"DISASTER SERIES" by Jean Edelstein
Jean Edelstein seeks the sacred. As she deploys the creative to approach the Divine, her art resonates with spirit. Edelstein's elegant aesthetic is melded with finely honed craftsmanship and expansive inventiveness into abstract icons, inspirational figural studies, innovative performances and compassionate political commentaries.
"The Disaster Series was inspired by black and white photographs accompanying journalistic accounts of world crisis. I was deeply moved by the tragedy and heroism of these anonymous men and women who suffer the ravages of military conflict."
-Jean Edelstein in a interview with Jewish Artists Initiative (JAI) of Southern California
will be on display in the Spiegel Auditorium
Since Syria’s civil conflict broke out in 2011, the Middle East refugee crisis has become one of the world’s largest humanitarian disasters, with over six million internally displaced and more than six million refugees fleeing into neighbouring countries. Since 2013, IsraAID has been deeply involved in the international response across 10 countries; from early relief distributions in Jordan and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, to medical services, psychological first aid and longer-term mental health support to refugees in Greece and Germany. Our teams welcomed literally hundreds of thousands of refugees as they arrived in Western Europe, following precarious journeys. As needs change, IsraAID is increasingly focusing on longer-term programs that deal with stress reduction, resilience building, integration, and community empowerment.
"Stories of Courage and Resilience", gives you a glimpse into how IsraAID responds to emergencies and supports local communities around the world - from crises and disasters, to rehabilitation and recovery.
"ROOTS NON-VIOLENCE" by Saskia Keeley
MY MISSION IS TO CREATE POWERFUL VISUALS THAT RAISE AWARENESS AND INSPIRE HOPE.
I believe disparate cultures can be bridged through recognition of our common humanity. Fostering such empathetic connection is especially fulfilling for me when women, children, and people from less visible parts of the globe are brought out of darkness and into light.
Over the past two years photographer, Saskia Bory Keeley partnered with Roots, an initiative led by a Palestinian and Israeli settler committee who works at the heart of the conflict in the West Bank.
Saskia conducted photo workshops for Orthodox Jewish Israeli and Palestinian women who would otherwise have no contact. An important part of the program was to develop photographic skills (20 good-quality DSLR cameras were purchased and donated to Roots for this purpose.) Just as essential was the opportunity for women "from the other side" to interact in a daily setting, many for the very first time in their lives.
The photos that came out of their assignments were striking and often touchingly personal in their portrayal of both loved ones in intimate settings (when they took the cameras home) and perceived enemies in the context of the workshop sessions. Most importantly, the cameras created a human bridge, breaking down barriers and fostering contact as women took portraits of each other necessitating human connection.
Click here to learn more about Saskia Keeley.
EARTH RHYTHMS by Betty Green
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Betty Green is a fine artist whose work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. Green attended Cornell University and UCLA, where she studied painting under Richard Diebenkorn. In addition to painting, Ms. Green has worked as a graphic designer and is the winner of a Primetime Emmy Award for title design, as well as the recipient of an International Clio Award. She has created signature openings for many television and motion picture projects. Her contributions to the arts also include the development of an after school Art Enrichment Program at the Neighborhood Youth Association in Venice, California. She was
awarded The Certificate of Tribute – Accomplishments in the Arts by the City of Los Angeles for her work with these children. Green currently works in her Santa Monica studio where she experiments with a variety of mixed media techniques to create her canvases.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Betty Green’s mixed media series entitled Earth Rhythms presents a series of paintings inspired by the undulating patterns in nature and the pulsing energy connecting all living forms. Using natural and man-made materials, her canvases are layered with heavily textured materials such as sand, cord, wood scraps, steel wool, straw, and wire mesh to create an energetic surface. Color, applied by brush and palette knife, furthers the feeling of vitality. The combined effect creates a visceral liveliness, as shifting patterns play with our inclination to see recognizable objects in abstract shapes. Green’s paintings seek to create excitement and beauty on a tactile and emotional level. Her hope is that viewers will study her artwork and make their own discoveries and connections.
Click here to learn more about Betty Green.
New Cuts
by Corrie Siegel
“Wherever the relevance of speech is at stake, matters become political by definition, for speech is what makes man a political being”
- Hannah Arendt
New Cuts is an exhibition of flat and sculptural works created from single sheets of paper. Alternately delicate and spiked, the works are formed by overlaid matrixes of texts that are incised to obscure the original message and reveal a pattern composed of symbols. Each piece is built from statements made during the rise of the Third Reich or the Trump Administration. Through the form of a traditional paper-cut; these loaded texts are abstracted into jagged landscapes and fragile lace.
Corrie Siegel is a Los Angeles based multimedia artist who has exhibited nationally and internationally. Mining individual and collective histories, she uses labor intensive approaches to occupy a position between objectivity and interpretation. Her projects have been profiled in the Los Angeles Times, Mousse Magazine, Droste Effect, and Flash Art International. Siegel is currently an Armory Fellow, she was also awarded a Word Grant, Dream Lab Fellowship, Culture Lab Fellowship, and Six Points Fellowship. She is the director of the artist run gallery and community space Actual Size Los Angeles. Actual Size collaborates with established and emerging artists to animate the exhibition experience and engage the public. She received her BFA from Bard College and is currently pursuing an MFA with a concentration in Curatorial and Critical Studies from University of California, Irvine.
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