Esther Cohen
AVAILABLE
Blue Lily
Squills
Yachin Boaz, his lips as rosses
Cyclamens
Vitex Angus Castus
Zafed
Olive branches in Jerusalem
Althea
STATEMENT
My paintings are inspired by rituals, narratives and cultural aspects and by the relationship between the wild and the man-made. My work challenges an inner cultural debate between heritage from the past and traditions that carry on to this day. The motifs in my work move between the symbolic and the poetic, while simultaneously investigating personal aspects and collective memory. In a detailed and refined painting technique, if it is oil on canvas, or drawing with pen on paper I always deal with mapping and the definition of actual and symbolic boundaries. I investigate the domestication of nature, while documenting the process of growth and withering in the wild, and corresponding with the old masters and botanist drawings in a criticizing and contemporary point of view. Through my body of work I invite the audience to observe closely and consider questions regarding identity, evolution and pertinence bringing to mind the dialectics between local and global, east and west, indoors and outdoors, nature and culture.
BIO
Esther Cohen (1972, Tel-Aviv, Israel) graduated from the Midrasha Academy of Fine Arts with distinction. Her work has been shown in Tel- Aviv Museum of art, Haifa Museum, Petah-Tikva Museum and The Artist House in Tel-Aviv among other venues. Her works are found in various collections.