(b. 1958, Romania; immigrated to Israel, 1960; lives and works in Tel Aviv)

The concepts and terms customarily used to describe the artistic medium, such as "painting", "sculpture", "collage", "assemblage", "readymade", etc., do not befit the carnivalesque, circus-like wealth typifying Philip Rantzer's work. Overflowing, it calls to mind Emir Kusturica's cinema or Mikhail Bakhtin's literary theory. Rantzer addresses such themes as immigration, absorption difficulties, failure to assimilate, and lamentation of a lost world, while challenging the viewer's static, often patronizing set of notions. More than any other Israeli artist, his work discusses the biography of the artist and the immigrant. (In this context, one should bear in mind that Israeli art rejected the biographical as a theme in art for many years). Rantzer's eternal iconic image of the house on wheels insinuates (possibly like Meir Pichhadze's man sitting on a suitcase) a constant state of migration, non-belonging; immigration as a mental state. His body of work is unique in Israeli art. In recent years he has created series of collages and assemblages indicating a rare, virtuoso sculptural ability and ingenuity.