Faith & Form - Art Exhibit Addressing Racism, Intolerance and Anti-semitism by the Jewish Art Salon

The Anne Frank Center USA Announces Faith & Form, a new exhibit with the Jewish Art Salon.

"Responding to the mission of The Anne Frank Center USA, the exhibit features Jewish Art Salon artists from North America, Israel and Europe whose work addresses themes of intolerance, identity, anti-Semitism, racism and discrimination," explains Yvonne Simons, Executive Director, The Anne Frank Center USA.

Opening reception January 15, 2014, 6 - 9 PM

Hours: 1.15.14 through 3.28.14, Tuesday - Saturday 10-5.

The Anne Frank Center USA

44 Park Place, New York, NY 10007

Tel: 212 431.7993

Participating artists:

Robin Atlas, Shoshannah Brombacher, Dorit Jordan Dotan, Ash Fitzgerald, Lorelei and Alex Gruss, Reineke Hollander, Michal Mahgerefteh, Paul Margolis, Jacob Mezrahi, Aaron Morgan, Marcy Rivka Nehorai, Mark Podwal, Carol Phillips, Deborah Raichman, Joan Roth, Lynn Russell, Gillian Singer, Arlene Sokolow, Yona Verwer, Julian Voloj, and Joyce Weinstein.

Faith & Form consists of multi-media work depicting a range of subjects. Anti-semitism is explored in various ways: through the myth of the Golem, a portrait of the Iranian president, and in unusual approaches to Holocaust art: a lantern homage to the lost ghetto of Krakow; an abstract painting featuring stones from Treblinka; stolen sacred Jewish objects for sale at an antique market, a Yizkor artists book, a wood inlay of people waiting for unknown destinations, a collage based on Holocaust poems, a Purim painting, and a menorah in Nazi Germany painting.

Several of the photographs detail the lives of Jewish émigré and outsider communities, such as the vanishing Bukharan Jews and the self-proclaimed Black Jews in Queens. Intolerance is alluded to in a gay Jewish wedding photo, and a protection amulet painting.

Faith, history and identity inform the work of these 21 artists, asserting a vision of contemporary art that is as bold as it is diverse.

Images here

Article in NY Jewish Week here

TV interview on The Jewish Channel here

Article in the British press here

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Related programming:

March 12th, 6:30-8:30 PM

Documenting Diaspora:Illustrated talk with photographer Julian Voloj.

Presentation on Jewish émigré communities from around the globe.
This presentation and discussion will focus on global diaspora, diverse community development, life under varied political rules, challenges, struggles, and celebrations. Julian will share anecdotes, personal thoughts, and ofcourse his remarkable photo portfolio, all leading us to question what it means to be Jewish today.
More info & registration here

February 4th, 6:30-8 PM
Recreating the Golem: From Prague to The Simpsons.

Artist Mark Podwal and author Thane Rosenbaum will explore representations of the golem legend in words and images.

Thursday, January 9, 2014, 12 Noon till 1PM

Helene Aylon will do a slide presentation and read from her memoir.

Molly Barnes Brown Bag Lunch

The Roger Smith Hotel

501 Lexington Avenue (47th St) NYC

Aylon has shown at The Whitney Museum, Creative Time, The Andy Warhol Museum and SFMOMA. Her recent memoir, "Whatever Is Contained Must Be Released: My Jewish Orthodox Girlhood, My Life as a Feminist Artist," was published by The Feminist Press in 2012.

For Reservations call Molly Barnes (212) 888-3588

Other events & exhibits by Aylon:

Kanter - Tallit Katan

RITUAL CLOTH - THE ART OF RACHEL KANTER

Charter Oak Cultural Center

21 Charter Oak Ave.

Hartford, CT

www.charteroakcenter.org

January 9 - February 21, 2014

OPENING RECEPTION: JANUARY 9, 6 - 8 PM

ARTIST TALK: JANUARY 15, 12 PM

Mendelssohn’s Tea Pot: How Artists Reinvent the Past, and the Jewish Future

By Jenna Weissman Joselit
Zeek Magazine

Izhar Patkin
JudenPorzellan

Lately, virtually everyone I know who has some kind of association – professional, emotional, familial, religious or intellectual – with the American Jewish community has been reading tea leaves, trying to figure out, in the wake of the Pew Research Center findings, what the future might hold.

I, too, have been reading tea leaves (Darjeeling, anyone?), but the ones I find at the bottom of my tea cup belong to Moses Mendelssohn, the celebrated 18th-century German Jewish philosopher who sought valiantly to come up with a series of strategies to align Jewishness with modernity. Continue article here

#ReCatalyze Zeek Magazine

Zeek has featured many Jewish Art Salon members' art & writing over the years. Help them start 2014 as a strong, sustainable magazine.

You know how there's always that moment when a small act can have a big impact? For Zeek, that moment is now.

"Zeek is a catalyst for conversations about the Jewish tomorrow.

We refuse to see Jewish identity or Judaism as stagnant or immutable. In one space, we bring together articles no one else is running. We personalize Jewish social justice, arts, spirituality, and innovation, from true tales from the frontlines of social change, to living with mental illness and depression to leaving the ultra-Orthodox community, why climate change is bad for the Jews to what it means to pray with our legs -- and lips.

Zeek -- the oldest online Jewish magazine -- has won awards, and catalyzed game-changing conversations. Now, we need your help. To advance our vision, we're laying the groundwork for a strong, sustainable 2014. We'll stay scrappy and fearless. And we'll keep our content free. We need you."

View Zeek's Indiegogo campaign

"United (Jewish) Artists" by Aaron Rosen features the Jewish Art Salon

Ben Schachter - Eruv Map

Hadassah Magazine published an article on the contemporary Jewish art scene in its December 2013 issue. The Jewish Art Salon is mentioned several times, along with JAS' artists and advisors.

Featured are Jewish Art Salon co-founder / executive director Yona Verwer, along with our member and founder of the Los Angeles based Jewish Artists Initiative Ruth Weisberg, artist Siona Benjamin, and Jacqueline Nicholls who started the London Jewish Artists Salon. In addition, four of our Advisors, artists Tobi Kahn, Ben Schachter and Cynthia Beth Rubin, and Art Kibbutz Founder Patricia Eszter Margit, are featured as well.

The author, Aaron Rosen, Ph.D., is lecturer in Sacred Traditions & the Arts at King’s College London. He is currently working on a book on religion in 21st-century art for Thames and Hudson as well as an edited volume called "Religion and Art in the Heart of Modern Manhattan", forthcoming from Ashgate.

Read article here

Tosafot - Women Drawing Talmud

Museum of Art, Ein Harod 18965 Israel

Curator: Dvora Liss

Jacqueline Nicholls

Tosafot – an exhibition of the illustrated Talmud by Jacqueline Nicholls and Yonah Lavery-Yisraeli, is part of the Ein Harod Museum's renewed interest in engaging its visitors in meaningful dialogue with the content and values of the Judaica collection. The exhibition's title, "Tosafot", refers to the medieval commentary on the Talmud, printed in the outer margin of the Talmud page, opposite Rashi's commentary. Rashi (RAbbi SHlomo Itzhaki, 1040 –1105, France) was the foremost Talmudist of the Middle Ages, whose influential commentary forms the basis of all Talmud study to this day. Rashi's grandchildren undertook to expand and elaborate his commentary; their explanations (and of other of his students,12th-14th centuries, France and Germany) became known as "tosafot", literally, "additions"; hence the designation of the authors as "Tosafists".

Artists & others are invited to participate in a short residency with Art Kibbutz, a collaborative project hosted by Venice Biennale artist Pawel Althamer, entitled the "Draftsmen's Congress" at New York's New Museum on March 23rd, 2014.

This residency involves making of one large collaborative drawing that will take up the entire fourth floor space of the museum. We are calling artists, art students, art professors, graphic designers, architects, cartoonists, engineers and other individuals who draw as part of their profession to participate in this project.

Art Kibbutz is invited to bring 'the Jewish perspective', whatever that means to each participating artist. More info here

Workshop with Siona Benjamin by RJeneration and Jewish Art Salon

Finding Home: Parallels in mythology from around the world

RJeneration: Born in the Soviet Union, Made in the USA, is a social organization for Russian Jews 25-40 years of age. It offers Shabbat dinners, social gatherings, literary readings, and film screenings to address the diverse needs and interests of its community.

Fisherman & the fish

Jewish Art Salon partners with RJeneration to invite you to this event for you as the writer and teller of your own life story. No artistic experience necessary.

This lecture and workshop will bridge world mythologies to individual stories. Siona Benjamin, a painter from Bombay, living in the US, connects mythology to personal stories in a sensitive and though provoking way. Her work reflects her background of being brought up Jewish in a predominantly Hindu and Muslim India.

Tobi Kahn

Sacred Voices unite in this exhibit featuring art by “People of the Book.”

This companion exhibition to “Illuminating the Word: The Saint John’s Bible” opens December 5 at the Canton Museum of Art in Ohio. Five participating artists are members of the Jewish Art Salon.

It showcases contemporary works in painting, sculpture and more by artists from around the country, inspired by the Christian, Jewish, or

Richard McBee

Muslim faith. Imagery and artistry combine to offer fresh perspectives on religious texts, narratives and traditions of all people. Curated by Michele Waalkes, a Malone University visual arts lecturer.

The Sacred Voices exhibition examines how faith can inform and inspire artists in their work, whether their work is symbolic, pictorial, or textual in nature. It further explores how present-day artwork can lead audiences to ponder God, religious themes, venerated traditions, or spiritual insights.

The Academy of Jewish Religion in Yonkers, NY is hosting an arts conference January 5-9, 2014.

Half-day conference Sunday, January 5. Four-day institute January 6-9.

Topic include Images as "Angels: Making images as a means of understanding text", "Writing black fire: Creative writing as close reading of biblical text." More info here.

Punk Jews Screening with the Producers

Ycrop and Jewish Art Salon invite you to a screening of the acclaimed documentary Punk Jews.

Meet producers Saul Sudin and Evan Kleinman.

Film, food & vodka!

YCROP, Young Creative Russians Online Portfolios, serving safe doses of Russian culture since 2000, organizes live events mostly in venues around NYC and Brooklyn, and include film-video screenings, group exhibits, readings, concerts and dance parties.

The Jewish Art Salon partners with YCROP to present this screening.

Join us for this unique opportunity to interact with the producers in a cool Lower East Side gallery.

RSVP to jewishartsalon@gmail.com Limited seating.

Profiling Hassidic punk rockers, Yiddish street performers, African-American Jewish activists and more, Punk Jews explores an emerging movement of provocateurs and committed Jews who are asking, each in his or her own way, what it means to be Jewish in the 21st century. Jewish artists, activists and musicians from diverse backgrounds and communities are defying norms and expressing their Jewish identities in unconventional ways. NY Times review here.

When: Monday November 25. 6 PM - Light buffet dinner & vodka. 6:30 PM - Film. 7:30 PM - Meet the producers.

Where: Central Booking Gallery, 21 Ludlow Street, New York, NY 10002

Price $8 In advance: with paypal pay jewishartsalon@gmail.com
Or send check to Jewish Art Salon, 1324 Lexington Ave #120, NY NY 10128.
$10 At the door.

RSVP NOW to jewishartsalon@gmail.com.

This event is designed for the Russian-Jewish community, but all are welcome.

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Heather Stoltz and Yona Verwer reviewed in Jewish Week

Two Artists Address Difficult Issues In Tribeca Exhibit

10/29/2013 The Jewish Week

By Caroline Lagnado

Tribeca’s Synagogue for the Arts, which is an architectural masterwork itself, is hosting a new exhibit in its downstairs gallery space, featuring work by Yona Verwer, a Dutch-born, New York-based artist and Heather Stoltz, also a New York artist. Each looks to the topic of vulnerability in New York City.

Verwer, co-founder and co-president of the Jewish Art Salon, a group of artists, curators and critics focused on the Jewish art world, curated the exhibit in addition to showing her own art.

Article continues here.

Helene Aylon & Betty Parsons in Art in America

Aylon's interview with Betty Parsons is featured in Art in America's Nov. 2013 Issue

Parsons and Aylon, 1979

THE PARSONS EFFECT By Judith E. Stein and Helène Aylon.

In addition, her book Whatever Is Contained Must Be Released:

My Jewish Orthodox Girlhood, My Life as a Feminist Artist has been reviewed by Stacy E. Schultz in current Woman's Art Journal Available Online in PDF

More reviews of her book can be viewed here.

Aylon has 2 readings this week in Vermont

Tanya Fredman in 3 Israeli Exhibits

Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem

Opening Monday, November 11th, 7pm

"Sound of Many Waters"

Images of Water in Life, Culture, and Jewish Spirituality

The Bible Lands Museum, 25 Granot Street

A joint exhibition by Israeli artists of the Hadera/Pardes Chana region and American artists of the Southeastern region of the US.

Sponsored by The Jewish Agency and Partnership 2gether

Arnovitz is a participating artist at the Israeli Paper Art Biennale, which opened October 25 at Haim Lebanon 2. More info on the Paper Biennale here.

Her work in the recent Jerusalem Biennale was mentioned in Haaretz and the Forward's "At first-ever Jerusalem biennale, Jewish art goes from old-world to avant-garde" here.

LESJC presents Fifth Jewish Heritage Festival

The All-day Festival Features Art Exhibit Opening Colors of Chanukah: The Art of Shoshanah Brombacher.

Sunday, November 3, 2013, Beginning at 10:45 AM

Festival Also Includes Three Walking Tours, Vintage Goods Benefit Sale and “Gals From the Hood” Presentation

The Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy will open Colors of Chanukah: The Art of Shoshanah Brombacher. The exhibit showcases lively, colorful oil paintings exploring Chasidic-Jewish themes and folklore. Brombacher will be on hand at the LESJC Kling & Niman Family Visitor Center to give a live presentation of her works at 1:30 PM.

Falk will be the first visiting artist-in-residence at the Jewish Religious Center at Williams College during the month of November.

The residency includes a solo exhibition:

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS Paintings and Watercolors based on The Songs of Songs (Shir HaShirim) and The Dybbuk by S. Ansky

Artist reception and talk: Sunday, November 3, 4-6pm

Jewish Religious Center at Williams College

52 Stetson Court, Williamstown, Massachusetts

JAS Session At Tribeca Synagogue for the Arts Oct 17

Join us for 3 artist presentations and 2 art exhibits!

Tribeca Synagogue For The Arts Gallery
49 White Street, New York, NY 10013

Thursday, October 17

6-7 PM Opening Reception
"City Charms & Sewing Stories", art exhibits by Heather Stoltz and Yona Verwer.

7-8 PM Artists Presentation, hosted by the Jewish Art Salon.

Presenters: Marisa Scheinfeld and Linda Soberman.

8-8:30 PM Meet & Greet.

Directions: Subway - Canal St. stops for N,R,W, Q, J, M, Z, 1, A,C,E, 6.

Three blocks below Canal St. betw. B’way and Church St.

See map here.

Free & Open to the Public with RSVP to jewishartsalon@gmail.com

City Charms & Sewing Stories by Heather Stoltz & Yona Verwer

City Charms & Sewing Stories

The Tribeca Synagogue for the Arts presents 2 exhibitions by Heather G. Stoltz and Yona Verwer.

Synagogue For The Arts Gallery

49 White Street, New York, NY 10013.

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 17, 6-7PM.

Exhibit on view till December 15 by appointment: 212-966-7141

Followed by program:

7-8 PM Artists Presentation, hosted by the Jewish Art Salon.

Presenters: Marisa Scheinfeld and Linda Soberman.

Jewish Week article by Caroline Lagnado here.

Directions: Subway - Canal St. stops for N,R,W, Q, J, M, Z, 1, A,C,E, 6.

3 Blocks below Canal Street, between Church St & Broadway. See map here.

Both artists work with Jewish themes: Biblical Women, Divine Text Messages and Jewish Zodiac paintings. The artists also address New York's vulnerable as a common theme: Verwer counters the vulnerability of various New York sites, while Stoltz looks at the homeless population.

Helène Aylon's book reading at The Jewish Museum

Helène Aylon: Whatever is Contained Must Be Released

Monday, October 28, 11:30 am

The Jewish Museum

1109 5th Ave at 92nd St, New York NY 10128

Artist and activist Helène Aylon discusses her recent memoir Whatever is Contained Must Be Released: My Jewish Orthodox Girlhood, My Life as a Feminist Artist. Introduction by Norman Kleeblatt.

Info & tickets here

Siona Benjamin in Women Call for Peace

Women Call for Peace: Global Vistas

Curated by Dr Lisa Farrington

Opening October 8, 5:30-7:30 PM

Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery

John Jay College, City University of New York

59th Street & 11th Ave, NY, NY 10019

On October 23, 2013, an Artists Panel Discussion will take place in the Shiva Gallery from 5:30-7:30.

The fifty three works in the exhibition offer stunningly beautiful but powerful statements of the artists’ commitment to peace on all fronts— personal, political, domestic, and international.

The Seventh Day Exhibit at the HUC-JIR Museum

The Seventh Day: Revisiting Shabbat

Opening Reception: October 3 at 5:30 – 7:30 pm
October 3, 2013 – June 27, 2014

HUC-JIR Museum, 1 West 4th Street, New York, NY. (Broadway & Mercer)

RSVP: hucjirmuseum@huc.edu or 212-824-2298

Mark Podwal - Sabbath Sandwich

The exhibition addresses the ever changing and life enhancing merit of the celebration of the Sabbath. The three Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Islam and Christianity each adhere to the teachings of the Hebrew Bible. The act of 'creation' is our beginning. Genesis reveals and Exodus repeats “remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy”. Each generation, building on the shoulders of the past, fine-tunes and/or embellishes the patterns of previous traditions. Over 50 leading international artists, many of them members of the Jewish Art Salon, have created new works including ritual objects in silver, glass, wood, ceramic and textiles.

Inside the Artist’s Studio: Creating a Beautiful New Home for the Torah

In this video by Tablet, shot in Studio Gruss' space in Brooklyn, Alex discusses his life moving from his native Argentina to Israel and later the United States; how he views the significance of his art in connection to the Holocaust; and the cultural shifts he’s witnessed in how Judaica is designed.

View article and video here.

Hanan Harchol: Jewish Food for Thought

Multi-media visual artist Hanan Harchol mines personal family psychodynamics. His art illuminates the complexity of ethical values in contemporary life. Highly charged conversations between the artist and his parents, depicted in animated videos and powerful, expressionist drawings, offer unexpected perspectives on the themes of envy, repentance, forgiveness, love and fear, humility, and faith.

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum, New York

Opening Reception: October 3 at 5:30 – 7:30 pm. Program at 6:15 pm

Faces: Weaving Indian Jewish Narratives

Artworks by Siona Benjamin

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya.

Formerly The Prince of Wales Museum

rmerly

159/161 Mahatma Gandhi Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 023, India.

Telephone 22844484

Opening reception: September 30th at 5pm

Curators gallery, First floor, Extn wing.

September 30th to October 20th 2013, Daily 10:15 AM - 6 PM

At the first ever Jerusalem Biennale:

Sunday September 22: Guided gallery tour by Andi Arnovitz and Ruth Schreiber.
1st tour 4 PM; 2nd tour 5 PM

Monday September 23: Panel Discussion "Ancient Texts & Contemporary Art" with biennale artists Andi Arnovitz, Ruth Schreiber, Ken Goldman & others on the nexus between Jewish sources, inspiration and modern issues. In English.
Gallery and reception 8 PM
Panel discussion 8:30 PM.

Achim Hasid Complex, 45 Emek Refaim St, Jerusalem. Co-sponsored by Kol HaOt.

More info on the biennale here.

Jubilation - Sukkot Art by Archie Granot

"Jubilation" by artist Archie Granot was inspired by the festival of Succot - Feast of Tabernacles - and the temporary booth in which we live during the festival.

This year the festival starts the evening of September 18 and ends September 26.

The palm trees in the two outer windows symbolize the Lulav - one of the four species used ritually during the festival.

Margolis - Learning to live alone

Judith Margolis' chapter on "Creativity and Healing in a Jewish Context," will be published in the anthology Judaism and Health A Handbook of Practical, Professional and Scholarly Resources (Fall 2013, by Jewish Lights Publishers).

The essay describes the process by which many of her paintings, drawings and artist books came about as a "creative response to infirmity." The chapter also includes references to work created in a relevant context by other artists, including Jewish Art Salon members Robert Kirschbaum and Susan Kaplow.

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