Ophrah Shemesh (December 9, 1952) is an Israeli-American artist, best known for her intense, existentially themed oil and tempera paintings of women and men.[1][2][3]
Ophrah Shemesh at opening of Boundless, 2017
Early life and career
Born in Haifa, Israel, to Albert Shemesh[4] and Carmella-Daisy Levy. Albert was an important
Lehi (Fighters for the Freedom of Israel) activist in Iraq, before the creation of the state of Israel.[5] Shemesh studied at the
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design[6] in Jerusalem (1972-1976).
In 1973, Israeli filmmaker and director
Amos Gitai[7] cast her in a short film, My Mother at the Seashore,[8] and later gave her a leading role in Golem, the Spirit of Exile[9] (1991), also starring
Hanna Schygulla,
Sam Fuller, and
Bernardo Bertolucci.
Shemesh attended the
New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture (NYSS) from 1979-1983.[6] In 1986, she was one of a new group of teachers brought in by then dean, Bruce Gagnier,[10] and has been a member of the faculty since.[11] In 2009, she was interviewed by
Stanley Crouch as part of the NYSS Evening Lecture Series, "In Conversation with Stanley Crouch".[12] Shemesh has also taught and spoken in a variety of other programs and symposia, including the
Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts,[13] Kremer Pigments, the International School of Painting, Drawing and Sculpture,[14] the Sicily Artist in Residence Program (SARP),[15] and the College de France.[16]
Shemesh’s work is in the permanent collection of
Collezione Maramotti[17] and appears in Mario Diacono (2012), Archetypes and Historicity: Painting and Other Radical Forms, 1995-2007,[18]Ophrah Shemesh: Silence of the Sirens, 2008-2011,[19] and Max Tomasinelli (2011), Portraits of Artists.[20]
Solo exhibitions
Ophrah Shemesh and model by Max Tomasinelli for Portraits of Artists,[21] 2011