Current Exhibition
Bear Your Banner To Zion
28.4.25-04.07.25
In celebration of Israel’s 77th Independence Day, the Engel Gallery cordially invites you to a contemporary group exhibition on flags, banners and miracles.
In the exhibition we will exhibit thirteen artists, most of them contemporary, whose artworks feature all different facets of this loaded subject: Yaacov Agam, Moshe El-Nathan, Yoav Ben Dov, Arie Berkowitz, David Gerstein, Arik Weiss, Jack Jano, David (Duchi) Cohen, Meidad Landoy, Mira Maylor, Refael Maimon & Uzi Amrani.
The flag as a national symbol in its political aspect has been featured greatly in the news lately, especially since the war began. David Gerstein for example paints, as if documenting in an almost journalistic manner, the protestors bearing the Israeli flag on their shoulder. Uzi Amrani, who saw the tears in Israeli society sought to sew them back, creating a quilt, made of flags, as if saying ” we need consolation”.
Some of the artists study the history of the flag, Yoav Ben Dov paints the flag as it was drawn on the Ink Flag, as a full star, which he coats in gold leaf. On the one hand this shows the miracle of the flag’s creation (and in the same manner the county’s creation), and on the other hand using the unforgettable and iconic yellow Star of David that was used to mark Jews in diaspora. Mira Maylor researches the origins of the Star of David, and so finds the White Lily, a flower that returns many times in Jewish history in various manners, from pillar ornaments to coins and some suppose, Maylor among them, that it is the inspiration for the Star of David.
But what about the miracle? In Hebrew “נס” (Ness) is a homonym that means both banner and miracle. Rafael Maimon who studies Israeli history and nostalgia, discovered the story of the miracle that is the construction of the reactor in Dimona, and how one of the biggest donators to its creation is the former owner of the French soda water, Perrier. Maimon paints the Perrier bottle standing proudly on the flag of Isreal, taking the place of the Star of David. On the other hand, Yaacov Agam’s artwork “Hope”, deconstructs the Star of David to many colorful fragments, which reunite as the artwork moves, as a flag waving in the wind.
