While I was away, The Washington Post featured our Israeli show in an article on Saturday, April 26th.
video installations by Talia Keinan and Yael Bartana
Paul Richard has written another beautiful piece on an under-appreciated Washington master, Willem de Looper. Read it here and see de Looper's show at the American University Museum until May 18th.
I was going to write something really strong and inciteful about the undergraduate show here, but...
it came and went so fast! I got some images of my two favorite pieces, but... the show came down before I could copy the artists' names from their labels. So... 
$5 to the first person who can name these artists. Professor Spaulding is not eligible.
We opened four new shows today, and boy are we tired. Tonight, the undergraduate students in the Art Department have their own reception, and I will try to write something about these REALLY YOUNG artists (compared to me, at least). The undergraduates will be up until April 6th, so grab your checkbook and buy before they know what hit them. I will pick my favorites and report back (I should know better).
This Exhibit, opening April 1st, celebrates Israel’s 60th anniversary by presenting the work of fifteen contemporary Israeli artists. We believe it is the largest, most varied, and most innovative exhibit of contemporary Israeli art ever mounted in Washington, DC. The exhibit is a collaboration among the American University Museum , the university’s Center for Israel Studies, and the Naomi and Nehemiah Cohen Foundation. The theme deals with the physical, intellectual, and emotional landscape of Israel today, as interpreted by its artists.
My curatorial collaborators were Russell Stone, Director of the Center for Israel Studies, andDalia Levin, Director of the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art in Herliya, Israel. We agreed from the start that this exhibition would celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel, but it would not be a public relations effort or “official” view. We were interested in what contemporary artists could tell us about Israel today. The questions raised by the artists were not unlike those I have encountered working with artists from the United States. In a very real sense, artists work to help us see ourselves as we really are (a truly subversive activity). It is a tribute to our democracies that we can listen to what they have to say.
Eli Gur Arie, Shai Azoulay, Yael Bartana, Ori Gersht, Talia Keinen, Miki Kratsman, Roi Kuper, Uri Nir, Yulia Rabesky, Tal Shochat, Jan Tichy, Yanai Toister, Orit Siman Tov, Gal Weinstein, Sharon Ya'ari
Continues through May 18, 2008
Nice Pick in today's Washington Post!