Rafael Fuchs_Biography/CV
Rafael Fuchs is a Brooklyn based artist, photographer, director, curator and producer.
He has earned his place as one of the most important photographers of his generation.
A recipient of many awards, Rafael captured portraits and images of some of the most influential figures of the past 30 years, and these images embraced many magazine covers as well as became a part of distinctive private collections and Museums around the globe, as The National Portrait Gallery in London. (Portraits of JK Rowling and Emily Watson.), Tel Aviv Museum, Palais Galliera, Paris, and more.
Rafael was Born in Tel Aviv, and received his BFA with honors (the Rosa Merkin award) from The Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem in 1984.
His international breakthrough in the art world revealed his personal documentary work, the self portraits series he did in a war zone during a real war time,
titled ”HOPE FOR PEACE”. The surrealistic self portraits he created while serving his obligatory duty as an IDF soldier in Lebanon in 1983, embracing performative practices of Butoh dance (as theatrical make up) got the attention of Francois Hebel (who became later on the director of Les Rencontres D’ Arles) who included the series in a show he curated in 1984 in Paris, titled: “Jeunes, Creations”. The works expressed the anxiety, fear, anger and frustration of a soldier feeling disengaged with the reality that was imposed on him, and questioning the meaning of heroism.
Rafael gained numerous grants and awards, including :
The Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation, (now The Sharpe_Walentas Studio Program)
Communication Arts Photography,
Photo District News,
American Photographic Artists,
American Photo magazine,
Creativity magazine, and more
Rafael Fuchs’ work is diverse, and includes portraits, fashion, personal social documentary as well as street photography.
Versatile in his practices, Rafael has been embracing the analog approach as well as digital.
His techniques as cross-processing (of the negatives) or applying different chemicals to the sensitive photography material coated with emulsion garnered him a great interest from many curators and collectors.
Most notably, his series of the works embracing the photographs he took of the “super models of the 90s” as Helena Christensen, Yasmeen Ghauri, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, and more.
Some of the portraits he did are of: Beyonce, Destiny’s Child , Mary J. Blige, Bebel Gilberto, Colin Powell, JK Rowling, George Steinbrenner, Frank Stella, Paul Cadmus, Burt Reynolds, Barry Diller, Heather Graham, Cindy Crawford, Emily Watson, Julia Stiles, John Cameron Mitchell, Sir Jonathan Ive, Patty Hearst, Malcolm McLaren, Nathan Lane, Ang Lee, Howard Bloom, George Plimpton, Grand Master Flash, Dave Eggers, John McCain, Derek Jeter, Steve Case, Bob Denver (Gilligan), James Marsden , Geoffrey Rush, Bobby Flay, Tony Bennett, Alber Elbaz, Arlo Guthrie, Darren Aronofsky, QuestLove…to name a few.
Rafael contributed photographs to hundreds of editorial stories that were published in a variety of magazines as: Entertainment Weekly, W, Glamour, Details, Movie Line, Esquire, Fortune, Forbes, Wired, Time, Newsweek, The Source, Musician, Guitar World, People, Life, and many more.
Rafael photographed advertising campaigns for : Coke, Pepsi, Heineken, Chase Bank, Marshal’s, Samsung, Kool, and more, and for record labels as : Atlantic, Sony, Matador , and more.
A number of his images were PUBLISHED IN BOOKS, such as:
Rolling Stone/Tattoo Nation (Bullfinch),
My Favorite Model (Goliath),
The Vibe History of Hip Hop, (Three Rivers Press),
10 Years of Dolce and Gabana (Jal),
Tiwimuta, by Andre Walker
Snoecks (2021)
On The Dance Floor by A24 (2022)
Alber Elbaz , by Design Museum, Holon (2022)
and more.
His works have been exhibited and collected by numerous public and private COLLECTIONS, as well as MUSEUMS :
National Portrait gallery, London
Ashdod Museum, Israel
The Palais Galliera, (Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris)
TEL AVIV MUSEUM
Raynham Hall Museum ,Oyster Bay , Long Island, NY.
ElephanArt, Zurich
Munger collection, NYC
Rema Hort Mann Foundation, NYC
Alain Servais collection, Belgium
Me Collectors Room, Berlin. (Olbricht Foundation)
and more.
For his solo shows and curatorial projects Mr. Fuchs was featured by international TV stations, as the German ZDF , the Israeli Channel 1, American channel NY1 and by numerous publications as the Italian Conde Nast Traveller, Hong Kong Harper’s Bazaar, Israeli Ha’aretz magazine, Beautiful Savage, The Wild magazine, Glitterrati Incorporated, The Examiner, Bushwick Daily, Curbs and Stoops, Camera Club of NY, No. 3 magazine, Visura magazine, PDN, NY Post, Time Out NY, PetaPixel, Tablet magazine, Blind magazine, Huck magazine, and various podcasts as The Gift Horse.
Rafael has been participating in numerous Group shows , including:
“Jeunes Creations” in Paris, curated by Francois Hebel (of Fuchs’ series titled “Hope For Peace” consisted of self portraits while serving his duty as an Israeli soldier for the IDF in a real time war in Lebanon.) 1984
“Artists To Artists” at the Ace gallery in NY)
“Up Close and Personal” at Fuchs Projects (2012)
“Fuchs Projects at Ogilvy, NYC” (2013)
“Portraits and Objects” at Art and Lounge Newark airport vip lounge, NJ. (2015-2016)
“The Last Word” Ethan Cohen gallery Dec. 2021-Jan. 2022
“Birds of a Feather” The Kube Art Center, Beacon, NY (June-Dec. , 2022)
“A Fine Line: Grafitti and the Power of Dissent” The Kube Art Center, Beacon, NY (May-July 2023)
“Balls to the Wall: Chapter 3” AHA Fineart gallery (July 2023)
“Holy Fame” Space 776 gallery, NYC (Dec. 2023)
“Back To School” The Kube Art Center, Beacon, NY (Nov. 2023-May 2024)
“Just Be” AHA Fineart gallery, Chelsea, NYC (Feb. 2024)
“American Dream” Raynham Hall Museum in Oyster Bay , Long Island, NY. (April-Sept. 2024)
solo shows :
2006: ”The Way We Live" at the Ad-Hoc gallery, Bklyn, NY
2009: "Fuchs_Now",at Eastern District gallery ,Bklyn, NY (2009)
2015: “Bushwick Comes to Putnam” at the George Whipple the 3d. estate in Carmel, NY
During the years 2012-2021 Rafael had additional 19 solo shows at Fuchs Projects,
2012: “While You Were Sleeping”
2012: “In Between”
2012: “911” (2012)
2012: “Till We Bleed”
2013: “Everything Must Go”
2013: “The Modernism Of Curiosity”
2013: “Love In My Opinion”
2014: “Bushwick Forever”
2014:“LandLords”
2014:“100 Polaroids”
2015: “The New Religion”
2015: ”Change Of Seasons”
2016: “The Conclusion”
2016: “Hipster Sex”
2017: “Portraits of influential people from the turn of the Millennium”
2017: “Biblical Tales” mixed media
2018: “Are You Still Hungry?” 2018 Mixed-media
2019: “Transitioning: Are You Going To watch Me Falling ?” Mixed media
2019: “Death of A Hipster” mixed-media (December)
During the years 2019-2024 Rafael had 8 solo shows (and one 2 artists show) at :
2019: “Greetings From Bushwick” Galleri Warme, Copenhagen, Denmark (May)
2020: Death of A Hipster” mixed-media Galleri Warme, Copenhagen, Denmark (November-Dec)
2021 “Women R Beautiful” Mixed-media. Thames Art Center, Bklyn, NY. (Feb.-March 2021)
2021 “Billionaire” Mixed-media. Thames Art Center, Bklyn, NY. (June 2021)
2021 Bushwick x Fuchs x Meisler 2 artist show at Thames Art Center (Sept. 2021)
2021 “Plunge” Mixed-media pop up show at Thames Art Center (Oct. 2021)
2022 "Palm Beach Women”_mixed-media. Thames Art Center. during BOS (Sept. 2022)
2023 “ICONS": Portraits by Rafael Fuchs”. at Ethan Cohen Gallery, at the KuBe Art Center, Beacon, NY (July-ASeptember 2023.)
2024 “Luminaries” Portraits. at 19th. St. gallery/Printique, Bklyn NY (Feb.-April 2024)
2025 “Chemical Attraction” AHA Fineart (Lower level,Jim Kempner Fineart) Jan-Feb 2025
Participations in Art Fairs:
Scope Miami Beach 2013
ArtMart Hamptons, 2013
Fountain NYC 2013
Scope, NYC 2014
Cutlog , NYC 2014
Select , NYC 2015
Affordable Artfair, Amsterdam 2018 (via ArtRoom-Konstantz gallery, Germany)
Aqua, Miami Beach 2019
Art Karlsruhe, Germany 2020 (via ArtRoom-Konstantz gallery, Germany)
Arles Expositions , Arles, France June 2021 (via Art-Magna, Brussels, Belgium)
Satellite (Art Basel Miami week) Dec. 2021
Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary art fair Feb. 2022 (Via Ethan Cohen Gallery, NY )
Volta, NYC May 2022 (via Ethan Cohen Gallery, NY)
Volta Basel June 2022 (via Ethan Cohen Gallery, NY)
Art Miami Dec. 2022 (via Ethan Cohen Gallery)
Palm Beach Modern+Contemporary Artfair, March 2023 (via Ethan Cohen Gallery)
Rafael Fuchs self published 13 books :
“Raw _One”(2009)
“I Am Amerikan”, (2009)
“Transgenders in the Mid-West”, (2009)
Raw_Fuchs (August 2009))
“Raw 5” (March 2010)
Eruption (August 2010)
Fuchs Now (Sept 2010)
“Bushwick Forever_Volume 1” (2016)
“Arizona and New Mexico” 2017
“Bushwick Women R Beautiful” _Volume 1 (2019)
“Women R Beautiful” _Volume 2 (2021)
“Women R Beautiful” _Volume 3 (2021)
“Men R Beautiful” (2021)
As a prominent figure in the Bushwick art scene for the past 2 decades, Mr. Fuchs is the founding director of FUCHS PROJECTS art space that was operating in 2012-2018, and that served as his open lab as well a platform that featured works of emerging artists .
He was also the director of THAMES ART CENTER , a cultural institution/ Popup space (2020-2024) that produced and welcomed all forms of creativity.
Rafael Fuchs is based in Bklyn, NY.
Contact info:
Email: rafael@rafaelfuchs.com
or fuchsprojects@gmail.com
Websites: rafaelfuchs.com
Also: bushwickyearbook.com
Social media:
Instagram: ©fuchsprojects
Twitter: https://twitter.com/fuchsprojects
Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rafael-fuchs-8222732
FB: https://www.facebook.com/rafael.fuchs.3
https://www.facebook.com/FuchsProjects/
Press (partial): http://www.rafaelfuchscontemporary.com/press/