Mia Frankel Tana’s new exhibition Diplômés en bref will be inaugurated at the Rosenfeld Gallery in Tel Aviv on Thursday, November 28, at 7:00 PM. This exhibition showcases the works of newly graduated artists from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and the Midrash Art School: Orian Yakobi, Shon Aguilar, Dafna Ben Ari, Paula Farhi, and Shelly Berger.
Dafna Ben Ari explores personal experiences and is inspired by the reality around her to create. "My subjects come from my thoughts, memories, and the people who inspire me. Often, when I'm alone, I create new worlds emerging from darkness. I associate the stories that come to mind with used textiles that I find in the trash, donation centers, and at my parents' home. I am inspired by characters on the margins of society — the wretched, the homeless, the lost souls, the outcasts, the dispossessed. People who deeply know the world but are yet foreign to it," she says.
She focuses on those whose life paths and futures seem predetermined due to the circumstances of their entry into the world. Dafna sympathizes with them, as she sometimes feels the same way. "My gaze is compassionate yet harsh and tough; through it, I aim to make these people visible to society," she adds.
Orian Yakobi addresses emergency situations in her works. "I am interested in the continuous states of alertness that dominate even more strongly in contemporary times, in response to real threats like epidemics, wars, natural disasters, and the unforeseen consequences of artificial intelligence technologies," she explains. She uses a base color that "emits light," and its glow in the dark intensifies the feeling of urgency and chaos when seeking shelter.
"The characters in my works are inspired by graphic illustrations from emergency instruction booklets distributed on airplanes. The technical, almost naïve graphic language ironically contrasts with the potential emergency situation it describes. In today's reality, where feelings of anxiety, chaos, confusion, and insecurity deepen and intensify, instructions such as 'assume the emergency position' have become more relevant than ever," she asserts.
Shon Aguilar, the son of a Filipino mother and an African American father, born in the land of milk and honey, constantly explores his inner identity struggles and the need for camouflage and disguise to develop an awareness of the space in which he lives. "I try to create a context for the viewer and encourage myself to ask questions about how I tell my story and how I can reinterpret my environment. The works presented in the exhibition are an attempt to express my identity through matter and light. The different mediums I work with — painting, 3D digital works, and sculpture — interact with each other. My artistic practice seeks to explore the meaning of my identities, which are culturally influenced by the continuous movement of the mind in which I am subjected to the so-called Holy Land that I carry on my shoulders," Sean explains.
"My paintings, which always start from ignorance or the definition of their final subject, are often based on imagination or events occurring in my surroundings, in my family, with my children or friends that capture my attention. The paintings shown in the exhibition were created after the massacre of October 7. They were mainly made from photos on my phone, taken before the war even began," says Paula Farhi.
The photos underwent a pictorial transformation into images of a disintegrating reality, alternative spaces to the original, a shift in the dimensions of the various characters and the extreme disparities between them, in clothing and gender. The world created by Paula is a fragile and confused one, threatening and grotesque.
An original exhibition not to be missed, opening on November 28 at the Rosenfeld Gallery, Hamifal 1, Tel Aviv.
Caroline Haïat
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