Israel: Peter Maltz Awarded the 2025 Alima Rita Prize

Peter Maltz

The Mishkan Museum of Art at Ein Harod has announced the winner of the Alima Rita Prize for Printmaking Art for 2025: the artist Peter Maltz. Awarded annually, the prize is considered one of the most prestigious distinctions in Israel in the field of contemporary printmaking. Its aim is to encourage artistic creation while perpetuating the memory and legacy of the artist and educator Alima Rita.

A multidisciplinary artist and long-time educator, Peter Maltz has occupied a central place on the Israeli art scene for several decades. He is particularly known for his reliefs and series of drawings, through which he has developed a demanding body of work that explores the relationship between material, space, and gesture. His works have been exhibited in Israel and internationally, including at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and are held in major public and private collections. Maltz has also received the Minister of Culture Award in 2019 and the Miron Sima Prize in 2017.

A characteristic of his work is the fusion of the mythical and the metaphysical with everyday reality, using material as a gateway to the transcendental. For Maltz, art is not merely a visual representation, but a liberating force.

This new distinction will enable the artist to realize the project he presented to the jury: a series of very large-scale prints inspired by the landscapes of Israel and created using combined printing techniques. The works will be brought together in the form of a vertical book-object, the height of a human body, evoking an open folding screen. The installation will invite the public to a physical experience of leafing through, moving, and discovering, expanding the medium of printmaking toward a spatial and immersive dimension.

Rock

Peter Maltz was selected following a joint decision by the jury, chaired by Avi Lubin, Chief Curator of the Mishkan Museum of Art at Ein Harod. In its statement, the jury highlighted the conceptual and technical quality of the proposal, as well as the artist’s deep commitment to the various practices of printmaking, combined with a desire to push their boundaries. The project stands out both for its unusual scale and distinctive mode of presentation, and for the direct, sensorial experience it offers the public: “a print experienced as a journey, a space, an event.”

Man with house

“Receiving the Alima Rita Prize represents more than a professional milestone for me. This recognition expresses my long-standing attachment to this medium and gives me the opportunity to realize an artistic dream. Through this project, I hope to continue building a bridge between physical and material journeys and journeys of narrative and imagination,” said Peter Maltz.

The prize is awarded each year to an artist for the realization of a project, with the funds allocated to the printmaking studio chosen by the laureate. Previous recipients include the artists Shay Zilberman, Merav Sudaey, and Tali Ben Bassat. The official award ceremony will take place at the Mishkan Museum of Art at Ein Harod on January 21, 2026.

Caroline Haïat