EIN HOD
Saturday, July 15 – Attend a noon opening of two works shown in the context of the ArTchitecture cluster of exhibitions presented at the Janco Dada Museum. The works are Hipoi Shipulim by Kalanit Malkin, a library installation, and Urban Landscape by Karin Yankurt which will be shown as an art-wall project.
Other exhibitions in the cluster include Janco Unchained, a special exhibition which offers new insights into the architectural works done in Romania by Marcel Janko between 1922 to 1941. During these years, Janco and his brother Jules built roughly 40 buildings in Bucharest. Curated by Ileana Tureanu, this exhibition was produced by the Union of Romanian Architects.
Professor Augustin Ioan curated an exhibition about the Formal Alphabet Janco designed in 1925 and Nini Warschawski presents Houses in Pain which dives into the various meanings of the concept of home (curated by Nitsan Shuvai-Abir). Opening Hours: Monday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. NIS 28 per ticket. Call (04) 9842350 to learn more.
Tel Aviv
Wednesday, July 19 – Keen on owning an original Chagall? Itching to bid against another person who wants to purchase a sketch by Rodin? Ishtar auctioning house will be happy to show you the respective items from Sunday, July 16, and allow you to place your bid during the 48-hour sale once it starts on Wednesday, July 19, at 6 p.m. sharp.
The starting price for the sketch is $2,000, yet a work by Addam Yekutieli (aka Know Hope) would start at a more modest $400. The sale includes many other items such as rugs, dining sets, furniture, and pens. 50 Pinsker St. For more information, dial (03) 5282828.
Friday, July 21 – Celebrate art, dance, poetry, and hummus during an all-night event at HaMishlma Building (110 Jerusalem Avenue, Jaffa). Artistic director Or Zloof crafted a series of events starting at 4:30 p.m. Among them, artist Muhammad Toukhy will present digital memories based on archive photos of Jaffa. From 8:30 p.m., Helicon Home for Poetry will hold poetry readings in Hebrew and Arabic with the participation of actress Sara von Schwarze, the poet Ayat Abou Shmeiss (who writes in Hebrew), and Ayman Sikseck (same).
HaMeshorer Hummus (lit. The Hummus of the Poet) will nourish participants during the reading. “I carry the words I haven’t learned yet” Abou Shmeiss wrote, “My language is drowning... I raise my voice as a fishhook.”
On the second level of the building, a techno party will take place. Stav Even-Zahav and Maya Prat will receive up to eight persons in each round, these patrons will enjoy the party for up to 20 minutes before new guests are invited in.
“This is an insane time,” Zloof told the Post, “so this event combines elements of protest and democracy. We made sure the night events represent the unique Israeli experience of containing many different, competing, outlooks and tribes in one diverse tapestry.” Admission is free.
Holon
Tuesday, July 11 – Visit Galley 58 (58 Weizmann St.) and see HaMiflazurim (from the Hebrew word for monster, Miflezet) by 19-year-old artist Tehila Nakab. The colorful monster-like beings are easy on the eye and are somewhat younger cousins of the more refined monsters depicted by Maurice Sendak, Edward Gorey, or Harvey Kurtzman. In Israel, Nakab seems to follow the course set by Glendon Shin and Isabella Levanon. Admission is free. Opening Hours: Sunday to Thursday 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and on Tuesday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Givat Haviva Art Gallery
Student of the late Sydney Rosenstone from Yesod Hamaala for 15 years, Ilana Por now presents her ceramics at Dual Language at the Givat Haviva Art Gallery (shown until Saturday, September 2). Curated by Avner Singer and Moshe Roas, Por is one of 200 artists who will show roughly 500 works in this annual exhibition of ceramics and printmaking. If you like what you see, consider buying a work via her site (https://www.ilanaceramics.co.il ). Cheaper than the Rodin sketch mentioned earlier and the object will adorn your home for decades to come. Opening Hours: Sunday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Bat Yam
Created by designer Amit Drori, the Bat Yam Art Museum shows Savanna – A Possible Landscape. The delicate hand-made robots living in this Savanna are part of a larger experience which blends music and puppetry. Shown in 15 countries worldwide, this is the first time all the various robots, elephants and monkeys, snails, and slugs will come together under one roof.
Shown until Thursday, August 31. Guided tours in Hebrew only. Hours vary with normally three slots during workdays (4 p.m. 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.) and earlier slots on Saturday (10:30 a.m. 11:30 a.m. 12:30 a.m.) NIS 65 per ticket. Suitable for those 5 years and up (including adults). 6 Struma St. Call (03) 5080031 to learn more.
Art news
The recently opened International African American Museum (IAAM, Charleston, South Carolina) acquired last month a large bronze bust of the late George Floyd made by Dan Reisner. The Israeli artist created the work in response to the outcry in the US and worldwide, following the release of footage depicting a police officer suffocating Floyd in May, three years ago.
The global rage led to the Black Lives Matter movement, the toppling of Confederacy monuments across the south, and a profound reexamination of racial and cultural power dynamics worldwide.
The decapitated metal head becomes a meeting point of a serene death mask and violent transverse waves shown in the form of nine rings on the severed neck. These, Reisner shared with art writer Naama Riba, represent the ripple effect the murder had on the entire world, which reached the artist’s Jaffa studio.
While the work is in the IAAM collection, its curators are now considering what is the best place, and manner, to present it to the larger audience. The museum acquired the 2020 bust thanks to art curator Tamar Dresner.
“My approach to BLM is not political, it is humanistic,” Reisner told the Post, “this is partly why my work depicts what took place without any attempt to sugarcoat it.”
“I returned from Riga, Latvia, in June and in that country they just took down a huge monument erected during Soviet times,” he added. “I can totally understand why people are fed up with seeing in front of their eyes a piece which only heaps more pain on their plate.”
Camel and Palm, a three-meters high bronze art piece based on sketches by the late artist and writer Amos Kenan was inaugurated last month. The work was placed in Meir Park, Tel Aviv in December.
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai lauded the work, and roughly 30 other public art pieces placed in the first Hebrew City. The mayor argued this would “enable every person to be exposed [to art] and consume it without cost or limitations.”
Other works include Dome by Mahmood Kaiss (Yehuda HaYamit St, Jaffa), a four-meter-high geometric dome placed at a rapidly gentrified part of the city and HatzerTzura (a play on words involving the Hebrew words for trumpet, court, and shape) by Shay Id Alony. Alony created the musical, whimsical work at Ramat Israel community center near the border between Tel Aviv and Givatayim.
Huldai, who has a habit of slamming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had been serving as mayor since 1998, a period of 25 years. He is now running again.
Under him, the city became a neo-liberal Babylon of gleaming high-tech towers and is promoted globally as the backbone of a liberal, tolerant, Israeli civilization where non-Jews, LGBT people, and migrants can breathe at ease.
Meanwhile, art teachers, actors, and writers are moving out seeking affordable housing in Haifa and Berlin.
Perhaps the next mayor will be able to turn back this tide so that, a century from now, people would still be sketching and writing in the shade of the recently placed artworks.
Artist Liber Shefer is the winner of the 2023 Haim Shiff Award for figurative and realistic art. The prize is composed of a $10,000 cash award, and a solo exhibition to take place at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art next year. The exhibition will include the printing of a catalog. Shiff competed against 120 other artists – and won.
Art Roundup is a monthly glance at some of the finest art exhibitions and events currently being shown across the country. Artists, curators, and collectors are welcome to send pitches to hagay_hacohen@yahoo.com with “Art Roundup” in the email subject.
