Mind watching

A new exhibition for longtime and respected artist Judith Englard

Englard, a self-taught artist whose expressive paintings are characterized by free and open abstract language and large and rich color surfaces. Englard's work deals with complex fundamental themes, which are a forerunner of Israelis and of human experience in general: abandonment, bereavement, immigration, change and transition.

Arie Berkowitz, Exhibition Curator:

"Judith Englard's works are made of layers, shapes, and symbols that imply urban landscapes, natural landscapes, and spiritual inspirations. For Judith, each painting is an adventure, a journey that begins in nature and continues within itself, as if to draw the landscapes from the natural environment into and apply them to Judith is a self-taught artist who has absorbed the art of her entire life and then published as a storm wind and a rich creative burst.

The exhibition leads the viewer on an experiential, spiritual and deep journey that connects to a sincere and deep poetic unit that operates at the seam line between the tangible and the conceptual. Englard presents in a rich and unique language autobiographical expressions of identity, memory, pain and oppression, along with optimism, coping and astonishment at the sublime nature and the wonders of creation. "

Prof. Haviva Pedaya:

"Englard's work is a laboratory for the treatment of complex basic themes, which are a forerunner of Israeli and human experience in general: abandonment, bereavement, immigration, change and transition .

The psychic and conscious inner landscape tangents in her works to an external landscape, and the resulting fabric is sometimes conciliatory and sometimes struggling, but always expresses a yearning to extract trapped reality. "

The background from which autodidactic artist Judith Englard, a conservative Iraqi house, emerged, exhibited a rigid attitude toward women, which almost never left the girl, with her independent spirit, the opportunity for true and liberated expression and the development of her aspirations. Her adult artistic work is an expression of the female subject, emphasizing ethnicity, Orientalism, gender and language.

Judith Englard: "All my life stations pass before me in pictures and images - not words. Basically, I am more of a woman of paintings, in which I bring my voice, imagination and poetry, through line, movement and color.

The characters I created in the "Immigrant" series, for example, deal with the issue of immigration and traumas I experienced as an immigrant child, from a different and unfamiliar background, in which I planted my pain and deprivation experiences at that time: real poverty, a hut on the riverbed that was flooded until there was room for our feet (my brother) The little one we put on the fridge in the corner of the hut, the only dry place left ...). And not just material poverty but also spiritual lack, self-erasure of our identity and exclusion from Israeli social space in those days. "

Judith Englard was born in Iraq in 1946 and immigrated to Israel with her family from Baghdad when she was five years old. Englard is a self-taught painter who has exhibited in many exhibitions in Israel and around the world. Her works are in private and public collections and, among other things, have also earned her the prestigious award from American Art Magazine Art Buzz .

In 2012, Englard presented her works in a single exhibition "Fausia" in the port of Jaffa, which was an important milestone in her development as an artist, and focused on the seam between her Israeli cultural identity and Arab origins. In 2019, Englard won the Achi Association Award, an association to encourage research, literature and the arts from the founders of Iraqi immigrants in Israel (which included, among others, writer Sami Michael, poet Ronnie Somek, composer and conductor Gil Shochat and more).

Englard: "I have built my authentic identity and unique artistic language myself, without any support or encouragement. All my life, I have struggled to get the 'different' - those whose lifestyles have not earned him a share of the 'privilege' population of art, graduates of institutions and art seminars. My work, like my resume, is the result of an undercut, obstinate way, through which I convey a message of boldness and adventure that propels me to individual and stubborn pursuit, and it is important for me to re-present the vision of a woman's spirit and I believe in female empowerment of all ages. , Male hegemony - especially in Eastern society, where women had no right to say, my works are a real cry out with a strong desire for change. "

Judith Englard is a bereaved mother. Growing up and raising a family of her own, she was delighted when her oldest son, who had severe kidney disease, passed away when he was just four. Some of her works express the pain and suffering she experiences, which have no balance, but they also have signs of hope and optimism.

Judith's works are a kind of incessant and spontaneous renewal that inspires a viewer to resonate with the response: "In my works I see the stars embrace, the warmth and closeness in nature, and I stand amazed and admired by the sublime of the universe around us and move on with great optimism, despite my difficult life course. Believes in the power of the line to build truths like the laws of nature. For me, abstraction is movement, like the steadfastness of nature that is in constant motion; like the clouds, like the trees, the waves and the wind. "

Artist House, Opening Hours:

Monday-Thursday 10.00-13.00, 17.00-19.00

Friday 10.00-13.00

Saturday 11.00-14.00

Tal. 03-5246685

www.artisthouse.co.il