“Well, why is this art? Why isn’t it art?” --John Baldessari

Ilan Rubin's work assumes the challenges of photography as both the most pervasive and quickly changing medium of our time.


Unique arrangements and the combining of images from disparate contexts form the basis of his versatile practice. Moving seamlessly from the studio onto the street, Ilan arranges images in ways that incite unexpected dialogues.


Commercial photography and artwork fold together through his projects with a distinct style.  His editorial and advertising work is always looking for new ways to transcend the ordinary, such as in his innovative collaborations with Barneys New York, Knoll, Japanese Vogue, and The New York Times.   


Ilan’s most recent personal project, “Sayonara”, documents the emptying out of his Brooklyn studio in December 2017. “Chopping the Trees”, explores the collision of digital and paper record keeping and the changing relationship technology allows us to have with privacy.  Meanwhile, his “What Lies Beneath” series is an inquiry into the very nature of what makes a digital photograph. In the series “Gravity”, each picture presents an invitation to take a picture of an object.


Ilan Rubin was born in Israel in 1956. He has been living and working in New York since 1985.




Mark