The Jewish Artists Initiative Three Exhibitions – Fall 2009

Fresh Voices of Contemporary Jewish ArtistsAugust 14 - December 31, 2009Artist’s Reception: Sunday, August 30, 3:00-5:00 pmRSVP: 213.765.2106 or etowns@huc.edu

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Los Angeles and the Jewish Artist Initiative are partnering to bring to our community a group exhibition of artwork of by ten Los Angeles-based mid-career artists. These artists’ subject matter and chosen media offer a fresh and contemporary approach to re-imagining Judaism in the new millennium.

Fresh Voices will include work by Stas Orlovski, Karen Liebowitz, Carol Es, Joshua Abarbanel, Gary Brown, Adrienne Adar, Marcie Kaufman, Eileen Levinson, Maital Guttman, and Kate McKinney. The dialogue created by these artists represents a fresh voice from a generation of artists whose careers have unfolded in the secular art world but who are

exploring in new ways their Jewish identity. Carol Es’s work, for example, is highly autobiographical. She uses imagery from her traumatic childhood while finding the strength to maintain her current hopes and dreams. The Hebrew words that illuminate her canvases remind the viewer that in order to survive one must maintain faith to push through the darkness and into the light. Carol Es was recently named a 2009 Pollock-Krasner Grant recipient. The work of Kate McKinney also uses a deeply personal narrative as the basis for her art which often manipulates books and other found objects. For Fresh Voices, she will create a large installation with fabric and books reflecting her recent marriage to a Muslim man. Her work will explore the ways in which our cultures can co-exist examining the idea of Jews as “people of the book”

Karen Liebowitz, Riding Leviathan to the Shore I. 2007, Oil on canvas.76 ¼” x 52’’

Liebowitz is

Carol Es

Inherited Shock, 2009, Oil, pencil, embroidery, thread, wire, pins & paper

on canvas, 36” x 48”

Carol Es is Represented by George Billis Gallery-LA.

The Jewish Artists Initiative Three Exhibitions – Fall 2009

and the hijāb as a metaphor for revealing things which are hidden. Adrienne Adar’s large format images from a recent trip to China become a powerful reminder of post Shoah survival as she photographs what remains of the Jewish Ghetto in Shanghai. Karen Liebowitz whose paintings and drawings are hybrids of classicism and fantasy, uses an invented mythology constructed from traditional religious occurrences but recast with contemporary female protagonists. Gary Brown deals with abstracted notions of God and spirituality focusing on the cosmos and string theory in his paintings and monoprints. Joshua Abarbanel uses new media technology to push the boundaries of space in relation to the spiritual realm. Eileen Levinson, a young graphic designer, toys with the idea of logos and branding as she re-interprets the 613 mizvot into a code of brightly colored dots any ‘imac’ or ‘facebook’ hipster would recognize.

A final theme in this exhibit is the relationship of Israel to notions of the Diaspora. Stas Orlovski was born in the former Soviet Union and immigrated with his parents as a child to Tel Aviv, then Paris, then Canada, and ultimately Los Angeles. While his work on the surface deals with abstracted notions of books via the printed page, Orlovski also grapples with notions of place, space, and diasporiac wanderings referencing his immigrant narrative. Among many of his career achievements, Orlovski, was a 2008 City of Los Angeles Artist Fellowship (COLA) recipient. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Long Beach City College and is represented by Mixed Greens Gallery in New York City. Maital Guttman, an Israeli American, captures a recent moment in Jerusalem as the sun sets over the old city. The scene has been captured hundreds of times before but there is something ‘fresh’ in Guttman’s approach. The angle and lighting give the impression of an outsider who can find beauty in this complex landscape. Lastly, Marcie Kaufman also dissects different views of the Israeli landscape. In her case images of Tel Aviv are juxtaposed with images of Los Angeles. Her use of space abstracts notions of place, borders and the political understandings of “territory”.

Founded in 1875, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the nation’s oldest institution of higher Jewish education and the academic, spiritual, and professional development center of Reform Judaism. HUC-JIR educates men and women for service to American and world Jewry as rabbis, cantors, educators, and communal service professionals, and offers graduate and post-graduate degree programs for scholars of all faiths. With campuses in Cincinnati, Los Angeles, New York, and Jerusalem, HUC-JIR’s scholarly resources comprise renowned library and museum collections, the American Jewish Archives, biblical archaeology excavations, and academic publications. HUC-JIR invites the community to an array of cultural and educational programs that illuminate Jewish history, culture, and contemporary creativity, and foster interfaith and multi-ethnic understanding. Learn more at: http://www.huc.edu

Stas OrlovskiGarden, 2000, charcoal, graphite, ink, watercolor, acrylic.crayon, xerox transfer on paper on canvas84” x 68”

The Jewish Artists Initiative Three Exhibitions – Fall 2009

Big Questions new works by: Gilah Yelin Hirsch and Elizabeth Bloom August 19 – November 8, 2009Artist’s Reception: Sunday, August 30, 4:00-6:00 pmRSVP: (213) 747-9135 or dgold98@gmail.com

The artwork of both Gilah Yelin Hirsch and Elizabeth Bloom question large concepts of humanity. Why are we here? What is true joy? Why do we grieve? The idea of questioning is not only intrinsic to Judaism but also to their work. The Talmud and rabbinic literature are evidence that there is a historical need for Jewish interpretation and understanding through questioning. At core, both of these artists have the same insatiable need to investigate profound spiritual truths.

Hirsch is exploring ancient civilizations and the intersection of symbols with the formation of language is currently manifested in her interest in Inuktitut (language of the North Pole Eskimos). She explains several of the themes in her latest body of work:

“Aurora Contrapunta and Aurora Impassionata were inspired by my trip to the country of Nunavut, North Pole. The purpose of the trip was to gather information on the language, Inuktitut, of the North Pole Eskimos, for my current film, Reading the Landscape. What I found far exceeded my expectations, on both ends of the continuum of “Morah”. This Hebrew word means both terror and revelation. In these paintings I dwell on the extraordinary beauty of the Northern Lights which I saw nightly as I waited through the night to watch the unfolding magic of the many veils of light and color. As each color scraped the ice, the frequency of the color was translated into the equivalent frequency of sound. Thus I was thrilled by the greatest of all sound and light shows.”

Elizabeth Bloom will be exhibiting two bodies of

Gilah Hirsch,Aurora Contrapunta , 2008, Acrylic on canvas 60" x 63"

4 panels

Elizabeth BloomJubilation, oil/wood panels, polyptych, 36" x 96"

The Jewish Artists Initiative Three Exhibitions – Fall 2009

work studying the basic human emotions of joy and lamentation. Each series consists of small paintings and each individual portrait is an in-depth exploration of the person who embodies either one or both of these traits. She reminds the viewer of the binary nature of life and a recurring theme in Jewish literature that each soul will experience moments of great pain and great happiness.

The L.A. Story October 20 – January 20, 2010Artist’s Reception: Sunday, October 25, 1:00-3:00 pmRSVP: 310.476.9777 ext.201 arts@ajula.edu 

The L.A. Story which was organized by Laura Kruger, Curator of the HUC-JIR/NYC Museum, featuring Ruth Weisberg, Bill Aron, Pat Berger, Tony Berlant, Joyce Dallal, Sam Erenberg, Bonita Helmer, Victor Raphael, Elena Mary Siff, and Eugene Yelchin will travel this fall to the AJU’s Platt & Borstein Galleries. This exhibit investigates the impact of place and the search for an artistic community who share a religious, cultural, and spiritual heritage. Working in diverse styles and mediums, with each expressing an individual voice, their range of subject matter addresses politics, myth, memory, spirituality, surrealism, Kabbalah, and historic narrative. Techniques include metal collage, oil painting, drawing, photography and digital manipulation.

“A commitment to Jewish issues and values is pervasive and form a personal perspective,” says Laura Kruger, exhibition curator. “The sprawl of Los Angeles impedes a physically close art community and so they meet informally with other Jewish artists to study texts, discuss current issues, world affairs, and maintain a collegial rapport. At the same time, their physical environment – the endless, cloudless skies, the vast, sere desert and the sea at the edge of the earth are repeated elements in many of their works.” Art historian, Matthew Baigell, explains: “The work of these artists is much more free-wheeling and wide-ranging, that is, quite distinctive from that of the old cultural core of the New York art world with its pervasive Eastern European influences. In fact, one might even argue that the center of gravity of Jewish American art has shifted to Los

Angeles and that it is currently the most important center in the country for the production of such art.”

Bill Aron, in a new body of work, captures the zest for life and the celebration of each moment by individuals, each of whom is a

Ruth Weisberg,Harbor,2003, mixed media on canvas, 47 ½” x 61”

Weisberg is represented by Jack Rutberg Fine Arts.

The Jewish Artists Initiative Three Exhibitions – Fall 2009

Holocaust survivor. Their searing history and memories are not forgotten but their positive choice of embracing family and life to the fullest is captured by Aron’s sympathetic, joyous photographs, titled Holocaust Survivors: The Indestructible Spirit. Memory, history, and persecution are the dominant theme of Eugene Yelchin’s masterpiece, the Section Five: USSR Jewish Passport Portraits oil paintings. In these expressive images Yelchin forces us to confront the anti-Semitism directed against Russian Jews, and the resulting internalization of a flawed sense of identity. Ruth Weisberg also remembers the thwarted history of Jewish lives in peril. In her oil on canvas painting, Harbor, against a background of the sea, an embracing couple is poised amidst war and separation. Tony Berlant’s unique technique of collaging found and fabricated printed tin onto wood panels creates visions and connections that have a life of their own. Influenced by the desert landscape and southwest Native Indian art Berlant, began to see objects as geometrized depictions of the world. The desert is a major factor in the lives of all Los Angelenos and his work is a metaphor for creativity turning an arid wasteland into a flourishing garden. Magical, manipulated computer images overlaid with fused metals are presented like glowing jewels by Victor Raphael. Raphael looks beyond the night sky into distant galaxies to capture these exquisite images. Bonita Helmer, a student of Kabbalah, studies the skies to approach spirituality through her art. Prelude is an exploding galactic image that draws us in to its vortex. The diorama and surrealist collages by Elena Mary Siff capture this special place called L.A., the land of self invention, Watts Towers, Hollywood, glamour, glitter, and tinsel. Siff questions reality and discards it in favor of the fantasy of movie memories. Sam Erenberg playfully expounds on his name and has created silk screen ‘memories’ of possible relatives, all named in varying spellings of Erenberg. Joyce Dallal, rightfully concerned with peace in the Middle East and the continued safety of Israel, has massed crumpled texts of various United Nations Resolutions, the contorted paper paralleling the struggle of the peace initiatives. Patricia Berger, painting in a large, narrative scale brings our thoughts back to the Biblical epoch and connects archetypical women to contemporary Judaism.

Exhibition Catalog: Essays by Matthew Baigell and Laura Kruger, 20 pages; 17 illustrations.This exhibition and catalog have been made possible by the support of Steven Fogel, the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles, and the Angell Foundation.

For more information or to schedule a free guided tour, call Shelley Lavendar at (310)476.9777 ext.201.