? Or is success when people write about you everywhere? In my mind success is to have the capacity to explore in your studio and be creative in your studio on a constant basis. That's where success comes - the rest you really don't have much to do with.

One of the best things that have happened to me because of my success is that I will not do have to do sculptures unless I really want to do them. I tell people who want to commission work from me what I would do for the site and I tell them the particular scheme that I think would work there. I will not change that. Either they want it or they don’t. If they want something else, I tell them to find another artist. I will not do things that have already been done. If I feel I will not grow from the work, I won’t do it. The financial success absolutely allows me to be truer to my creative process. That isn't always the case with other artists. The power of the dollar is a mighty temptation.

Boaz Vaadia Instalation: Studio (Meir, Rebecca, Sara) 2002 Bluestone

Art Interview: Was that something that you initiated or did it happen by chance?

Boaz Vaadia: It was by chance that one of the professors at Pratt was also teaching at Brooklyn Museum Art School. I went there because it didn't make any sense to stay at Pratt. Pratt had more academics than studio work. I also had a very big studio in SoHo.

Art Interview: How were you able to afford your studio?

Boaz Vaadia: At the time (1975) a 3,000 square foot loft rented for $500 a month. It was not very expensive at all.

Art Interview: Were you working while you were in New York?

Boaz Vaadia Untitled 1976 Stone, Wood, Fur, Leather 72 x 23 x 19 inches

Art Interview: Was that show successful?

If you go to my website at www.vaadia.com you can look at my early work. I was continuing the self-exploration that I’d started in Israel. When you make the same sculpture in different materials it has a totally different feeling. That amazed me. During my Avni years I did a lot of experimental work based on that. Totally understanding the materials you work with is very, very important, because the materials have a tremendous amount of power in and of themselves. I did a lot of work at that time with stone, human hair and branches, which had a lot of primitive influence from the African fetish and things that I saw in nature. I was very interested in looking at primitive ceremonial art that I felt was transferring the knowledge of how materials connect to primal forces.

When I came to New York, I was of course amazed by the scale of the city, and felt a little out of place for about a week. I thought, “What is this? What am I going to do here?” But slowly I understood that an urban environment is not unnatural. The natural things that I experienced while growing up on the farm actually exist within the urban environment as well. All the materials were there, it was just much more concentrated. When I was young, I remember seeing pictures of trees so completely covered with birds that you couldn’t see the trees anymore. On some islands where birds nest there isn’t the space for even a pin to drop. I feel that cities are in some ways similar - we as creatures get together in this urban environment and we live like the birds on an island. That is how I can remain connected to the earth and work in this environment.

Art Interview: Did you have difficulty getting into galleries?

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This oral history transcript is the result of a tape-recorded interview with Boaz Vaadia on November 11, 2005. The interview took place over the telephone between Berlin, Germany, and New York, New York, USA and was conducted by Brendan Davis for Art Interview Online Magazine.