Barricades
Absalon
Absalon (Meir Eshel) was born in 1964 in Ashdod. He lived and worked in Paris from 1987 until his untimely death in 1993. He studied at École nationale supérieure d’arts de Paris-Cergy; École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and Institute des Hautes Études en Arts Plastiques, Paris.
Absalon’s work comprises white architectural structures and models, video works, and drawings that explore living spaces, social structures, and seclusion. His most comprehensive project is ascetically minimalist interiors that he called Cellules (cells).
Absalon’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Israel and abroad. Selected solo exhibitions include Kaye Pesblum Gallery, Helsinki (1992); Tel Aviv Museum of Art (1992); Musée Sainte-Croix, Poitiers (1990); Ika Brown Gallery, Jerusalem (1990); Contemporary Art Centre of Ivry – Crédac, Ivry-sur-Seine (1989) as well as several posthumous exhibitions, dedicated to his works, including Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2013); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2012); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2010). In addition, Absalon participated in numerous group exhibitions, including Magasin III Museum for Contemporary Art, Stockholm, (Cell no. 6) (2001); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1991); Tramway, Glasgow (1990); Foundation Cartier, Paris (1990). He also participated in Documenta IX, Kassel (1992); the Istanbul Biennial (1992); and the 45th Venice Biennale (1993).
Gaston Zvi Ickowicz
Gaston Zvi Ickowicz was born in 1974 in Buenos Aires and immigrated to Israel in 1980. He lives and works in Jerusalem. Ickowicz graduated from Musrara School of Photography, Jerusalem, and the Continuing Education Unit in the Arts, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. He is a photography lecturer at Bezalel and at the Kibbutzim College, Tel Aviv.
Through photography and video, his works focus on the Israeli-Palestinian landscape and the interaction between man and landscape in a socio-political context.
Ickowicz’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Israel and abroad. Selected solo exhibitions include Hamidrasha Gallery, Tel Aviv (2022); Schechter Gallery, Tel Aviv (2021); Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art (2018); SMAC Berlin (2018); La Cite, Paris (2017); Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv (2016); Hezi Cohen Gallery, Tel Aviv (2015); Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2010). In addition, he has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including the Center for Digital Art, Holon; The Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem; Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv; Ashdod Art Museum; Mishkan Museum of Art, Ein Harod; Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; MARCO – Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome; Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
Shahar Yahalom
Shahar Yahalom was born in 1980 in Kibbutz Ein Dor. She lives and works in Tel Aviv-Yafo. She received a BFA from the Faculty of Arts, Hamidrasha at Beit Berl Academic College, and an MFA from Columbia University, New York. She is a lecturer at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem and the Faculty of Arts, Hamidrasha.
Yahalom’s practice oscillates between sculpture and drawing, creating compositions that challenge the familiar hierarchical relationships between human, animal, plant, and object.
Yahalom’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Israel and abroad. Selected solo exhibitions include Bat Yam Museum of Art (2022); GarageLab Gallery, Dusseldorf (2019); Odile Ouizeman Gallery, Paris (2019); Cabri Gallery, Kibbutz Cabri (2019); Noga Gallery of Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv (2018); Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2011). In addition, Yahalom has participated in numerous group exhibitions including Petach Tikva Museum of Art; Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Void Gallery, Derry; Zabludowicz Collection, London; Neiman Gallery, New York; Inside Out Art Museum, Beijing; Rutgers Gallery, New Brunswick; The Armory Show, New York; Aran Cravey Gallery, Los Angeles.
Saher Miari
Saher Miari was born in 1974 in Kufr Makr, where he lives and works. He acquired his BFA from the Faculty of Arts, Hamidrasha at Beit Berl Academic College, and his MFA from the University of Haifa. He is a lecturer at the Faculty of Arts, Hamidrasha, and initiates artistic projects in Arab communities in the north of Israel.
Miari’s work focuses on issues that concern him as an artist-builder, such as home and masonry, construction and destruction, dismantling and assembly, wandering and migration, interior and exterior, as well as harsh working conditions referred to as “black labor.” His works reflect the identity and complexity of the Palestinian Arab society living in Israel, as well as his own identity. Through his art he expresses his worldview and criticizes the local reality, aspiring to change and build a new reality based on a stable and reliable foundation.
Miari’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Israel. Selected solo exhibitions include the Lobby Art Space, Tel Aviv (2023); Kupferman Collection House, Kibbutz Lohamei Hageta’ot (2021); Hamidrasha Gallery, Tel Aviv (2020); Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery (2019); The Bezalel Photography Gallery, Jerusalem (2015); Cabri Gallery, Kibbutz Cabri (2012). He has participated in numerous group exhibitions including Zumu Acre; Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv; Nulobaz Cooperative Art Space, Tel Aviv; Haifa Museum of Art; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Pyramida, Contemporary Art Center, Haifa; Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv; Binyamin Gallery, Tel Aviv; Beit Ha’Gefen, Haifa.
