Meshugeneh House of DIY June 16

On Sunday, June 16, 2013 the Russian Jewish community of NY will come together for Meshugeneh House of DIY - an exhilarating day of 25+ hands-on workshops, food, and music on a stunning Williamsburg rooftop.

The Jewish Art Salon is a partner in this event, and JAS president Yona Verwer will be conducting an amulet painting workshop. 

Meshugeneh DIY celebrates the do-it-yourself ethos of generations past, as workshops include making your own sauerkraut, cheese, pickles, and vodka infusions, but also modern day pursuits like urban farming, meditation, genetic testing, jewelry making, massage, drumming, and tantra, showcasing the full spectrum and range of today’s Russian Jewish community.

Mamalah Meets Mamita - Evening with Lisa Klug, Vanessa Hidary & Mama Doni

Mamalah Meets Mamita: An Evening with Lisa Klug, Author of Hot Mamalah and Cool Jew, and Performer/Poet Vanessa Hidary aka the Hebrew Mamita, with musical guest, Mama Doni and guest host, Diva Mama Shira Adler.

Wednesday May 29, 8 PM

Congregation Shearith Israel - The Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue

8 West 70th Street, New York, New York 10023

Lisa and Vanessa will present stories and slam poetry. Doni will perform an acoustic set and the event will be emcee'd by Shira. 
Raffle prizes, gift bags, light refreshments. 
Book and CD signing. 

Suggested donation: $10-$20 sliding scale. 

A Hot Mamalah Production, co-sponsored by Jewish Art Salon, JICNY and Isramerica.

'Tender Shreds': Art Explores Israeli Sexuality and Politics

Andi Arnovitz's "Tender Shreds" at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City is a powerful exhibition of artworks that combine Arnovitz's unique feminist and Jewish Orthodox viewpoints. Born in Prairie Village, Kan., "Tender Shreds" is a home coming for Arnovitz, who moved to Israel in 1999. While true to her religious beliefs, Arnovitz's work prods and engages issues of sexuality and politics in Israel.

Many of the works in "Tender Shreds" are clothing. The garments hang in glass display cases, pressed flat and made of both fabrics and more unusual materials like books, paper, rocks and hair. Each piece of clothing is intended to be read, not worn, as each material becomes a symbol in a longer chain of reflections.

Continue article here.

Audrey Flack in conversation with Samantha Baskind

By Haley Tamir

            The Jewish presence and identity in the contemporary world of art is one truly worth noting. At the 3^rd annual conference of “Jewish Arts & Identity in the contemporary world” in Baruch college’s Jewish Studies Center, at a panel entitled “Jewish Ways of Seeing: The Visual Arts and the Jewish Tradition”, this Jewish impact on the creative world is exemplified through the discussion of artist Audrey Flack and her various works. 

Skirball Center's Annual Artists' & Writers' Event

June 4

6-9 PM

Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning, 
1 E 65 St, NYC

Kaleidoscopic Auschwitz Art

Dutch-Jewish visual artist Maarten van der Heijden focuses his contemporary artworks on his visceral reaction to the Holocaust, following a personal journey in which he embraced his Jewish roots after a visit to Auschwitz.

At first sight, his work is a beautiful kaleidoscope of color, but as you gaze into the work, you are slowly confronted with the horrors of the Nazi regime. It is simultaneously pleasing and disturbing.

Continue article on the Jewish Art Education blog here

As Subject and Object: Contemporary Book Artists Explore Sacred Hebrew Texts

Curated by Adrianne Rubin, MOBIA associate curator, and Professor Matthew Baigell.

Museum of Biblical Art

1865 Broadway at 61st Street, New York, NY 10023

June 14 - September 29, 2013

Featuring the work of approximately a dozen contemporary artists, this exhibition will highlight books and, in some cases, series of individual pages, inspired by the Hebrew Bible and other sacred Hebrew texts. The works on view will underscore the relevance of the Bible to present-day book artists and emphasize how these artists garner personally resonant artistic subject matter from the source materials.

Venice Center of Jewish Art Awards

• An exhibition featuring the semi-finalists of the VCJA art contest.
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• Hall and Garden by the Hostaria del Ghetto, Venice
• Cannaregio 2873 / c, 30121 Venezia
• Sunday May 19 to May 29
• Opening: Sunday 19 May

Semi-finalists: Andrea Nevi & Eleonora Beddini, Anna Gil, Benjie Herskowitz, Rappel Bess, Billha Zussman, Gene Levin, David Asher Brook, Jacqueline Nicholls, Joy Styember, Katarzyna Gajewska, Kenney Goldman, Maria Ferrara, Melissa Shiff, Antonio Moretti, Yitzchok Moully, Norma Picciotto, Natalia Kadish, Oliviero Stefano, Fabio Sampo, Maria Luisa Imperiali, Musya Herzog, Lillooet Mc Donnell, Stefano Zaratin.

Siona Benjamin reviewed in ARTNews

By Stephanie Strasnick 

I like to recycle mythology—I like being a storyteller,” says Siona Benjamin. Raised in a Jewish household in Mumbai, Benjamin mixes Indian folk imagery with religious iconography to create artworks that are multilayered, thought- provoking, and rich in narrative content. Her knack for storytelling has a lot to do with her background in theater—in addition to a diploma in enameling and an M.F.A. in painting, drawing, and metals from Southern Illinois University, Benjamin has a second M.F.A. in theater-set design and has conceived the scenery for numerous productions.  

Touched by the Holocaust - Art Exhibit at Synagogue for the Arts

May 19 - August 15, 2013

Opening Reception May 19, 6-9 PM

Curator's Talk 6:15 PM

Synagogue for the Arts

49 White Street, between Church & Broadway

New York, NY 10013

Curated by Ellen D. Newman.

Participating Artists:

Heddy Abramowitz, Aliza Augustine, Robin Atlas, Michael Bercowocz, Karen Frostig, Tamar Hirschl, Linda Friedman Schmidt, Musya Herzog, Batya Kuncman, Ellen Deitell Newman, Janet Mishner, Uzi Silber, Yona Verwer, Ahron Weiner, Joyce Ellen Weinstein

The Jews of Cuba at The Anne Frank Center USA

Documentary Photo Essay by Debbie Rosenfeld

Opening Reception May 22, 6-8 PM

Anne Frank Center, USA Gallery
44 Park Place
New York, NY 10007

May 22- August 30
Hours: Tue - Sat 10 - 5

My Synagogue is in Prague: Documentary on Mark Podwal

A Czech television documentary about the life and art of Mark Podwal is now on view at youtube, with english subtitles.

View it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7HHeANISbw

It chronicles Podwal's fascinating involvement with Prague and the Altneuschul. The textiles he created for the synagogue were shown at an exhibit at the Yeshiva University Museum in New York. His works on paper have been shown at the Jewish Museum in Prague. Podwal collaborated with Academy Award winning filmmaker Allan Miller on the documentary House of Life: The Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague, narrated by Claire Bloom. In 2009 and 2010, the film was broadcast on PBS.

Exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the world, his art is represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, Fogg Art Museum, the Jewish Museum in Prague, and the Library of Congress.

Susan Dessel's Solo Exhibit at the Gomez Mill House

"American Samplers, Series 3 (the chicken chronicles nos. 1-14)"

Opens the 2013/14 season of the The Gomez Mill House Historic Site, the oldest existing Jewish residence in the USA, Marlboro NY.
  
Artist's Talk on Sunday, June 23rd, 1-2 pm.

The show runs from May 5 - August 18, 2013

First International Jewish Artist Colony Open Studios

Sunday May 12, 2013 11:45am – 6:00pm

The Jewish Waltz with Planet Earth Retreat

Art Kibbutz NY, the international Jewish artist colony launched its pilot residency program this spring at the spectacular Eden Village Camp in Putnam Valley, New York. The first season's theme is THE JEWISH WALTZ WITH PLANET EARTH. From May 1-22, 2013, 30 outstanding Jewish artists from all disciplines will be able to work on developing their work while in residence at Eden Village Camp, renowned for its naturalistic beauty. Artists arrived from as far as Australia, Argentina, Israel, Russia, Canada, Great Britain and Hungary to the residency. Visit May 12^th 11:45am - 6:00pm at Art Kibbutz Open Studios at Eden Village to see surprising and creative ways Jewish artists are connecting with mother Earth.

Program includes:

¥ Studio visits with Art Kibbutz resident artists

¥ Jewish art & nature workshops for kids and adults

¥ Creating Hebrew letters in the landscape with organic materials found in the local environment with Australian artist Nikki Green

¥ Mother's Day art sale

¥ Artist talk with Art Kibbutz

¥ Kobi Arad jazz improvisation exploring the Divine Names in Nature

¥ Shira Dicker Torah trop multidisciplinary project

¥ Boating, hiking and relaxing in 200 acres of woodland and meadow

$20 for individual * $72 Group of four – Chai Discount * Kids 4 and under are FREE * Lunch $12 * Pick-up and Drop-off from MNR in Cold Spring: $10

Dwora Fried's Outsider in a Box in Venice's Jewish Museum

Photographer Unknown by Dwora Fried

The Jewish Museum of Venice/ Museo Ebraico di Venezia will feature a solo exhibition of works by Dwora Fried: “Outsider in a Box.”  Powerful and provocative, and at times humorous, Ms. Fried’s mixed media capture people, places and emotions under glass - literally. Composed in wooden boxes with glass fronts, the pieces ask unsettling questions about identity, beliefs and space. They recreate imaginary scenes of displacement, entrapment and isolation. The confines of these small, wooden boxes allow the viewer to share in the intimate world of the artist.

“Growing up as a Jew in Vienna, I have always felt like an outsider and that perspective is reflected in my art,” explains Fried. “It is by far my most autobiographical work; it contains elements of my life as a Jewish/Austrian/lesbian child of a holocaust survivor.”

June 2 - September 12, 2013

Jewish Museum of Venice / Museo Ebraico di Venezia

Cannaregio 2902, 30121 Venezia, Italy

+39 041 715359

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Jewish Art Salon at Elat Chayim ArtFest

Join us at the Elat Chayim ArtFest at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in the Berkshires

Sunday, June 30 - Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Celebrating and highlighting the vibrant infusion of creativity and artistic engagement in a diverse, eco-conscious Jewish community.

This art festival offers a wildly diverse array of opportunities to create, and engage with the arts.

The Jewish Art Salon is represented by Richard McBee who will present Esther's Day: Purim in Art and Hagar The Stranger. 

Yona Verwer will lead an Amulet Painting workshop and an illustrated discussion Revolutionizing the Jewish Art Community. 

Call for Art

The Anne Frank Center USA and the Jewish Art Salon will co-host three solo exhibits at the Center in 2014. 

Theme: 

Small-scale 2-dimensional works that are in line with the center's mission "to educate about the dangers of intolerance, anti-Semitism, racism and discrimination, and to inspire the next generation to build a world based on equal rights and mutual respect."

We are not looking for art that graphically depicts the Holocaust. The work does not have to be Jewish-themed either. For instance: upcoming exhibits include a photo series of Cuban Jews in present-day Havana, a photo series of the Roma and Sinti in 1940-45; and calligraphy paintings inspired by the French children killed in WWII.

New JCC in London looking for talent

JW3 is a new state-of-the-art Jewish cultural and community centre opening in London in September (www.jw3.org.uk).

They are currently advertising for outstanding creative talent to partner with them.

They are looking for creative professionals brimming with ideas and enthusiasm for what they do, with the know-how to make it happen. 

Visual artists and performance artists, producers, musicians, comedians, provocateurs and erudite educators, lyrical  actors, writers, poets, social activists and more... If you would like to partner with them on a commercial basis, register your interest now at: www.jw3.org.uk/partners 

  

Mis/Constru(ct)ed Indentities: Exploring Jewish Stereotypes

An Installation by Leslie Freedman Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art May 1- August 1, 2013 Mis/Constru(ct)ed Identities is a site-specific exhibition composed of modular, stackable, sculptural forms sheathed in screen-printed linoleum tiles. Though geometric, graphic, and colorful, Friedman’s undulating wall sculptures explore a serious, typically troubling, subject: stereotypes about the Jewish people. Some of these stereotypes—such as associations with intelligence and humor— could be considered flattering. Others—such as the canard of deicide and the “blood libel”—have been the source of centuries of persecution and suffering. Still more—the perception of disproportionate Jewish involvement, and success, in entertainment and finance—may inspire pride, suspicion, or are simply dismissed, with these varied responses depending upon each individual’s perspectives and mindset. Friedman confronts these stereotypes creatively and without fear, thereby challenging the viewer to do the same.

Marisa Scheinfeld's Borscht Belt Ruins at the LESJC

The Ruins of the Borscht Belt, a photography series by Marisa Scheinfeld, will be on exhibition at the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy (LESJC) Kling & Niman Family Visitor Center and will open on Sunday, May 5, 2013 and run until Thursday, August 29, 2013. 

An artist talk Sunday, May 5 at 2:00 pm, in conjunction with the LESJC's 4th Jewish Heritage Festival, a day of exploring and learning about the Jewish history of Manhattan's Lower East Side.

NY Times article on her work here

LESJC - Kling & Niman Visitor Center
400 Grand Street, New York, NY 10002
www/nycjewishtours.org  www.nycjewishtours.org/calendar.htm