Ilya Sorkin Gallery Safed

{{Infobox
|title = Ilya Sorkin
|image        = [[File:Space holder.jpg|215px|alt=Abuhav Synagogue]]
|header1 = Hebrew:
|data2  = איה סורקין
|header3 = Pronunciation:
|data4  = IL-L’ya Sor-kin
|header5 = Other Names
|data6   = Sorkin and Gurevitch Art Gallery
|header7 = Description:
|data8   = Ilya Sorkin is a Jewish Russian artist that works and exhibits his art in Tzfat’s Artist Quarter.}}

The famous Israeli artists who populated Tzfat’s [[Artists Quarter Safed|Artists Quarter]] in the ‘50s and ‘60s were beginning to sell their galleries to non-artists by the ‘70s and ‘80s. These pioneers of the Israeli and [[Galleries-and-Artists-of-Safed|Tzfat art scene]] were aging and were no longer able to make the journey to open their studios in [[Safed|Tzfat]] every summer. New Israeli artists were not interested in leaving the Tel Aviv/Jerusalem area. However, some classically-trained artists from the Former Soviet Union such as Ilya Sorkin took their place and are today helping to revitalize the Artist Colony of Tzfat.

== Background ==
Ilya Sorkin came to Tzfat in 1990, one of the first of the new wave of immigrants who took advantage of the new freedoms that accompanied the fall of the Soviet Union. He had studied at the prestigious Serov institute in Leningrad and was already a well-known artist in Russia. Sorkin could have continued to live a comfortable life as a well-known Russian artist but he chose to start anew in Israel and express himself freely.

== Subject Matter ==
Sorkin favors muted pastels in his oils on canvas works which range in subject matter from portraits to urban landscapes to nature to still lifes. Some of his paintings are darker in color but the majority of his subjects are expressed in light, airy hues and delicate lines. He often paints scenes of his native Russia but also paints scenes of the Tzfat alleyways and lanes which surround his home in Tzfat as well as the area’s mountainous landscapes. .

== Exhibitions ==
In 1960 Sorkin participated in a world-tour of 33 Soviet artists which included exhibitions in museums and galleries in Russia, Japan, Cuba, Finland, Bulgaria, England, Switzerland, Israel and the United States. Today Sorkin’s works are on display in the permanent collections of major Russian museums including the Ruski Museum in St. Petersburg, the Orel Museum in Orel, the Museum of Sochi in the Krasnodar area of Sochi and the City Museum of Tomsk in Tomsk.
                                   
Sorkin’s paintings also hang inmany private collections in the United States, Russia, Canada, Finland, England, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Sweden, Brazil and Australia.

== Gallery ==
Sorkin exhibits in Tzfat at his permanent gallery on Tet Vav Street. He shares the gallery with Nina Gurevitch.