Three artists, three questions: Textiles vis-à-vis paintings

On December 14, the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art opened five “cluster” exhibitions called “Textile. Art. Textile.” The exhibitions offer historical and contemporary perspectives on the creation of textiles in Israel from the 1930s to the present. They span the entire museum and feature works by 40 veteran and young artists, reflecting different perspectives on the medium.

On my visit to the museum, I realized that some of the presented works seemed like oil paintings on canvas, such as printed fabrics designed by Siona Shimshi (1939–2018); and the group show “Eternal Spring,” a selection from the tapestry collection created at the Mambush Tapestry Workshop, which operated at Ein Hod from 1966 to 1985. On the other hand, viewers often search for texture while looking at paintings and say, “It looks like real material.” So which direction does it go? Is the textile trying to imitate paintings or are paintings emulating a craft work?

This inspired me to choose for this month’s column only artists (who are no strangers to other media) currently showcasing their works in textiles or on canvas as they are used traditionally; or who use canvas as a medium, in some cases to create a “meta canvas” experience. Their works are on view in Herzliya, Petah Tikva, and Tel Aviv.

Three Israeli artists addressed my three questions:

1. What inspires you?
2. What do you call art?
3. What makes your artwork different from that of other artists?

Gur Inbar 

Gur Inbar was born in 1989 in Kibbutz Geva; from the age of six, he grew up in Moshav Avtalyon. Both are small communities in the North. He now lives and works in Tel Aviv. 

As a child, he enjoyed painting and working with his hands and colors. He recalls that from a very young age, his mother took him to art shows, with art becoming a part of his life. 

He graduated from the Bezalel Academy for Art and Design and is a former Benyamini Center of Contemporary Ceramics resident. Inbar works primarily with porcelain and stoneware, and mostly on the wheel. But in the past few years, he has been exploring a much softer medium, creating wall pieces in textiles, showcased in his solo exhibition “Yarn of Clay” at the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art. 

His show is a collection of rugs placed on the wall at the entrance to the museum, giving a cozy feeling from the start. Inbar’s works are in intensive warm colors, made of dyed sheep wool yarn. He finds working with textiles more challenging than with ceramics. And, surprisingly, he finds the medium more fragile – even though the ceramics can break. Textiles are something he is currently discovering.

Inspiration: “I am inspired by everything. I think that when I work with different materials, then the qualities of the materials themselves usually inspire me to dig further, deeper into what I can do with that material. That elicits more and more ideas.

“But also when I’m in my studio and I just sit, stare, and think of different ideas and different everyday experiences, usually it finds its way into what I do.” 

Meaning of art: “It’s like another limb, like an extension of me. [And yet] it’s like another dimension of life. Art is like the upside-down world in stranger things, but not in such a negative way. Things that happen here find their way into how people express themselves.” 

Inbar’s art: “Different artists have different ways of communicating what goes through their systems, and it comes in so many images and experiences. 

“I don’t think that my art is ‘different,’ but I try to work in a way that reflects the connection I feel toward a certain material or technique. I find it also between a given material and a process. I always try to be fascinated by what I do – the action itself.

“As for the materials I used for the current show, I experience textiles as fragile. (Ceramics last forever, and textiles last only in particular conditions. In most conditions, it just disintegrates after a certain time.) 

“I stretch the fabric on the frame, and then I work with the tufting machine, I feed the machine with the color, and I work with it like a brush. 

“Working with textiles was a whim for me; I’ve fantasized about working with textiles for quite some time. [There is] something about the different ways in which this material behaves. And the fact that I didn’t know it, I found it fascinating, too.”

instagram.com/gur.inbar/?hl=en

Doron Wolf

Doron Wolf, who currently resides on Long Island, was born in 1976 in Moshav Nahalal. He has been passionate about drawing since he was three. Art was his way of communicating, “I was diagnosed with dysgraphia as a child, and I found confidence and a way to express myself through art,” he said.

(Dysgraphia is an impairment of handwriting ability, often characterized by very poor or often illegible writing, or writing that takes an unusually long time and great effort to complete.)

After serving in the IDF, Wolf studied film and television at the Hadassah Academy College’s art education department, and at the Art Institute at the Oranim Academic College of Education. He received a master’s of fine arts degree at the University of Haifa.

Wolf’s paintings have been exhibited in numerous museums and galleries in Israel and abroad and are part of many private collections. He is also an experienced art teacher.

Wolf paints on canvas but also uses his cinematic background in his work. “I often view reality as frames, shaping my perspective as a painter.” He explores personal and historical intersections, examining how images from classical masterpieces to everyday snapshots shape our understanding of home, identity, and reality. 

Moreover, Wolf examines textures and fabrics. “I connect deeply with the textile world in my way,” he said during our online interview, showing me his newest work, in which he painted various pieces of materials and clothes. Perhaps it will be in a future exhibition. 

In his current exhibition “Vanitas” at the Petah Tikva Museum (on display until January 4), inspired by New York’s Museum of Natural History, the artist captures groups of people observing taxidermied animals in dioramas.

“I’m intrigued by the layers of observation in these scenes; people absorbed in contemplation, unaware of being observed themselves, while the animals remain as artificial representations of nature,” he explained. 

“I hope that my work gives viewers a reflection on the powerful role images play in shaping our perceptions of the world.” 

Inspiration: “I am inspired by everyday life; small moments with my husband and our dog, visits to museums, flipping through art books, admiring old masters, and immersing myself in a good movie or TV series. 

“My work also draws from biographical reflections, personal experiences, personal mythology, contemporary philosophy, and the pervasive influence of social media.

“I am captivated by the power of transformation – elevating seemingly banal everyday life, observing low-level images, and being inspired by them to create in the ‘high medium’ of oil on canvas. 

“Drawing inspiration from classical masters like Rembrandt and Vermeer and modern influences like Lucian Freud, I explore themes of identity, perception, and representation. By incorporating mirrors, flashes, dramatic lighting, and elements that mimic lenses, my paintings reflect the technical and stylistic conditions of photography. 

“The result is a fusion of contemporary consumer imagery with timeless artistic ideals, creating a body of work that invites viewers to consider the layers of mediation in how we perceive reality.”

Meaning of art:  “For me, art is a necessity and profoundly personal. The craft of visual thinking allows me to reflect and observe life and reality and my private experiences. Making art lets me delve into my existence and identity, and investigate the interplay between past and present, shaped by my changes and journeys, to share thoughts and questions.”

Wolf’s art: “I carefully construct my compositions by combining and reimagining images into a pictorial collage, which is the foundation for my figurative paintings. My technique involves meticulous detail, using small brushes and layering colors and textures over months of work. 

“This process not only allowed me to refine the visual richness of the painting but also exposed the mediation of reality, highlighting the interplay between the mediums of photography that inspired me to create the image.”

doron-wolf.com

Orly Maiberg 

Orly Maiberg was born in 1958 in Ramat Gan. In the 1980s, she spent several years in New York, where she studied at the New York School of Visual Arts, and for two years worked as a printer at Andy Warhol’s studio. For the last 30 years, she has been based in Tel Aviv.

Her unofficial art education started with her Polish-born grandfather Joseph Stieglitz, who was an art dealer in Israel specializing in Judaica and Jewish painters. 

“His small apartment in Tel Aviv housed an impressive collection of Jewish artworks alongside 280 Judaica artifacts, which he eventually donated to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem,” she said.

When she lived in New York, her grandfather showed her original works by Klimt, Schiele, and Kokoschka at his favorite gallery. “These artists were my heroes then and remain so to this day,” she said.

Over the decades, Maiberg has had solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions in European, American, and Israeli museums. 

Her paintings examine the boundaries between truth and illusion, the internal and external, dreams and reality, and portraits and landscapes. She uses photography as source material for her paintings and canvases in unusual ways. 

“I don’t conventionally use canvas because it is not stretched on a frame, and since it is loose, I can cut it and work on it organically,” she explained. 

On December 15, Maiberg opened her latest show, “That’s the Way It Is” –  which is strongly influenced by the events of Oct. 7 – at the Noga Gallery in Tel Aviv. 

Entering the gallery, I felt overwhelming silence, despite the presence of viewers. When I shared this feeling with the artist, she told me about the process that led her to the show: “After October 7, I felt estranged in the studio, until one day I unpacked the huge painting [from her previous exposition at Ticho House, Israel Museum, 2023] and spread it out on the studio floor. 

“I marked the 25-square meter painting with a sharp knife and heavy tailor’s scissors, cutting small windows deep into the multi-layered canvas. I painted the ‘veins’ with ink. And this created the exhibition,” she explained.

Inspiration: “For the past four decades, I have seen myself as a worker of painting. My main source of inspiration is my daily work in the studio, day in and day out. But inspiration doesn’t always come from active creation. It emerges just as often from moments of stillness – gazing, listening to music, reading, reflecting, and processing life events from outside the studio. 

“This ongoing process, whether through play or experimentation with materials and mediums, often is the catalyst for new works and, eventually, an entire series.”

Meaning of art: “A successful work of art can shift one’s perception of ordinary, everyday events. Though it is rooted in reality, it offers a unique and original perspective that stays with the viewer long after the encounter. 

“German writer W.G. Sebald wrote: ‘You adulterate the truth as you write. There isn’t any pretense that you try to arrive at the literal truth. And the only consolation when you confess to this flaw is that you are seeking to arrive at poetic truth, which can be reached only through fabrication, imagination, stylization. What I’m striving for is authenticity; none of it is real.’

“This idea resonates deeply with me. I believe that the moment you begin to tell a narrative, whether based on real events or imagined ones, you inevitably stray from the literal truth. But this departure isn’t a flaw; it’s a creative responsibility. The goal is to capture the spirit of the time and reflect upon it. “

Maiberg’s art: “My aesthetic tastes were initially influenced by my mother. My life path led me from my grandfather’s Judaica-based art collection in Tel Aviv to working as a printer at Andy Warhol’s studio in New York, and an intimate encounter with American Action painting, especially with the work of female artists. 

“The series I have been working on for nearly a decade reflects the shift in my approach to painting – a change that emerged through an exploration of technique and medium.

“My current work, at the exhibition at the Noga Gallery, is made of pieces of canvas cut from one painting, pasted onto another, reworked and integrated, and elevated like a topographic map. At the same time, my work process is completely transparent, bare, and exposed. 

“While drawn to abstraction, these fragile human figures emerging from the cracks feel distinctly my own at this point, as if bearing my fingerprint and vulnerability. “

orlymaiberg.com 