B Side #6 by Rubi Lebovitch

Jen and I met Tel Aviv-based artist Rubi Lebovitch in Paris last November. In the middle of a long day of reviewing portfolios at Lens Culture's FotoFest Paris, Rubi sat down opposite us and did the best thing ever: He made us laugh. With an irrepressible grin, he emanates the kind of joy that comes with the ability to find humor in everyday situations. It could have been offensive or annoying—like that jerk who always seems to know something you don't, so the smile comes off as a smirk—but the thing about Rubi is that he's more than willing to let you in on the joke.

B Side #6 is from a series of work that Rubi submitted to our last round of the Hey, Hot Shot! competition (photographers, stay tuned, the next and last competition of 2011 will open soon!). A collection of bonus hits, the project is a polished kin to something like Jason Evans' The Daily Nice. On his site, Evans regularly shares a new photograph of something that made him happy. It's about his "enthusiasm for looking and being." A similar enthusiasm for looking and being is palpable in Rubi's works.

In addition to photographs, he makes sculptural installations and documents them, as well. In his 3-D works, Rubi creates situations and objects that quickly skip from silly to surreal—a plant in dirt that has lost its pot; a pair of shoes with an impractical excess of laces; a woman knitting, who seems oblivious to the fact that her creation is simultaneously unraveling. In his 2-D works, he seems to find the same subtly absurd occurrences in real life. It is his particular sense of humor that keeps the collection of images in B Side together. Otherwise disassociated moments and things that might have gone unnoticed are united under Rubi's careful, clever, amused eye. It's clear: His ship has come in.

— Sara