Born in Fez, Morocco, immigrated to Israel at early age and settled in Shlomi.
a graduate of the BezalelAcademy.
In his works, Jano creates models of tombs and synagogues made of rusty and disintegrating iron, worn-out books, melted wax, yahrzeit candles, and other materials. All these are fused into a sculptural design that revives the various elements and gives them both a religious and artistic validity.
The pictures of the righteous persons and the portraits made by Jano are a kind of an experiment in practical magic, while raising questions regarding identity and connection with popular ritual tradition. In the works inspired by a trip to Morocco, the artist's land of birth, popular folklore is reflected, too, through a post-orientalistic view, free of any exotics.
His 'journey' works – wheelbarrows in which books or ritual articles are stacked, as well as his works based oh wheelchairs – do not express a journey derived from a deep nostalgia towards the Diasporaand in the footsteps of the 'generation of the wilderness', but rather an internal journey of self-exploration.
The arched structures created by Jano, a combination of models of tombs of righteous Jewish persons and of Arab sheikhs, undermine the dichotomy between 'Arab' and 'Jewish' in order to make the relationship between them visible, a relationship that the Israeli society t keeps strictly oppressed and excluded.
Thus, Jano's work draws upon the world of Jewish tradition, and in his objects, the border between an aesthetic object and a magical one is sometimes blurred. 'My studio is like a synagogue. There I pray to God to help me find my truth, so I can become one with what I do' testifies the artist.
Thus, Jano's deployment of artifacts from the religious world is not an act of defamiliarization but an act of hybridization, pointing to the difficulty of placing traditionalism within a definite sociological framework. This difficulty emerges from the refusal of Jews from Arab countries to be classified by the European categories of 'religious' and 'secular'. Against this background, Jano's work succeeds in capturing complex hybridization between religion and secularity, and not just replacing one of them with the other. In this, actually, lies its true power.
- David Sperber, Jack Jano: Complex Hybridization between Religion and Secularity.
Selected exhibitions of Jack Jano:
1977 Marocan Dinner, solo exhibition, Acme Gallery, London
1979 Portrait painting on stone & pavement, Street Art in Jerusalem
1983 Solo exhibition, Alon Gallery, Jerusalem
1984 Eighty Years of Sculpture, group exhibition, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
1986 Solo exhibition, Jerusalem Artist's House
1986 Solo exhibition, Maryanne Mccarthy Gallery, New- York
1986 Group Exhibition, Spring Street Gallery, New- York
1987 Am Israel, one- man exhibition, Gimmel Gallery, Jerusalem
1988 one- man exhibition, Aika Gallery, Jerusalem
1988 Group Exhibition, Memad Gallery, Tel Aviv
1990 Portraits, O.K Harris Gallery, New York
1990 Solo exhibition, Yavne Artist's House, Yavne
1992 Jack Jano- Works, solo exhibition, Uri & Rami Nechushtan Museum,
Kibbutz Ashdot Ya'acov
1992 Sculpture Biennale, Ein Hod, Israel
1993 Anonymous…, group exhibition, Herzeliya Museum
1994 Sculpture and paper scathes, solo exhibition, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
1995 Journey, one- man exhibition, Ashdod Museum
1996 Ktav, group exhibition, Ackland Museum, North Carolina
1996 Jack Jano, solo exhibition, O.K Harris Gallery, New York
1997 House of Life, solo exhibition, Omanut La'am
1998 I Am, group exhibition, Tel-Hai Museum
1999 I'll Be What I'll Be, solo exhibition, Omanut La'am
2000 Troubadour, solo exhibition, Ramat-Gan Museum
2000 I.D 2000, group exhibition, Jerusalem Festival
2002 The Limits of Sculpture, group exhibition, Tefer Museum, Omer
2002 Inside Sees Outside, Janco- Dada Museum, Ein-Hod
2003 This Is How You Do, group exhibition, Zman Le'Omanot, Tel Aviv
2004 The Banquet, Mishkan Amanim, Herzeliya
2004 Jerusalem- Walls of Sacredness, group exhibition, Bar- David Museum,
Kibbutz Bar Am
2004 Object, Holiness and Ritual, group exhibition, Nashville Museum, Tennessee
2005 Rachel Grave, Center of Israeli Art, Munich, Germany
2006 Mini Israel (curated by Larry Abramson), group exhibition, Israel Museum
2006 Text and Ritual, solo exhibition, Bar- David Museum, Kibbutz Bar Am
2007 Resurrector of the Dead, solo exhibition, Uri & Rami Nechushtan Museum,
Kibbutz Ashdot Yaakov
2007 Sculpture- A strange Language, group exhibition, Artists House, Tel Aviv.
2007 Oh, My Country, group exhibition, Artists House, Tel Aviv.
2007 One & All, group exhibition, Artists House, Jerusalem.
2008 Nikvot (Aqueducts), Solo exhibition, Constant Sculptor Gallery,
Ramat Gan
2008 Signatorius, group exhibition, Engel Gallery, Tel Aviv.
2008 Where Am I Going?, solo exhibition, High-Touch, Herzelya
2008 The Invisible Self Portrait, group exhibition, Engel Gallery, Tel Aviv
2008 And The Just Shall Live By his Faith, Art Jerusalem fair, Jerusalem.
2009 Jerusalem- Surface Fractures, group exhibition, Artists House, Jerusalem
2009 SoferStam- Hebrew Installation, one man exhibition, Enegl Gallery, Tel Aviv
2010 Trees, solo exhibition, artists' house, Tel Aviv
2010 Prayer, group exhibition, Wilfried Museum, Kibbutz Hazorea
2011 "Let My People Go", group exhibition, Engel gallery, Tel Aviv
2011 Frische- Mische, solo exhibition, Engel gallery, Tel Aviv
Awards:
1989 Israel Ministry of Culture- Young Artist
1991 La Cite Award
1994 Visual Arts Award of ministry of culture
1996 Eish Shalom Award
2001 Ministry of Education "Jewish Culture"
2006 Encouragement Prize of the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science
& Technology
Original artworks by Jack Jano can be found at the Engel Galleries Israeli art collection.
Engel Gallery - 100 Ben Yehuda St., Tel-Aviv
Tel. 03-5225637, Fax. 03-5226145
Engel Gallery - 13 Shlomzion Hamalka St., Jerusalem