Yofi - Israeli Ceramics & Jewellery
25 January - 29 March 2008
Evening viewing Thursday 24 January 6-8pm. Free, all welcome to attend
Yofi means beauty in Hebrew, a very appropriate title for this wonderful selection of Israeli ceramics and jewellery previously shown at flow gallery, Notting Hill in London.
Yofi is a celebration of Israel's vibrant creativity and its ability to communicate beyond cultural and physical barriers. The artists' inspiration is drawn from many sources and cultural backgrounds.
For example Sara Shahak casts silver and gold jewellery to resemble lace and knitted motifs inspired by her Greek mother's lace making and embroidery.
Irit Abba deftly plays with the fragile, textural and translucent qualities of porcelain to produce graceful thrown pots reminiscent of Scandinavian aesthetic.
Whilst Michel Zehavi investigates the tensions between creation and disintegration, creating ceramic pieces whose organic forms are frozen at the instance before they collapse.
Einat Chen seeks to create functional ceramic objects with a sculptural quality, drawing inspiration from the marine life of The Red Sea.
Humour plays an important role in the ceramics by Stella Lahav where her pieces juggle between the functional and the asymmetric almost figurative coffee pots.
Anat Bar El’s wall mounted pieces in white clay use texture and perspective to eloquently portray the interplay of public and personal spaces based on her daily walks around Jerusalem.
Rory Hooper’s work is likewise highly evocative: his pieces of flattened rings convey the notion of memory.
The colourful glass bead jewellery made by Nirit
Dekel is full of vitality; each bead an individual, with
its own energy and personality.
Anat Gelbard has developed her Jewellery through an
exhaustive exploration of felt making techniques and created
beautiful understated organic pieces.
Well established in both the fashion and Jewellery worlds, Gayla Rosenfeld also draws on textile techniques to make her fluid, modular Jewellery.
The Jewellery of Noa Goren-Amir cleverly plays with the contradiction of translating complex winding lines into elegant three-dimensional pieces. Her work is inspired by light and motion.
Michal Oren draws her inspiration from simple
geometric forms and delicate lines. By duplicating, tilting and
combining those forms in unpredictable ways, she creates objects
that hold tension as lines in space, while others respond to body
curvature and to movement.
Shirly Bar-Amotz is overtly political in her fine gold
brooches with line drawings of warplanes.
This exhibition is sponsored by AIDA – Association of Israeli Decorative Artists
Exhibiting artists are as follows....
Ceramics - Einat Cohen, Anat Bar El, Irit Abba, Michal Zehavi & Stella Lahav
Jewellery - Shirly Bar-Amotz, Nirit Dekel, Anat Gelbard, Noa Goren-Amir, Yael Herman, michal Oren, Galya Rosenfeld, Rory Hooper, Kobi Roth & Sara Shahak