Undertone
A duo exhibition by Arava Assaf and Meshi Cohen
Curator: Camea Smith
6.2.2025 - 8.3.2025
Installation photos: Adi Oz-Ari
In Undertone, paintings, sculptures, prints and engravings by artists Arava Assaf and Meshi Cohen divide the gallery space into internal structures, serving as openings to observe and cross through. The physical experience of transitioning through threshold-like states is reflected in the works through the artists’ actions that have left their marks on the materials: casting, engraving and wrapping.
Images of wreaths, thickets, and braids, along with those of cycles of birth, life and death, appear over and over again in the works. A circular movement runs through the works - in an etching of a ring of fire, in a carving of lush vegetation that swirls around itself, or in a hovering halo. While the works comprising the exhibition were created separately by each artist in her respective studio, recurring motifs in both of their works form a symbiotic relationship wherein themes of shedding and renewal, separation, deconstruction, and a multiplicity of layers, are shared.
Arava Assaf presents engravings and a monotype print made by imprinting charcoal on wax, alongside sculptural works that she crafts by connecting tiny particles to each other: fleshy pieces of silk paper form a pair of wings and silk fragments are stiffened to create an oval structure reminiscent of an umbilical cord.
Meshi Cohen carved into the thinnest layer of paper, an action that transforms the paper itself from surface to material. Her works are installed so that light shines through the images tattooed onto the paper, while the exhibition also includes sculptures cast by the artist in soil, silver, and brass, in which the body appears as absent-present.
The artists invent and develop personal and covert modes of working with a wide range of raw materials. Side by side, the works comprising the exhibition have a fine and fragile presence, as if on the verge of tearing or breaking. However, it is evident that both artists are deeply familiar with the qualities of the materials they use, skillfully preserving their works in their delicate and precarious entirety.
About the artists and curator
Arava Assaf is a multidisciplinary artist who holds both BFA and MFA degrees from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. She is a recipient the Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts grant (2022). Assaf has held solo exhibitions at the Bread and Roses Gallery and at the Pumphouse Gallery. She has participated in various group exhibitions, including at Alfred Gallery, Manofim Contemporary Art Festival, the New Gallery at the Teddy Artists' Studios in Jerusalem, the Fresh Paint Art Fair, Azrieli Gallery, and more.
Meshi Cohen is a multidisciplinary artist who holds a BFA degree in Fine Arts from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. She is the recipient of the Herman Struck Prize for Printmaking (2019). She has participated in various group exhibitions, including at the Binyamin Gallery, Alfred Gallery, and the Third Floor on the Left Gallery, as well as in art events such as "Under the Lantern" at Kibbutz Ein Shemer, Design Week at Hansen House in Jerusalem, and "Lifting the Switch" in Jaffa.
Kamia Smith is a curator and writer, who holds a BFA in Fine Arts from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. She is currently completing her Master's degree in Art History at the Hebrew University. She is a co-editor of an indie photography magazine and has curated several exhibitions, among others at the Barbur Gallery, the Beit Ariela Library, and P8 Gallery.
Bein Hashmashot: Between Night and Day; End – Edge – Addendum.
Today’s times are characterized by a sense of urgency which can lead to one-dimensionality, yet also invites a complex, “multi-focal” analysis. One cannot discuss the present without considering the past and building the future.
End: There is a sense that the imminent end is lingering in the air, boundaries have been crossed, the world order has been upended, and doubt has now been cast on assumptions that were once axioms. That which was once taken for granted is no longer certain. What is good and what is bad? How can one distinguish between the two? The word “end” signifies the finishing part, the point where the thing ceases to exist.
Threshold: The threshold is a gate, an opening one must pass through in the struggle to restore meaning, decorum, and standards. In order to recover, one must consent to sojourn in threshold spaces, in destruction and uncertainty. One must agree to touch upon loss, compromise, and change. One must push up against the edges and taste the ashes.
Addendum: Lingering within a sense of destruction, anxiety, and horror enables, in the end, hope to sprout. From wallowing in the depths, the cracked and broken areas, and from disease, separation, loss, and collapsed systems, a seed sprouts, breathing new life into the consciousness and the body and helping to identify the strength embodied within them.
Photos for Arava Assaf: Hadar Mitz
Photos for Meshi Cohen: Meshi Cohen