Winter 2022

Click Here to Register

Ruth Weisberg

The Water Dancers

Tuesday, March 1st, 7-9 PM

Aline Mare

Mirabilia

Tuesday, March 1st, 7-9 PM

 Aline Mare began her career in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, coming out of a background of theatre, experimental film, and installation art. She was an early member of Collaborative Projects, a collective formed in downtown New York City and performed in a multi-media partnership, Erotic Psyche, a film and music extravaganza exploring the body and the senses, which toured extensively in Manhattan and Europe throughout the 80s. 

She completed undergraduate work at SUNY Buffalo’s Center for Media Studies and an MFA from San Francisco Art Institute, where she produced the film Saline’s Solution, a series of installations and performances that dealt with abortion from a feminist point of view,which garnered support and awards internationally, exhibiting at The Cinematheque in SF, The Whitney Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. She has received several grants and residencies including Fourwinds in Aureille, France, a 2015 Sino-American art tour in Shanghai, Starry Nights in New Mexico, Headlands Center for the Arts, Kala, Film Arts Foundation, New Langton Arts in SF and a New York State Residency for the Arts. 

 She continues to expand her work, concentrating on mixed media and installation, exploring the body and metaphors of nature and its transformative relationship to the human psyche and the state of our planet. New works have been exhibited locally and internationally in venues including the Griffin Museum, Turtle Bay Museum, Thoreau Center in San Francisco, the Santa Monica Museum, San Luis Obispo Museum, Castelli Gallery in Gainsville Georgia, the 2019 Jerusalem Biennial, and MOAH Museum in Lancaster, CA. Recent shows include the Mike Kelley Gallery, George Billis Gallery, Noysky Projects, Sturt Haaga Gallery, Jill Joy Gallery, SOLA Gallery, Open Mind Space and Wonzimer Gallery in Los Angeles. Her work is included in several private collections in the Bay Area, New York City, China, and Los Angeles.

Artist Statement

I interpret our world through the lens of science and art to shed light on the relationship between the environment and human nature. I work with a hybrid form of painting, photography, and installation, synthesizing my aesthetic sensibilities with a deep interest in the natural cycles of the earth.  

My process often begins with hand painted transparent surfaces scratched and marked with abstracted gestures. Using the illumination of the scanning machine as an original light source, I combine painted backgrounds with collected objects from the natural world and reclaimed photo-based imagery. I use a layering of sources—- from fossils and lichen, to egg shells and wasp nests—- scanned from my ongoing library of living artifacts; printing and painting on metal, glass, canvas and archival papers in a multi-tiered and visceral process. 

In my most recent work, I am returning to installation formats, integrating the materials used in my body of imagery, such as salt, seeds, and mica sheets, to create rich, immersive sculptural experiences.

Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik

Paper Golems: A Pandemic Diary

Tuesday, March 1st, 7-9 PM

Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik is a Jewish artist living in Southern California. He cuts up comic books and reassembles them into work made of clean lines and patterns, sinuous shapes and sharp edges, large fields of color and small intimate spaces.

Isaac exhibits his work in galleries around the country, and regularly speaks about the intersection of art and Judaism. He is on the Executive Board of Jewish Artists Initiative, committed to fostering visual art by Jewish artists and promoting dialogue about Jewish identity and related issues. His work is regularly featured in print and online, including recent articles in The Forward, L.A. Weekly, Cleveland Jewish News, and KCET's “Artbound” series.

He has been the artist-in-residence for the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial, was a Teaching Fellow at American Jewish University's Dream Lab, his portrait of Benjamin Netanyahu was included in an exhibition at the 2019 Jerusalem Biennale, and he received a juror's award in the "Heroes & Villains" show at the Annmarie Arts Center (affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution). 

Artist’s Statement

My work explores the role of narrative in the development and expression of identity. I work in paper because I like its fragility and its place as our primary medium for telling and sharing stories across generations. It is both ephemeral and constant.

I work with the stories and traditions primarily of the Jewish people, though other peoples and cultures enter into my papercuts as well. These are filtered through the twin lenses of the traditional art form of papercutting and contemporary pop culture storytelling techniques.

My work is visual biblical commentary; I call it “paper midrash.” I always begin with text — often bible and other traditional sources, but also the words of poets and musicians. My work is influenced by elements of the natural world and how tradition understands its connection to the Divine: for example the burning bush, the parting of the Red Sea, the revelation at Sinai.

I layer cut-up comic books into my work, drawing parallels between comic book mythologies and religious traditions to delve into the stories that make us human. Comic superheroes exist outside of the “natural” world, be they visitors from other planets or people whose powers stem from strange scientific accidents; they have weaknesses and flaws, and their struggles are often a metaphor for the human experience. I bring these different types of stories together in the layers of my papercuts, searching for new meanings in these combinations.

Spring 2022

Student Fine Art Show

Curated by Professor Patty Wickman, UCLA School of Arts & Architecture

Juried by Carmen Argote

Thursday, May 19th, 6-8PM

Hillel at UCLA will be having the Student Fine Art show opening in the Spring quarter of 2022. We invite all undergraduate students to participate in the contest and share their beautiful ideas and artistic work with Hillel and the public. We want students to have the liberty to create anything possible with their imagination so submissions can be anything. *No nudity* In previous years, we received paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, even collages, and strange and exotic pieces of work, and many more so we encourage students to get creative and get motivated! We will be giving out prizes to the winning students.

"The Phylliss and Lou Mann Prize for Excellence in the Arts at UCLA Hillel"

1st prize: $1000
2nd prize: $500

Deadline for submissions: Friday March 18, 2022

Contact Perla for additional information:
[email protected] | (310) 208-3081 Ext. 108

Generously funded by Mindy and Robert Mann & the Stratton-Petit Foundation 

Student Photo Contest

-Diversity and Inclusion-

The Dortort Center Galleries are located at Hillel at UCLA. The public is invited to view our exhibits Monday through Friday from 10:00am to 4:00pm (or at other times by special request) when school is in session.

For questions, please contact Perla Karney at 310-208-3081 x108 or [email protected]