http://www.artiscontemporary.org/agenda.php Artis Recommends Fri, 18 May 2012 03:29:55 PDT en hourly 1 http://www.artiscontemporary.org/agenda_detail.php?id=582 Bass Museum of Art
Miami Beach, Florida United States
09/07/12 – 11/04/12


ARTIS GRANT RECIPIENT

The concept of nature has acquired a new relevance in the hyper-technological age, leading many artists to reflect ironically on artificial environments, where one is unable to trust what is real and what is not. A significant number of artists today challenge the gap between traditional perceptions of “nature” and “culture.” In many cases, they introduce new understandings of the sublime that transform its romantic associations with a sense of awe.

UNNATURAL, presented by the Bass Museum of Art, will present scientific, romantic, conceptual, poetic, sensual and ecological conceptions of nature through a variety of strategies that reflect advances in technology in the twenty-first century. The works in the exhibition question conventional means and methods of representing the natural world, and metaphorically embody both the paradoxical longing to fuse with nature and the threat embedded in such fusion. The works in UNNATURAL thus reflect a cultivated, synthetic, manipulated nature, which includes allusions to science as manifestations of a reality oscillating between the real and imaginary.

The artists selected for UNNATURAL come from diverse cultural backgrounds and work in a wide range of media: video, photography, sculpture and installation. The majority of the artists are Israeli-based which charges the exhibition with a political accent that relates to Nature, territories and landscape in critical ways. In the contemporary Israeli context it is impossible to disassociate the landscape from the politics transpiring around it. Representations of landscape and/or Nature in Israeli art are never naive, and certainly not romantic. They are scorched with the fire of conflict and fervor of internal controversy.

UNNATURAL is a metaphor for the postmodern era; an allegory of the far-fetched fusion of reality, fantasy and simulation. At the same time, it reflects the freedom of imagination and the wonders of simulation technology, which make the inconceivable conceivable.

The location of this project in Miami Beach—a subtropical, botanically lush barrier island that was built on a filled coral reef where even the beach sand is artificially imported—strengthens the tangible relationship between the “nature” and the “natural”.

Among the participating artists: Aziz + Cucher, Einat Arif-Galanti, Blane De St Croix, Rose-Lynn Fisher, Ori Gersht, Meirav Heiman & Yossi Ben Shoshan, Anthony James, Hilja Keading, Freddy Shachar Kislev, Sigalit Landau, Dana Levy, Tobias Madison, Richard Mosse, Gilad Ratman, Samantha Salzinger, Tomer Sapir, Yehudith Sasportas, Michal Shamir, Jennifer Steinkamp, Gal Weinstein, Guy Zagursky.

About the curator:
Tami Katz-Freiman is an art historian, curator and critic, based in Miami. Until recently, she served as the Chief Curator of the Haifa Museum of Art (2005-2010). She has curated numerous group and solo exhibitions in prominent museums in Israel and the US, where she lived and worked between 1994 and 1999. Her most notable project in collaboration with the Bass Museum was Desert Cliché: Israel Now—Local Images, a traveling exhibition co-curated with Amy Cappellazzo that debuted at the Bass Museum of Art on April 1997. In the last two years she was teaching at the Art History Department at Tel Aviv University and at the Kalisher Art School’s International Curatorial Program. She has published extensively in books, catalogues and magazines devoted to contemporary art. ]]> http://www.artiscontemporary.org/agenda_detail.php?id=684 8910 Washington Blvd., Culver City, California United States , 06/26/12, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm Dor Guez will discuss work to be presented in his first major museum exhibition in the U.S., Dor Guez: 100 Steps to the Mediterranean, which will open at the Rose Art Museum in September 2012. ... ]]> Royal/T,
8910 Washington Blvd.
Culver City, California United States
06/26/12
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Dor Guez will discuss work to be presented in his first major museum exhibition in the U.S., Dor Guez: 100 Steps to the Mediterranean, which will open at the Rose Art Museum in September 2012.

Kindly RSVP to Andrea Feldman Falcione at andrea@artiscontemporary.org

About Dor Guez
Dor Guez (b. Jerusalem) is a multidisciplinary artist, a lecturer at Bezalel Academy of Arts, Jerusalem, and a researcher of archives affiliated with Tel Aviv University. Guez’s art integrates his research into archives and employs photography and video installations to engage with binary oppositions of nationalism, religion, and ethnicity. It confronts the viewer with the spectrum of Palestinians who remained and those who were deported after the 1948 war, when Israel was established. 1948 is a pivotal point representing the changes that occurred in the Middle East. Guez's work shows how the repercussions of these changes are not only territorial, but also cultural, historical, and national.

Guez's work has been the subject of several solo exhibitions, including at the Petach Tikva Museum of Art; The Jewish Museum, New York; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; The Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv; the Tel Aviv Museum of Art; and Beursschouwburg Art Center, Brussels. Guez is the recipient of the Orgler Research fund for excellent PhD scholars, Tel Aviv University; the Perlmutter Visiting Artist Award, Rose Art Museum; the Young Artist Prize, Ministry of Culture, Israel; and the International Artist in Residence at Artpace, San Antonio.

About Artis
Launched in 2004 and based in New York, Los Angeles and Tel Aviv, Artis is a 501c3 non-profit organization that supports and promotes contemporary artists from Israel internationally.

About the Rose Art Museum
Founded in 1961, The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, is an educational and cultural institution dedicated to collecting, preserving and exhibiting the finest of modern and contemporary art. The programs of the Rose adhere to the overall mission of the university, embracing its values of academic excellence, social justice and freedom of expression. The museum’s permanent collection of postwar and contemporary art is unequalled in New England and among the best at any university art museum in the United States. The exhibition of Guez’s multidisciplinary and provocative art advances the Rose’s history of showcasing cutting-edge work by artists on the cusp of international breakthroughs. Previous Perlmutter Artists in Residence who exhibited at the Rose include Roxy Paine (2002), Barry McGee (2004), Fred Tomaselli (2005), and Dana Schutz (2006). ]]> http://www.artiscontemporary.org/agenda_detail.php?id=658 ST-ART
Jaffa, Israel
06/02/12 – 06/30/12


Amir Fattal’s exhibition One Fate at ST-ART connects the biographies of artists, architects, actors, and documentary photographers to follow their behavior in relation to war and trauma. Artistic approach and moral decisions are each questioned, especially as they intertwine in the act of artistic production.

Fattal dialogues with the work of architects Erich Mendelssohn and Albert Speer, artists Marcel Duchamp, Sepp Hilz, Marlene Dietrich and Leni Riefenstahl, and photographer Hugo Jaeger, who all took different moral paths under a wartime situation.

The exhibition culminates in an installation that draws its inspiration from the legacies of modernism and the second world war.

Fattal lives and works in Berlin.
]]> http://www.artiscontemporary.org/agenda_detail.php?id=683 Pacific Design Center
8687 Melrose Avenue, Suite b275, West Hollywood, California
United States , 05/16/12, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm Please join us for a private preview with artists Rona Yefman and Davida Nemeroff who will discuss their current collaborative exhibition Shellfish at Annie Wharton Los Angeles open through June ... ]]> Annie Wharton Los Angeles
Pacific Design Center
8687 Melrose Avenue, Suite b275
West Hollywood, California
United States
05/16/12
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Please join us for a private preview with artists Rona Yefman and Davida Nemeroff who will discuss their current collaborative exhibition Shellfish at Annie Wharton Los Angeles open through June 29th.

Kindly RSVP to Andrea Feldman Falcione at andrea@artiscontemporary.org

About Rona Yefman
Rona Yefman is an Israeli artist who currently lives and works in New York City. She received her MFA from Columbia University in 2009 and her BFA from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem in 1999. Yefman is the recipient of the Ingeborg Bachmann Scholarship; the Gerard Levy Prize for a young photographer from the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the 2009 Rema Hort Mann Scholarship; grants from Artis and Smack Mellon in 2010; and the 2003 Young Artist Prize from the Israeli Ministry of Education & Culture. Yefman has had recent solo exhibitions at Sommer Gallery, Tel Aviv; Derek Eller Gallery, New York; Sculpture Center, New York; and Participant Inc., New York. Group exhibitions include, The Circus as a Parallel Universe, Kunsthalle Wein; Living Room at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Hugging & Wrestling at MoCA Cleveland; and Can Art Do More?, Art Focus #5, Jerusalem.

About Davida Nemeroff
Davida Nemeroff (b.1981) is a Canadian artist working in Los Angeles, California. She holds a BFA in Photographic Studies from Ryerson University (2004) and a MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University (2009.). She has had solo exhibitions in Toronto, ON with Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects and Gallery TPW and in Los Angeles, CA with Workspace and The Company (curated by Annie Wharton). Her work has also been featured in numerous group shows internationally, most recently at Young Art (Los Angeles), Mark Wolfe Contemporary (San Francisco), Human Resources and Public Fiction (Los Angeles), and the Torrence Art Museum (Torrence). Her work has been reviewed in Art in America (2009), ArtForum (2010), and NOW magazine (2011), and she has been featured in Interview Magazine (2010). Nemeroff co-runs Night Gallery in Los Angeles.

About Artis
Launched in 2004 and based in New York, Los Angeles and Tel Aviv, Artis is 501c3 non-profit organization that supports and promotes contemporary artists from Israel internationally. ]]> http://www.artiscontemporary.org/agenda_detail.php?id=647 The Kitchen
New York , New York United States
05/05/12 – 05/06/12
6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

ARTIS GRANT RECIPIENT

Show Real Drama is written and directed by artist Keren Cytter, and based on the life of two of her actors, Susie Meyer and Fabian Stumm. Having graduated from the University of Acting in Salzburg, Germany, Meyer and Stumm soon find themselves unemployed and isolated from the entertainment business in old Europe. After countless failed attempts to get hired, they decide to write and direct scenes for their own showreels. For Show Real Drama, the pair presents these videos, recounting the experiences they had while filming. With an alternating mix of elegant dance and violent movement, their acting shifts from classical drama to existential embarrassment, while their story unfolds through repetitions of text and gestures, shuttling between seemingly improvised moments to choreographed movements, creating a fractured yet empathetic storyline.



]]> http://www.artiscontemporary.org/agenda_detail.php?id=667 Center 548: 548 West 22nd Street at 11th Avenue (Roof)
New York , New York United States
05/04/12 – 05/07/12


The Artis Shuk at the inaugural NADA NYC (Visit us on the roof!)
May 4–7, 2012
548 West 22nd Street at 11th Avenue
New York City
FREE and open to the public

Opening Preview
Friday, May 4: 11AM–2PM

Open to the Public
Friday, May 4: 2–8PM
Saturday, May 5: 11AM–8PM
Sunday, May 6: 11AM–6PM
Monday, May 7: 11AM–4PM

Housed in a tent on the roof with exhibition design by Comm-on Israeli (artist Lior Shvil), The Artis Shuk will feature unique and limited edition artwork by some of Israel's leading artists. Conceived as a playful counterpart to the art fair, The Artis Shuk is modeled after the markets (shuks/souks) found throughout Israel and the Middle East. Join us for mint tea and sweets and browse our selection of unique artist objects, jewelry, limited edition photographs, and publications. Most artworks are priced at $500 and below, with all proceeds benefiting the Artis Grant Program, which awards over $125,000 annually to artists and nonprofit institutions.

Artists featured: Inbal Abergil, Guy Ben-Ari & Leah Wolff, Keren Benbenisty, Deville Cohen, Zipora Fried, Orly Genger x Jaclyn Mayer, Guy Goldstein, Dor Guez, Naomi Safran Hon, Itamar Jobani, Gabi Kricheli, Alon Levin, Alona Rodeh, Roee Rosen, Avi Sabah, Irit Tamari, Gal Weinstein, Guy Yanai, Gil Yefman, Rona Yefman, Picnic Magazine and Sternthal Books.

For inquiries, please contact Persis Singh at persis[a]artiscontemporary.org.


WORKS FOR SALE




Inbal Abergil, Rai'ha a'l shuk (On my way to the market), 2012, framed photograph,
8 x 10 x 2 in., Ed. of 10; $450

About the Work
In 2006, Abergil spent two weeks in Cairo during Ramadan and was struck by the many souks and thousands of traders who have occupied these markets since ancient times. Though Cairo is a modern metropolis, the markets – full of spices, produce, antiques, and livestock– seem to encapsulate a bygone era.

About the Artist
Inbal Abergil (b. 1976, Jerusalem) is a photographer currently living and working in New York. Her photographs investigate the aesthetic and societal norms of Israeli culture and the world at large through conceptions of time and memory – concepts that take on great importance in cultures in which loss is a substantial part of daily life. Abergil holds an M.F.A. in Visual Art from Columbia University, studied photography at Jerusalemʼs Hadassah College, and received a B.F.A. with honors from the Midrasha School of Art. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Rabenovich Prize from Tel Aviv's Department of Art & Culture (2004) and The America-Israel Cultural Foundation (2002). Her series Nothing Left Here But The Hurt (2011) has recently been nominated for the prestigious Prix Pictet Photography Prize.




Guy Ben-Ari & Leah Wolff, The Best Defense is a Good Hamsa, 2012, paint on ceramic, dimensions variable; $150 each; $550 for set of 4




Guy Ben-Ari & Leah Wolff, Lost Objects of Desire, 2012, collection of unique works on paper, dimensions variable; $150 each

About the Works
Ben-Ari and Wolff present The Best Defense is a Good Hamsa, which features ceramic hamsa-decorated objects as tools of passive and active offense. The hamsa is a palm-shaped amulet popular throughout the Middle East and North Africa, and is commonly used in jewelry and wall hangings. Depicting an open right hand, it is considered a sign of protection, providing defense against the evil eye in Christian, Islamic, and Jewish traditions.

In Lost Objects of Desire, Ben-Ari and Wolff display a collection of framed drawings, stacked together and available for the potential buyer to flip through, simulating the equivalent experience in the shuk where customers search for their "lost object of desire" through eclectic selections of artifacts.

About the Artists
Guy Ben-Ari (born 1984 in Tel Aviv) lives and works in New York. Ben-Ari received an M.F.A from Columbia University's School of the Arts (2011). He received a B.F.A with honors from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem (2009). While at Bezalel, he was selected to study painting at the Slade School of Fine Arts, University College London. Ben-Ari's work has been recently exhibited in New York at Thierry Goldberg Gallery, 6-8 Months Project Space and the Neiman Gallery. Recent solo shows include Yes to Burning Eyes at Vox Populi Gallery, Philadelphia (Artis Grant Recipient) and The Time Element at Hamidrasha Gallery, Tel Aviv. He is the recipient of Bezalel’s Loren and Mitchell Presser Award for Excellence in Painting (2009).

Leah Wolff (b.1984, Cleveland) graduated with honors from the Rhode Island School of Design (2006), and received an M.F.A. from Columbia University’s School of the Arts (2011). Her work has been featured in two solo shows and many group exhibitions internationally and throughout the U.S. She is a recipient of RISD’s Ripley F. W. Albright Award (2006) and the Printmaking Edition Award (2006).




Guy Ben-Ari, Demonstrating Protest, Acrylic and ink on paper (framed), 16 x 20 in., $1200

About the Work
Demonstrating Protest was created in response to vast public protest around the world, including the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, and the social justice demonstrations in Tel Aviv. The multiplication of the raised fist suggests a painterly gesture that repeats itself through other imaginary bodies in the painting, alluding to the viral distribution of revolutionary messages through social media. Existing on the border of folk illustration and the contemporary reduced painterly gesture, Ben-Ari’s work deals with systems of classification and the relationship of philosophy to art. His most recent works use painting as a tool for examining didactic strategies and how the creative process functions as an experiential learning process by illustrating concepts from psychoanalytic theory.




Keren Benbenisty, L'Over, 2006, Sterling silver pendant and chain, Ed. of 100; $250 each

About the Work
L’Over reinterprets the famous LOVE sculpture by Robert Indiana. By replacing one letter, Benbenisty shifts the work’s hopeful message to one of uncertainty. Benbenisty transforms everyday objects into contemporary relics – cultural artifacts that investigate humanity’s attachment to language and conflict. She appropriates universal icons and symbols and reworks them into highly individual statements. Using drawing, video, and installation to explore contradiction and ambiguity, her work invests the conceptual with what appears to be its antithesis – romanticism.




Keren Benbenisty, U & I, 2006/2012, ink on paper, unique, $400

Interactive drawing commission at The Artis Shuk

Project hours
Friday, May 4: 2-4pm
Saturday, May 5: 1-3pm

In each individual session, the artist and participant will sit together and collaboratively generate a unique version of the drawing U & I. Completing the exchange, the collector will leave the session with his or her own unique drawing for $400.

U & I begins as a dialogue between artist Keren Benbenisty and the collector of the work. It is both a double-portrait and an intellectual, cultural, and financial alliance/transaction between two people. The drawing will consist of two fingerprints, one of the artist and the other of the collector, connected by a line that will be defined on the spot. The line is a metaphorical "itinerary" between the places of origin of both persons involved in the making of the work. It will map the journey between past and present, origin and current location, using the most precise human marker, the fingerprint, as a gesture that is equally personal and bureaucratic.

About the Artist
Keren Benbenisty (b. 1977, Herzliya) graduated with honors from the Ecole Nationale Supérieur des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2004. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Gym Gallery, Seoul (2011); La BANK Gallery, Paris (2011); and TAT Gallery, Berlin (2008); as well as group shows at Unosunove Gallery, Rome (2012); Maison Populaire de Montreuil, France (2011); and St. Cecilia’s Convent, Brooklyn, (2010). She is currently finishing a residency at the International Studio & Curatorial Program, New York.




Deville Cohen, FB = q v × B, 2012, mixed media on paper with magnets, 11 x 5 x 5 in., Ed. of 15, $1,000

About the Work
FB = q v × B is a magnetic desk organizer. The desire to arrange a desktop is out of necessity. Office supplies come in quantities of 50, 500, or 1000 packs, but where can you buy one paper clip? And what are you going to do with the other 499? The work is a part of Cohen's new video project ZERO, which explores the physical forces of gravity and magnetism as a sculptural reality in his fragile paper-made sets, and as fictional forces in the construction of narratives.

About the Artist
Deville Cohen (b. 1977, Petach Tikva) currently lives and works in New York. He studied at the Weiseensee Kunsthochschule in Berlin and holds an M.F.A. from Bard College, New York (2010). His work has been exhibited at Louise B. James, New York (2011); Foxy Production, New York (2011); Marlborough Chelsea (2011); Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv (2010); Recess, New York (2010); Greater New York, MoMA/PS1, New York (2010); The Company, Los Angeles (2010); Lesley Heller Workspace, New York (2010); Nowhere Gallery, Milan (2009); LAXART, Los Angeles (2009); tor111, Berlin (2008); and Living Art Museum, Reykjavik (2006). His recent video project POISON will be exhibited at SFMOMA in Summer 2012.




Zipora Fried, Rolodex, 2012, Rolodex and tape, 6 x 6 x 7 in., unique; $500

About the Work
In Rolodex, a found object full of an unknown person’s friends or colleagues has been covered up with archival tape. A simple act communicates a sentiment more forcibly than verbal descriptions ever could; in this case, thoughts of isolation or loss. Fried’s work often undermines the defining function of the object at hand. Portraits are presented with covered faces, drawings are so dense they rebuff any illustrative meaning, and sculptures are often altered, through a simple and repeated gesture, to deprive a found object of its normal function.

About the Artist
Zipora Fried (b. 1964, Haifa) lives and works in New York. Recent solo exhibitions include Salon Noir (2011) and Trust me. Be Careful. (2009) at On Stellar Rays, New York; MACHISMO at PS Project Space, Amsterdam (2008) and Works and Days at AR Contemporary, Milan (2006). Her work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions internationally, including Total Recall organized by Public Art Fund, New York (2010); Zipora Fried & Margarete Jakschik & Sam Windett at Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (2010); Greater New York at MoMA/PS1, New York (2010); Minus Space at MoMA/PS1, New York (2008) and Drawing a Line in the Sand at Peter Blum Gallery, New York (2012). Fried is also the recipient of numerous awards for her experimental films, which have been featured in festivals worldwide. She is represented by On Stellar Rays, New York.




Orly Genger x Jaclyn Mayer Jewelry; Madelaine necklace; Enamel on rope with silver hook closure, $225.

About Orly Genger x Jaclyn Mayer Jewelry
Orly Genger and Jaclyn Mayer created OGJM as a design brand of two friends coming together, each using their own strengths and skills to make something new. It began in 2009 when Genger wanted a custom designed necklace to wear to the opening of her exhibition at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Jewelry designer Jaclyn Mayer visited Genger’s studio in Long Island City to create the necklace, and decided to weave chain into the excess rope that Genger used in her sculptures. When Genger wore the piece to the opening, the Indianapolis Museum requested a direct order of the necklaces, and it was featured on Style.com. Within the course of a few weeks, both women realized they had something uniquely their own, which could be developed into a successful brand.

About the Artist & Designer
Orly Genger (b. 1979, New York City) studied Fine Arts at Brown University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Using her fingers as tools and non-traditional materials such as elastic and thick climbing rope, Genger crochets chunky yarn and heavy industrial elastic into monumental geometric forms that evoke the seemingly contradictory traditions of minimalist sculpture and women’s handicraft. She has been featured in numerous exhibitions internationally at venues such as Mass MOCA, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Elizabeth Dee Gallery, and Larissa Goldston Gallery. Her works are included in several museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Hood Museum of Art, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Jaclyn Mayer (b. Marin County, California) attended the Rhode Island School of Design and received a B.A. from New York University. While working for the clothing line Mayle in New York, Jaclyn was fortuitously wearing one of her jewelry creations when it caught the eye of an editor from Lucky Magazine. They immediately featured her in the magazine as “One To Watch,” which lead to a direct order from Barneys NY. Thus began Jaclyn Mayer Jewelry. Mayer went on to study Fashion Design at Parsons School of Design and most recently received an MA from London College of Fashion in Womenswear. Upon her return to the U.S. in 2009, she teamed up with artist Orly Genger to create a line of jewelry focused on unique materials and distinctive design.




Guy Goldstein, Black & White Bread, 2007, terrazzo tiles, 6 x 5.5 x 1.2 in., unique; $1,000 for set

About the Work
A beloved part of the Jewish Sabbath celebration, challah bread is traditionally blessed and consumed on Friday evening and Saturday. Guy Goldstein’s challah loaves in Black & White Bread come pre-sliced, a nod to the prohibition against slicing on the Sabbath, and are created out of Terazzo tiles, a staple of Israeli construction projects from the state’s inception to the 1990s, when simple and cheap materials were needed to house massive waves of immigrants. Just as the Terazzo tile acted as a standard unit of measurement, Goldstein suggests that the Terazzo challah can be a measurement of its own, one that explores the relationship between hard labor and salary, the history of the Jewish people and home.

About the Artist
Guy Goldstein (b. 1974, Tel Aviv) is a multidisciplinary artist who works in various traditional and experimental techniques, including embroidery, photography, video, sculpture and sound. His conceptual works rely on found material ranging from still objects to live subjects and virtual media elements. They are occupied with time – its legacies and residues – through notions of archeology and contemporaneity, history and art history. Goldstein received an M.F.A. from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in 2007. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions at The Heder Contemporary Art Gallery, Tel Aviv (2002 – 2006); Chelouche Gallery, Tel Aviv (2009); and in group exhibitions in London, Hamburg, Malaga, Helsinki and throughout Israel. He won the America – Israel Cultural Foundation Prize four times and was awarded the Israeli Ministry of Culture’s Young Artist Award (2007).




Dor Guez, Notes from the Christian-Palestinian Archive, 2012, Manipulated readymade, 11.8 x 11.8 in., unframed, Edition of 30 + 4AP; Artis Limited Edition; $1,200

About the Work
The Christian-Palestinian Archive is an ongoing project by Jerusalem born artist Dor Guez. The growing collection of photographs and records aims to research and document the diasporic community of Christian-Palestinians living throughout the Middle East, and to allow members of this community to explore their own history through these images. The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 was a pivotal point in history, representing violent changes that occurred in Palestine and throughout the region. The repercussions of these changes are not only territorial, but also cultural, historical and national, as Guez's artistic practice demonstrates. Notes from the Christian-Palestinian Archive includes a 1:1 scan of the artist's personal notebook, where he keeps vital information about the different images within this archive.

About the Artist
Dor Guez (b. Jerusalem) lives and works in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. He is a lecturer in the History and Theory Department at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem. Guez's artistic production employs photography and video installations to engage general questions of identity and multiculturalism through the personal history of Guez's family. His work explores an intricate, multifaceted reality, challenging the boundaries and prevalent binary oppositions between East and West, Jews and Arabs, religion and secularism and Israeli and Palestinian identity. Guez's work has been the subject of several solo exhibitions, including Georgeopolis at Petach Tikva Museum, 2009, The Monayer Family at Jewish Museum, New York, 2010, Al-Lydd at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2010, The Nation's Groves at Tel Aviv Museum of Art 2011, and Against the Grain at Beursschouwburg, Brussels, 2011. In Fall 2012, Guez will have his first major exhibition in North America at the Rose Museum of Art, Boston. Dor Guez is represented by Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv and Carlier Gebauer Gallery, Berlin.




Naomi Safran Hon, Straining, Mixing, Grating; 2010-2012; 6 kitchenware items with cement, 22 x 20 in., unique, $100 each; $500 for set




Naomi Safran Hon, Cement Grater, 2009, metal grater with cement, 3 x 4 x 9 in., unique, $250




Naomi Safran Hon, A Piece of Land, 2010-2012, cactus in cement, 4 in. x 8 in. x height variable, Ed. of 5, $250 each

About the Works
Safran Hon’s objects would not be found in a traditional shuk-- they are functionless. The cement, which was applied to the kitchenware, has damaged them. The cacti were planted in cement cinderblocks that function both as vessels for each cactus and as the catalyst of its destruction. These objects symbolize how our private lives are enmeshed with the political world, where a tight link exists between landscape, construction, and destruction.

About the Artist
Naomi Safran-Hon (b.1984, Oxford, England) grew up in Haifa, Israel. She received a B.A. in Studio Art and Art History from Brandeis University and an M.F.A. from Yale University School of Art. Safran-Hon’s work has been featured in a solo exhibition at Slag Gallery, New York (2011); as well as group exhibitions around the US, including Fresh Paint at Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA (2011); Evocatecture, and Uncommon Commencement at Heather James Fine Art, Palm Desert, CA (2010); Unhinged at Gallery 263, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2010); Forest of the Trees, Heather James Fine Art, Jackson, WY (2010); two shows at Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York (2009 and 2010); Absent Present at P.P.O.W Gallery, New York (2010); as well as at NURTUREart and Momenta Art in Brooklyn. Her video/performance work was included in the festival Handheld History, at Queens Museum of Art, New York (2010); and at Time After Time, Actions and Interactions, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA (2010). She lives and works in Brooklyn and is represented by Slag Gallery, New York.






Itamar Jobani, D.I.Y: Fold Your Own Skull Kit, 2012, Paper, 10 x 8.5 x 1/4 in., Ed. of 30; Price upon request

About the Work
D.I.Y: Fold Your Own Skull is a kit to construct a geometric 3D skull out of flat paper/plastic sheets. The pieces are pre-cut and the folds are pre-scored, and the packaged kit comes complete with an illustrated front cover and instructions on the back. All you need to assemble it is glue. The collector is required to invest his or her own labor, and actively engage in the art-making process by following the artist's instructions to construct the skull out of the materials provided.

About the Artist
Itamar Jobani (b.1980, Israel) currently lives and works in New York. He received a B.A. in Fine Arts from Beit Berl College (2003) a B.A. from Tel Aviv University in Philosophy and Film Studies (2006) and an M.F.A. from Pratt Institute (2010) with a focus in sculpture and new media. Jobani’s multi-disciplinary practice comprises video installations, sculpture and drawings. His sculptural works relate to monuments and agents of propaganda. The human figures he creates grow from his perception of landscapes as sociopolitical representations of the societies we form, while his sculptures are a parody of information that bear the burdens of the weight of imperialism and colonialism. Selected solo exhibitions include: Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York (2009); VOLTA NY (2008); and Vierter Stock, Berlin (2010). Selected group exhibitions include: Herzliya Biennial (2007); Inspired, Mitchell Library Gallery, Glasgow (2009); The New Hebrews, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2005); Deliciously Disposable Earth, Three Rivers Arts Festival, Pittsburgh (2008); and Undercurrent, White Box Gallery, New York (2007). Jobani is represented by Andrea Meislin Gallery New York, and Julie M. Gallery, Toronto.




Gabi Kricheli, It's About Time #1, 2, 4, 2012, mixed media, approx. 10 x 6 x 6 in., unique; $300 each; set of 3 for $750

About the Work
In his work, Kricheli searches for a definition of human similarity, which he explores through a comparison of distinct civilizations’ architecture, religious artifacts, textiles and other visual materials. Underneath the specific set of variables that informed each culture’s development, Kricheli asserts that a similar grid can be found that is evidence of a human common denominator. His sculptures are characterized by visual devices that separate cultures, without being specific to any one in particular, acting as relics of both a non-existent and universally shared human experience.

About the Artist
Gabi Kricheli (b. 1979, Jerusalem) is a sculptor, painter, and musician who lives and works in Tel Aviv. His intricate pieces tow the line between singularity and repetition, ornamentation and disorder, and abstraction and representation. Kricheli studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and was awarded the Bank Leumi Prize for Outstanding Academic Achievements in 2006. He is currently a lecturer in the Department of Jewelry Design and the Department of Fine Arts at Shenkar Academy, Ramat Gan; the Department of Fine Arts at the Avni Institute, Tel Aviv; and in the School of Visual Theatre, Jerusalem. Kricheli was awarded the Israel Ministry of Culture’s Young Artist Award (2011).




Alon Levin, A Concrete Attempt to Rediscover the Power of Imagination, 2012, styrofoam, concrete, cardboard, alkyd; approx. 6 x 6 x 6 in. to 10 x 10 x 10 in., Edition of 5; Courtesy of the artist and AMBACH & RICE, Los Angeles; $500 each

About the Work
Levin's polygonal sculpture is inspired by Albrecht Dürer’s engraving Melancholia I from 1514, in which Man’s attempts to invent a new form with the use of scientific tools and reason fails, and leaves him in frustration. All he manages to achieve is a complex polygonal shape and a sphere. In the background of these geometric figures is a rainbow, a symbol of beauty expressing a benign manifestation of the sublime.

About the Artist
Alon Levin (b. 1975, Ramat Gan) studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Acadamie and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam before taking up artist residencies at the International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York City and the sculpture program at State University New York, New Paltz. Levin's use of common materials to create sculptural systems defies both abstraction and representation, and examines themes spanning socialist architecture, Russian Constructivism and mathematics. In recent years he has shown at CCS Bard, New York; Kunsthalle Basel; CAC Vilnius; and The David Roberts Art Foundation, London. Levin spends his time between Den Hague and Berlin, and is represented by AMBACH & RICE, Los Angeles.




Alona Rodeh, Untitled (Donuts), 2003, Inkjet print, 11.8 x 8.7 in., Ed. of 3; $200

About the Work
Rodeh's photograph Untitled (Donuts) from 2003 is part of an ongoing photographic project, parallel to her main sculptural and installation-based practice. This photo was taken at the end of the day near the famous Shuk HaCarmel in Tel Aviv.

About the Artist
Alona Rodeh (b. 1979, Moshav Ben Ami, Israel) is a multi-disciplinary artist currently living and working in Tel Aviv. Rodeh is a 2009 M.F.A. graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. Her work has been exhibited widely in Israel at the Herzliya Museum of Art; the Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon; Petach Tikva Museum of Art; Art TLV Biennale; the Herzliya Biennial, and the Venice Biennale. Rodeh has received numerous awards including the Young Artist Award (2011) and the Artist-Teacher Award (2009) through the Israeli Ministry of Education and Culture. Her diverse practice includes time-based installations to ephemeral interventions – often described as "performance without performers." Her work relies on a wide range of media, such as light, sound and kinetics.




Roee Rosen, CD compilation from the making of Hilarious with cover art by the artist, 2010, Audio CD, Ed. of 200; $35 each

About the Work
Roee Rosen’s video Hilarious (2010) examines the potentials of dysfunctional humor and improper comedy, peaking with an epic joke that takes place at the twin towers moments before they collapse. In the spirit of the work, Rosen, an obsessive music collector, compiled music offering a plethora of funny songs on uncomfortable topics, from Nazism to terrorism, and from perversion to death. The disc was offered as a gift exclusively for the people who contributed to the film. It features cover art by the artist, and each disc is signed and numbered, in an edition of 200.

About the Artist
Roee Rosen (b. 1963, Rehovot) is an artist, film director and writer. His practice explores the historical and social dynamics of Israel and is infused with irony and searing criticality. He utilizes intellectual provocation in his work by assuming morally ambiguous positions, paradoxical points of view, and fictional personae such as Justine Frank, a European artist working in the 1920s through 1940s who Rosen has impersonated through his work. Rosen’s Out (Tse) (2010), won the best medium-length film award in the Horizons section at the 67th Venice Film Festival, as well as the ARTE award for best European Short Film at the International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen. It is currently nominated for a European Academy Award. Solo exhibitions include Vile, Evil Veil at INIVA, London (March 2012); The Dynamic Dead Roee Rosen at Ujadowski Castle, Warsaw (2011); The Confessions of Roee Rosen at the Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv (2009); Roee Rosen/Justine Frank at Extra-City, Antwerp (2007); Justine Frank: A Retrospective at the Herzliya Museum of Art (2003), and Live and Die as Eva Braun at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (1997). He currently teaches Art and Art History at Beit Berl College School of Art and at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. Rosen is represented by Rosenfeld Gallery, Tel Aviv and Galleria Riccardo Crespi, Milan.




Avi Sabah, Emma's Knives, 2012, copper on wood, 11.5 x 7.5 x 1 in., unique; $1,200 per set

About the Work
Sabah has created two complete sets of pseudo-archaeological copper knives, which might very well be found underground or at any Middle Eastern souvenir shop. The knives are inspired by Sabah’s memories of the copper and brass kitchenware that his grandmother brought from Tunisia to Israel when she immigrated in the 1950s, and are a testament to copper’s ubiquity in crafts and kitchenware of Arab-Jewish communities during the early 20th century. Sabah’s grandmother’s walls were decorated with myriad plates, pots, forks and spoons, but they did not contain a single knife. With these works, Sabah violates an old tradition that forbids giving a knife as a present.

About the Artist
Avi Sabah (b. 1977, Ma'alot) currently lives and works in Tel Aviv. In his painting and sculpture, Sabah’s materials evoke and blur the boundaries between artist and craftsman, as well as collective and personal memories. He studied at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, where he received a B.F.A., and where he is currently a lecturer in the Art Department. Sabah has participated in various exhibitions in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Hamburg, Stockholm, and Switzerland. He was awarded the Mozes Prize for Young Israeli Painters and the Israel Ministry of Culture’s Young Artist Prize. He is a co-founder of Barbur, a gallery for contemporary and socially-engaged art in Jerusalem.




Irit Tamari, Shuk, 2012, collage, 8 x 10 in., unique; $250




Irit Tamari, Shuk 1, 2012, collage, 8 x 10 in., unique; $250 SOLD

About the Works
Tamari was born and raised on a kibbutz, only discovering the shuk when she and her family would travel to the city. For Tamari, the shuk symbolizes the freedom of capitalism––the opportunity to choose a product not simply out of necessity, but because of mere pleasure. Her photographs and collages explore the fantasy of indulgence in everyday public space through the ubiquitous oranges and Krembo (a marshmallow cookie-candy) found in nearly all Israeli shuks.

About the Artist
Irit Tamari (b. 1976, Kibbutz Tzora) lives and works in Tel Aviv and works primarily in photography, installation, and collage. She received an M.F.A. from Bezalel Academy of Art & Design and Hebrew University, and a B.Ed. from HaMidrasha School of Art, Beit Berl College. Her work has been exhibited in Israel and abroad at Jia Li Gallery, Beijing; Fresh Paint 5, Tel Aviv; Tel Hai Photography Museum; Reading Power Station, Tel Aviv; and Sommer Gallery, Tel Aviv.




Gal Weinstein, Untitled, 2012, glass and polymers, 4 x 2.5 x 1.4 in, Ed. of 2; $480 each; $900 for set

About the Work
Weinstein’s glass of Turkish coffee, known and referred to in Israel as "mud" coffee, is cut exactly in half lengthwise. The coffee cup is an iconic image from the Middle East, where coffee can act as an invitation to a conversation or as reprieve from routine. Shown using the scientific visual language of a cross section, it also speaks to the gap between the efforts to analyze the Middle East and its complex reality. Weinstein's installations are often based on images that are deeply engraved in Israel's collective memory. His artistic process involves translating the sentimental aesthetics of popular photographic sources (journals, postcards, photograph albums) into concrete substance, through the use of industrial, functional materials.

About the Artist
Gal Weinstein currently lives and works in Tel Aviv. His works are characterized by a sensitivity to material and space, a preoccupation with surface via inferior synthetic materials, camouflage and substitutes, and a fundamental ambivalence regarding the potential political content implied by the work. His work has been featured in solo shows at The University Gallery, Haifa, Israel (2008); Riccardo Crespi Gallery, Milan (2010); and Keitelman Gallery, Brussels (2011); numerous group shows at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and Israel Museum; as well as at the Sao Paulo Biennial (2002) and the Mercosul Biennial (2011). He is the recipient of the Israeli Ministry of Culture’s Young Artist Award, Israel Cultural Excellence Award, and the Israel Museum’s Beatrice S. Kolliner Young Israeli Artist Award.




Guy Yanai, Pineapple, 2012, oil on birch wood, 8 x 8 x 2 in, unique, $500 each; $1,350 for set



Guy Yanai, Camel, 2012, oil on birch wood, 8 x 8 x 2 in, unique, $500 each; $1,350 for set



Guy Yanai, Palm Tree, 2012, oil on birch wood, 8 x 8 x 2 in, unique, $500 each; $1,350 for set


About the Works
Inspired by the densely populated Shuk HaCarmel in Tel Aviv, where the artist does much of his shopping, Yanai created three unique postcards, each made from birch wood and marked with an iconic Israeli tourist image: a palm tree, a camel, and a pineapple. In his postcards, Yanai applies a new type of consciousness to souvenirs and tourism to explore their relationship to Orientalism.

About the Artist
Guy Yanai (b. 1977, Haifa) currently lives and works in Tel Aviv. He is a painter who envisions photography, television, print media, painting and personal memory as archives that momentarily stabilize and organize the constant flow of data as a form of representation. Layered with opposing languages, images, and conceptions, Yanai's formal techniques and expansive archive of references situate painting as a relay and an engine– a transmission system through which images are circulated and a site for their fabrication and critique. Yanai received a B.A. from Hampshire College in Amherst, M.A. and studied at Parsons School of Design, The New York Studio School, and The Pont Aven School of Art. Recent solo exhibitions include Political Science at Rothschild Fine Art, Tel Aviv (2009); Four Guys In A Subaru Drinking Grape Juice at The Spaceship, Tel Aviv (2010); and First We Feel Then We Fall at Alon Segev Gallery (2011). He has participated in group shows at the Ashdod Museum (2008); the Hangar Biccoca, Milan (2011); Shay Arye Gallery (2010); and Sommer Contemporary Gallery (2011). His first monograph, First We Feel then We Fall, was published by Sternthal Books in 2011.




Gil Yefman, Black Breastlev Kipa, 2012, wool knit, 7 x 7 x 2.75 in., unique; Breastlev Kipa, 2012, wool knit, 7 x 7 x 2.75 in., unique; Eye For An Eye Kipa, 2012, wool knit, 7 x 7 x 2.75 in., unique; $350 each; $1,000 for set

About the Work
By wearing Yefman's Breastlev Kipa with its rosy nipple, the wearer will be guaranteed a unique and enhanced bond with the creator. Not necessarily a sexual bond, but rather a visceral uninhibited connection to divinity. Yefman's Eye For An Eye Kipa is fashioned to encourage a more mutual, reciprocal relationship with God. With its eye always scrutinizing the heavens, it irreverently imbues the ancient adage, "an eye for an eye" with new meaning. The Eye Contact Kipa is particularly suited for Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, but works well for other occasions.

About the Artist
Gil Yefman (b. 1979, Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan) lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel. By creating a fantastic world where characters with elusive gender, sexual and political identities serve as alternative cultural heroes, Yefman challenges and undermines the normative portrayal of the "other." He compares his knit works to writing: long, rapid, carefully calculated and monotonous movements, a collection of syllables that create a story, the object. He received a B.F.A. from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design before studying Fashion Design in Jerusalem and Hebrew Culture in Tel Aviv. In addition to his recent solo exhibition In Return at Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv (2011), Yefman has participated in group shows at Maatschappij Arti Et Amiciate, Amsterdam (2012); Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York (2012); and Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin (2012). He is the winner of the Israel Ministry of Culture’s Young Artist Prize (2010).




Rona Yefman, i Love my Life!, 2009, From the project Pippi Longstocking (2006) with Tanja Schlander, Graffiti kit: 14 x 17 in. stainless steel stencil, pink fluorescent spray paint, photo sticker and canvas bag, Ed. of 30 + 5 APs; Artis Limited Edition; $2,000

About the Work
i Love my life! is an Artis limited edition work from a collaborative project between artists Rona Yefman and Tanja Schlander, titled Pippi Longstocking, The Strongest Girl in the World! (2006-8). Through video, performance, photography, text and installation, Yefman and Schlander re-imagine Longstocking in contemporary terms, a heroine who takes on today’s challenges with humor, absurdity, grace, and amazing strength. This limited edition puts those same powers into your hands, letting you spray the affirmation I Love my life! on any surface you choose. The edition comes with a reusable steel stencil, a can of fluorescent pink spray paint (adorned with a sticker from Pippi L. at Abu Dis (2008), a related video by Yefman) and a white canvas bag that can serve as your first test surface. The work is designed to inspire you to recognize your personal power to effect daily positive change in any environment. According to Yefman, "Pippi represents the ultimate female heroine, one who promotes peace and unity. As the strongest girl in the world, she explores a new mode of liberation that forgoes artificial borders and reflects the desire of so many individuals in the world who seek to improve their political and the personal realities."

About the Artist
Rona Yefman (b. 1972, Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan) lives in New York where she completed an M.F.A. at Columbia University. Yefman is known for her bold, personal photographs and elaborate video projects. She has been featured in recent exhibitions at SculptureCenter, New York (2012), Derek Eller Gallery, New York (2012), Participant Inc., New York (2010); Art Focus: Can Art Do More?, Jerusalem (2008); Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv (2006); MARCO Vigo, Spain (2006); Christian Ehrentraut Gallery, Berlin (2005); Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art (2005); and the Haifa Museum of Art (2001).




Picnic Magazine, Vol. 4 & 5; $25; CDs: $15

About Picnic Magazine
Picnic Magazine (est. 2007) is an entirely image-based magazine edited, printed, and published in Tel Aviv and distributed in select stores and libraries worldwide. Each volume is different in shape, format, content and design, and presents a carefully curated selection of the visions and viewpoints of up-and-coming creators from around the universe. It involves fashion, architecture, hobbies, photography, cinema, Photoshop, pretty boys, pretty girls, astronomy, crazy dance, confectionery, bird watching, contemporary archeology, private collections, cosmic 3D renderings and much more. Picnic Magazine is a visual guide to your new reality -- a highly inspiring, visionary magazine coming from the land of milk and honey.




Sternthal Books: The Sota Project; $35, First We Feel Then We Fall; $40, Jericho Moons; $35, First We Feel Then We Fall Limited Edition Box Set; $300

About Sternthal Books
Sternthal Books is an art book publishing company and curatorial group devoted to creating socially relevant picture books and exhibitions. We are proud to present our first three editions, 'The Sota Project' by Ofri Cnaani, 'First We Feel Then We Fall' by Guy Yanai, and 'Jericho Moons' by Eitan Ben-Moshe. Be sure to check out their journal, store, and projects page for more information.
]]> http://www.artiscontemporary.org/agenda_detail.php?id=674 NADA NYC, 548 West 22nd Street at 11th Avenue
New York, New York United States
05/04/12 – 05/05/12


Artis Presents an Interactive Drawing Project with Artist Keren Benbenisty at The Artis Shuk, NADA NYC


Project hours
Friday, May 4: 2-4pm
Saturday, May 5: 1-3pm

In each individual session, the artist and participant will sit together and collaboratively generate a unique version of the drawing U & I. Completing the exchange, the collector will leave the session with his or her own unique drawing for $400.

U & I begins as a dialogue between artist Keren Benbenisty and the collector of the work. It is both a double-portrait and an intellectual, cultural, and financial alliance/transaction between two people. The drawing will consist of two fingerprints, one of the artist and the other of the collector, connected by a line that will be defined on the spot. The line is a metaphorical "itinerary" between the places of origin of both persons involved in the making of the work. It will map the journey between past and present, origin and current location, using the most precise human marker, the fingerprint, as a gesture that is equally personal and bureaucratic.

About the Artist
Keren Benbenisty (b. 1977, Herzliya) graduated with honors from the Ecole Nationale Supérieur des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2004. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Gym Gallery, Seoul (2011); La BANK Gallery, Paris (2011); and TAT Gallery, Berlin (2008); as well as group shows at Unosunove Gallery, Rome (2012); Maison Populaire de Montreuil, France (2011); and St. Cecilia’s Convent, Brooklyn, (2010). She is currently finishing a residency at the International Studio & Curatorial Program, New York. ]]> http://www.artiscontemporary.org/agenda_detail.php?id=670 apexart
New York , New York United States
05/03/12
6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

"What We Have in Our Pockets" is a participatory performance and reading revolving around a story of the same name by Etgar Keret. In celebration of Keret's new book publication in the US, artist Tamar Ettun generated this piece, abstracting the story's themes of confined physicality, tension and chance.

Integrating an object, a posture, two performers and what ever you have in your pockets, the performance attempts to create a platform for chance, awkwardness and generosity. During the performance the story will be read, followed by an invitation for the audience to participate and "write" the piece as well.

Music by Yonatan Gutfeld accompanies the performance, made from a harsh dissonance that gradually resolves into the comforting sound of a consonant major 7th' chord harmony, within a groove of found objects noise and a whistling melody.

Performers: Nancy Sun, Ariel Meislin, Tamar Ettun

The performance will be followed by Q&A with Etgar Keret.

Books will be available for purchase.

Supported by the Office of Cultural Affaris, Consulate General of Israel in NY. ]]> http://www.artiscontemporary.org/agenda_detail.php?id=675 The Israeli Center for Digital Art
Holon, Israel
04/28/12 – 07/14/12


The exhibition Where to? is the final stage of an annual project taking place at The Israeli Center for Digital Art in Holon. It is an attempt to reexamine ideological currents and modes of activity within the framework of the modern Jewish revolution in general, and the Zionist movement in particular, which emerged and then rejected, and to engage them in reference to contemporary Jewish existence and its problems. The point of departure for the project and the current exhibition is the similarity between questions regarding Jewish existence that emerge in the contemporary context, and those that emerged in the context of the second half of the nineteenth century. In both periods we detect a sense of anxiety. In the past, this sense arose out of the failure of Jewish emancipation, the Pogroms, and social rejection, all of which led to mass migration, alongside an incredible ferment of creative ideas and experimental, creative answers to “The Jewish Question.” A similar anxiety is felt nowadays with respect to the deadlock reached by Zionism in general and Israeli nationalism in particular—including the way nationalist and racist trends occupy an increasingly central role in Israeli society, Israel’s isolation from the international community, and its maintaining a sense of permanent threat as the only means for guaranteeing national cohesion.

Through the exhibited works and the historical materials gathered for the exhibition, we suggest reintroducing these forgotten currents and ideas to the public discourse, bringing the “losers” of history to the center of the stage, and once again presenting the question of Jewish existence as a current problem that remains unsolved.

Our aim is to return to the question that the triumphant branch of Zionism aims to present as a closed and sealed business; to re-open it as a contemporary question, and a vivid thought about Jewish present and future: a thought that does not necessarily seek an alternative territory; that has no interest in obtaining a foreign passport or a different “homeland”; a thought that wishes to utilize the imagination in order to deal with what is un-decidable about the Jew, about the place of the Jew; a thought which seeks to give back to the imagination its central place in such processes. The equivocality, the option of not making a single, clear-cut decision, are central to the possibility of re-imagination, and of coming up with alternative forms of existence for Jews in this day and age.

In a certain sense, what seems completely unimaginable today is not the possible existence of a different Israel in a different territory, but the existence of multiple forms of “Israeli” life; of territorial and non-territorial ways of being that exist in parallel. Such an imaginative horizon, even when based on suggestions emerging from within the Zionist movement, poses a threat to Zionism, and can easily be regarded as anti-Zionist or even antisemitic. In this sense, the simple call for bringing back imaginative thinking into Zionism goes beyond the narrow legitimate bounds of the contemporary Zionist being.

This return, via the field of art, to the historic interests and questions that have been on the mind of Jewish thinkers, authors, and politicians in the early days of Zionism, brings to light the complex relation between art, imagination, and politics. The historical materials that have been examined, while paying close attention to their visual dimension, revealed an extraordinary plethora of images. Photographic and design gestures, along with documents and other objects, all served as an envelope for an ideology, and as central elements in the formation of a new identity. They formed part of an array of practices that sought to turn phantasmatic possibilities into a reality: official gatherings and ceremonial events that were recorded in the form of yearbook photographs, maps that marked territorial outlines, emblems and flags of various movements; anthems, cornerstones, seals, and posters; photographs of workers and families starting a new settlement; propaganda films, official reports and surveys, newspapers, personal letters, and many other kinds of materials.

This wealth of historical images also suggests the mutual correspondence and echoing between different movements that promoted different alternatives—especially between mainstream Zionism and those alternatives it rejected. Such similarities, at the level of the visual language, are particularly pronounced in photographs. This feature of Zionism’s visual repository encouraged both conscious and latent responses in many of the works created for the exhibition. A work of art that addresses such a repository amounts to experimenting with the creation of similar repositories, thereby continuing the chain of images—a continuation, however, which is already based on a unique interest in the visual and in its critique. Images generated through the same tools and gestures function as “double agents” of identity: they carry on the same practice, while injecting it with alternative—competing and disorienting—contents. The reference to the visual dimension, shared by many ideological currents, positions these artworks within Zionist history’s canonic field of symbols and images. At the same time, they form a new generation of images that, while relying on this visual history, uses this history in order to undermine it, or at least to once again take part in the power formations responsible for its creation and preservation. In many ways, the engagement with the question “Where to?” allows the artist to go back to forming relevant images, which can operate within the Israeli cultural and national field, thereby reexamining the role and relevance of art, while reestablishing ideological currents and myths.

The Where to? project began with a research phase in April 2011, and ends with this concluding exhibition.

The initial, research phase took place between April and June 2011, during which a historic-visual archive, dealing with the Jewish question and with the solutions that were offered in different times, was built. The archive, which serves as a basis for the entire project, includes literary texts, historical materials, studies, and visual materials, along with works of art. The materials were initially gathered in preparation for the project, and later on sorted and expanded by its different groups. The archive served as a dynamic and temporary basis for raising alternatives, and for a creative reexamination of the past and present. Through this move we have attempted to generate an array of knowledge that would blur the distinctions between the archive’s different materials, and would contain documents and studies regarding Zionism’s early experiments, alongside contemporary attempts to deal with these questions—attempts that take place almost entirely in the field of art.

The archive was put to the service of six teams of artists and researchers for set periods. Each team studied a question that was defined as a starting point, and suggested a way of handling the archive, which included examining the materials, expanding upon them, marking, and sorting them according to the study. The examination process was presented through selected materials that were spread across the walls of the exhibition hall, generating an expanding web. The materials that filled the walls suggested both conscious and random ways of connecting and dispersing different kinds of materials, inviting visitors to return to the places from which these were taken, in order to re-read them in a different light. The process of working on the archive was open to the public throughout that period.

Over and above the use of the archive for research, the manner in which the materials were spread, and the relations that formed between them, suggested a renewed thinking about the way knowledge is gathered and organized. One of the central questions in this context, is how does existing archival knowledge become exposed to those leafing through it. The apparently technical question of how one can search for a piece of information in an archive immediately defines that which cannot be found in the archive: that which the archivist defined as irrelevant or as accessible only to certain people. The modest attempt to build an archive for this project was also a suggestion for chance archivists to offer different readings and different modes of cataloging that would be publically accessible: encoded in their own manner, hiding and revealing certain things, but also admixing with other archives and archivists, generating unconscious modes of access to existing materials.

The artists and researchers who took part in that phase, and who conducted research in the exhibition hall, were Yochai Avrahami and Doron Tavori, Ronen Eidelman and Guy Briller, Public Movement, Avi Pitchon, Michael Kessus Gedalyovich and Motti Mizrahi, and the team of curators.

Following the opening phase, the participating as well as other artists were invited to develop new projects, based on the collected archival materials or responding to the questions discussed in relation to them. These are now displayed as a central part of the exhibition.

A record of the final archival phase of the project can be viewed at: http://whereto.digitalartlab.org.il

Along with the exhibition, the journal Maarav is coming out with a special issue on “The History of the Jewish Question and Contemporary Jewish Existence,” edited by Udi Edelman. The journal is accessible in both English and Hebrew at: www.maarav.org.il ]]> http://www.artiscontemporary.org/agenda_detail.php?id=646 Testsite
Austin, Texas United States
04/26/12 – 06/07/12


ARTIS GRANT RECIPIENT

Writer and curator, Noah Simblist, invites performance artist, Tamy Ben-Tor, to testsite, a project that situates itself between an exhibition space, an open studio, a temporary residency program and a private home. Exhibiting will be a video-performance, Time and Space, which features a monolog delivered by a fictional artist that describes her work, her process and her career. In conjunction with the exhibition, Ben-Tor will also be performing AVNER at the testsite space.

From the artist regarding Time and Space:

“I made this video as an urgent comment on contemporary art practice, specifically the so-called non-for profit art that fills cultural institutions and is funded by grants. Artists have become grey clerks who have no particular passion or obsession, nor interest of any kind for that matter. Rather, they engage in impotent so-called “research” which sounds better in grant applications than in the work itself.

There is an overflow of people who have studied and memorized this academic jargon and make a career for themselves based on it. It replaces the function of art as a source of consolement and catharsis and turns it into an exclusively elitist academic exchange, which has no need for an audience."

From the artist regarding AVNER:

“In my work in performance art over the last 12 years, I have attempted to deepen an investigation into the human presence in an artificial environment, which is the work of art. I find performance to be an exciting medium because of its transparency and closeness to the human condition, our dwelling in our bodies for our life’s duration and the decisions we make on the shape and meaning of that life are, for me, an exact metaphor for the performative work.

With all of technology’s developments and so-called advancements, man still dwells in his body and has to struggle with time, the duration of his life. The performative act is a desperate act. Perhaps it’s even a pathetic one, in which the performer lets his body and his self be pulled out of his natural surroundings and examined. I think that the role of performance, if one can speak so didactically about an art form, is to strip a person (both performer and viewer) of their cultural social affiliation and deepen their contemplation upon their existence as thinking feeling beings.”

About the Artist
Tamy Ben-Tor was born in Israel and currently lives and works in New York City. She has had solo shows at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Cubitt, London; The Kitchen, New York, and Zach Feuer Gallery, New York, and has participated in group exhibitions at the Mori Museum, Tokyo; MoCA, Los Angeles; Reina Sofia, Madrid; as well as the PERFORMA 05 and PERFORMA 07 Biennials, New York.

About the Curator
Noah Simblist works as a writer, artist, and curator. He is an Associate Professor of Art at SMU in Dallas and a PhD candidate in art history at the University of TX, Austin. His most recent curatorial projects include Queer State(s) at The Visual Art Center at the University of Texas and Out of Place at Lora Reynolds Gallery. ]]> http://www.artiscontemporary.org/agenda_detail.php?id=657 Zach Feuer Gallery
New York , New York United States
04/20/12 – 04/28/12
4:00 pm – 6:00 pm

PLEASE NOTE: Performance dates are Friday, April 20th; Saturday, April 21st; Friday, April 27th; and Saturday April 28th at 4PM

"My consciousness is a sponge absorbing all of contemporary filth.

The artistic process for me, in the form of a performance, is to solidify this sponge into a hard stamp tool and press it back onto the audience's consciousness for the duration of the performance.

At the end, I hope they come out of it stained, impressed, as I am, by the ailments of this time which we live in." - Tamy Ben-Tor

Zach Feuer Gallery is pleased to present New Performance Work, Tamy Ben-Tor's fourth exhibition at the gallery. The show will feature a new performance as well as performance documentation videos.

About the Artist
Tamy Ben-Tor was born in Jerusalem and currently lives and works in New York City. She has had solo shows at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Atlanta Contemporary Art Center; Kunsthalle Winterthur; and Cubitt, London. Ben-Tor has also participated in exhibitions at ZKM, Karlsruhe; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Biennale of Sydney; Manifesta 7; Mori Museum, Tokyo; MoCA, Los Angeles; Reina Sofia, Madrid; as well as the PERFORMA 05 and PERFORMA 07 Biennials, New York. ]]> http://www.artiscontemporary.org/agenda_detail.php?id=661 Phaidon Soho, 83 Wooster Street
New York , New York United States
04/16/12
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

In honor of the publication of the Wallpaper* City Guide Tel Aviv 2012
Phaidon, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, and Artis invite you to toast Tel Aviv

Featuring Legends of Heartbreak and Epiphany in Tel Aviv, a special project and performance by artist Gabriela Vainsencher, and a special video compilation featuring work by leading contemporary Israeli artists, including Sharon Balaban, Hadassa Goldvicht, Oded Hirsch, Sigalit Landau, Dana Levy, Leigh Orpaz, Nira Pereg, and Tom Pnini.

Monday, April 16th
7 - 9 PM
Phaidon Store
83 Wooster Street
SoHo, NYC

RSVP Required: Email TEL AVIV to store.soho@phaidon.com

About Legends of Heartbreak and Epiphany in Tel Aviv
By artist Gabriela Vainsencher, commissioned by Artis

"Every city I have been in exists in my head in two, superimposed maps: the first is a practical one of intersections, street names and subway stations; the other is a kind of a web, containing experiences, encounters and emotions which moved me in a way that made them, and where they happened, unforgettable.

Legends of Heartbreak and Epiphany in Tel Aviv consists of an original, limited edition map of Tel Aviv, a public performance (April 16, 7-9pm, at the Phaidon Store Soho) and an ongoing digital archive. Conceived in response to the official tourist guides of Tel Aviv, my symbolic mapping of the city will contain the private moments, experiences and histories that continually reinforce and shape our connections to this unique place.

I would like to open this project up to you. Please contribute your story or experience of Tel Aviv to the map, by posting it in the comment section here OR by emailing me at gabrielav(at)gmail(dot)com by April 4, 2012."
]]> http://www.artiscontemporary.org/agenda_detail.php?id=656 Cornerhouse
Manchester, UK
04/14/12 – 06/05/12


Cornerhouse presents unique group show of new and recent contemporary art that explores and rethinks modern Arab identity.

Subversion features work from eleven emerging and established artists who use autobiographical narratives amalgamated with fiction, popular culture and subversive parody to express the dichotomies they face as they perform multiple roles in a society which is frequently represented to the outside world in a contorted and mediated manner. Spanning an array of techniques including installation, video, photography and sculpture, the work illustrates fragments of the distorted imagination that often preoccupies the Arab world.

Emerging Gaza artists and filmmakers Tarzan and Arab will present their award-winning Gazawood project (2010). It’ll include a series of striking cinema poster pastiches of imaginary movies from different genres, and a short film Colourful Journey, which will be screened in a pop-up cinema in Gallery 3. Originating from a region that has not had a functioning cinema since the 1980s and heavily relies on satellite TV and illegal DVD copies, the works strongly reflect the twins’ interest in and passion for film.

In A Space Exodus (2009), Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour adapts a segment of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, providing it with new, Middle Eastern context by positing the idea of the first Palestinian in space. Originally developed as part of the A Space Exodus installation, Subversion will also feature Sansour’s Palestinauts (2010) and three preliminary sketches for the Nation Estate project, a sci-fi photo series conceived in the wake of the Palestinian bid for nationhood at the UN. ]]> http://www.artiscontemporary.org/agenda_detail.php?id=652 Yvon Lambert
Paris, France
04/05/12 – 05/05/12


Ariel Schlesinger will present a solo exhibition, Act Without, at Yvon Lambert Gallery from April 5 to May 5. The exhibition showcases the artist's continued explorations of the aesthetic and conceptual possibilities of fuel and fire.
]]> http://www.artiscontemporary.org/agenda_detail.php?id=648 Peila Center
Jaffa, Israel
03/31/12 – 04/30/12


Frames of Reality 2011 is an exhibition at the Peila Center created from a joint workshop of Israeli and Palestinian documentary photographers.

On March 31st at 7 p.m., there will be an opening reception and book launch featuring the exhibition's curator, Ami Steinitz. ]]>