Silent Witnesses - Martin Mendelsberg

Every week we feature several artists participating in our latest exhibit Silent Witnesses: Synagogues Transformed, Rebuilt, or Left Behind - Artists Respond to History.
  
This is a collaborative art exhibit organized by the Cultural Heritage Artists Project, the Jewish Art Salon,  JWalks and the Holocaust Memorial Center. February 22 - April 14 in Metro Detroit. Exhibit info here.


 Selections from the Reading Room
Martin Mendelberg's Selections from the Reading Room, Remnants is an old suitcase containing a collection of books and short stories detailing the lives of tuberculosis patients at the Jewish Consumptives’ Relief Society (JCRS) in Denver, Colorado. At the heart of the JCRS campus was the Isaac Solomon Synagogue, a modest and simple home that became the spiritual center for many of the practicing Jews as early as 1904.


It is critically important to note that these books and stories since 2005 have become an ongoing collaboration among my communications design students at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, Dr. Jeanne Abrams, professor and director of the Ira M. Beck Archives- University of Denver, and myself. The stories you will encounter are incisive explorations of family relationships, financial hardships, oppression of freedom and spiritual awakenings. This artist wishes to thank his students, mentors and collaborators for bringing “Selections from the Reading Room” to fruition.

Photo:
Martin Mendelsberg Selections from the Reading Room
Suitcase with Books, 18x12x6 inches
Books and printed materials 2005-2011
Denver, Colorado

Martin Mendelsberg is a designer, design educator and Hebrew typographer. He has exhibited in the United States, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and China. His work is represented in collections of the Museum of New Zealand, Victoria University School of Architecture, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Yale University, the Florida Holocaust Museum, the Mizel Museum, Greeley Holocaust Observance Committee and the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, in Los Angeles. His Hebrew typeface designs are distributed internatonally by Masterfont in Tel Aviv. Martin was one of twenty-three international artists commissioned by CNN International to produce digital works for the tenth anniversary of 9/11.






1 comment:

  1. I want to thank you..without one of Martin Mendelsberg students I would not know the history of my great Aunt Mollie.

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