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About

Ziva Jelin was born at Kibbutz Beeri, Israel, in 1962, working and living there all her life. Had graduated Master and PhD at "Bar Ilan University" (2006-2016), B.Ed at "Hamidrasha" Bet Berl (1999-2002), Bachelor of Arts degree at "Hamidrasha" (1984-1987).

Director and curator of the "Beeri Gallery" (1994-2023), teacher of arts at "Nofei Habsor" high school (1987-2021), teaching theoretical issues in contemporary art, curatorship and arts at "Sapir" college (from 1999), Head of Arts Studies at Kaye Education College in Beer Sheva (2018-2025).

Exhibited in many galleries in Israel (since 1990), one of them was displayed at the "Tel Aviv Museum of Art" (2005).

Her main work is drawing but also displayed video art and sound pieces. Using mostly acrylic and wall-paint, varnish and tar on white fabric, working on large sized paintings, monochromatic in red and black, realistic. The works are based on old nostalgic photos from the archive of the kibbutz or on childhood and family albums, and also use contemporary photos of her environment, her home, trees, buildings, grass and sidewalks.

Jelin developed a private language that emerges from the realistic image to the poetic and expressive, deals with the place and the moment the photo was taken and at the same time, the image is damaged, ruined, dismantled, dissolves, leaks and vanishes, wondering between memories to forgetfulness.

The color reduction aims to cool the warmth in the sentimental and nostalgic materials, the redness of the picture creates an unreal, dreamy, delusional and sprinkling atmosphere, the oxygen vanishes from the air and the sky becomes heavy. The red filter creates another time sphere, it freezes and suffocates the time and air, everything stops moving and breathing but, the red is also burning, warming, frightening, emotional and erotic. From her point of view, the redness expresses the love to the people and the place, to her kibbutz, to the south area of Israel. In the late painting series, the red expresses feelings of pressure and stress, like something is closing on her.

The concept of subjective memory, the way each one of us as humans recall our past is extraordinary, so individual, so vulnerable. We all remember our childhood's smells, clothes, environment, neighborhood, trees, broken pavements and mostly, the way it felt to be there in those milliseconds of moments that we can recall. It is this familiar sensation that words cannot express, one picture that brings you back decades. We are not always remembering accurately, the memory fades with the years passing by but, the emotions always remain the same.

At the recent years Jelin works on sculptures made of brown wrapping paper and glue, empty like shells, memories of the furnishers.

Download Full CV (Hebrew)

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Copyright © 2025 by Ziva Jelin

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