Prizes in Art and Design from the Ministry of Science, Culture and Sport, 2007
April 13 - June 14, 2008
Curators: Tami Katz-Freiman and Tal Yahas
The exhibition of the 2007 prizes in art and design from the Ministry of Science, Culture and Sport presents the works of the 33 artists who have been awarded prizes in five categories: Life Achievement Award, the Ministry of Science, Culture and Sport Prize, Prize to Encourage Creativity, Prize for a Young Artist and Prize for Design. These prizes are given to encourage further creative endeavors, and in homage to artists who have made a significant contribution to Israeli culture.
The exhibition features works created by members of different generations working in a range of expressive idioms: painting, drawing, photography, video art, installation art, sculpture and design. This eclectic and thematically unrelated group of works reflects various trends and styles, and presents a cross section of contemporary art in Israel. This selection, which represents a range of artistic pursuits, allows for the examination of a wide range of creative endeavors across generations and mediums.
The artists included in the exhibition offer rich, critical and challenging ways of perceiving and interpreting a complex social and political reality. Indeed, this group of works may be thought of as a laboratory for diverse experiments and experiences, thoughts and reactions to the challenges posed by Israeli society. These works call for a discussion of numerous issues related to life in Israel and to current concerns, as well as to self-reflexive artistic preoccupations and universal themes: identity and the body; multiculturalism; the artist's role in society; the dynamic between the personal and the universal; the local landscape and its political resonances; and the relations between the local and the global.
The Haifa Museum of Art is proud to host the winning artists for the second time, and to introduce the public to new developments in local artmaking.
