Art Gallery Hotel Haifa - Art & Bauhouse

The modern combination of the words "to take something out of context" takes on a new meaning via the kettles statue of Ofra Amikam.
The statue's parts that are interwoven on top of each other like beads in a necklace no longer function as useful objects. The ceramic kettle is no longer capable of pouring a hot drink and one can no longer drink from the ceramic demitasse.
The traditional functions of the kettle and the demitasse have been replaced by the envelope of objects supporting textile forms and models, rhymes written from Hebrew songs and artificial flowers modeled after the natural environment of the artist in the Galilee.
When this formal and colorful abundance tempts the observer to draw closer, the latter will find him/herself reading the words of the song marked on the kettle, some of which relate to the shattering of frameworks and instruments.
The words of the songs, the artificial local flowers and the road maps sketching imaginary links between places, offer the chance to read anew the phenomena and the contexts that envelop us on all sides.

In his creation, Uri uses cutting edge combinations, innovatively using images with material, shapes, colors and various meanings and significances. At the same time, his photographical compositions send out a message of both power and softness.
The photo series is printed on galvanized tin: this material, goes through anti-rusting process, thus creating playful lights and colors dancing on the surface; leading to dreamy thoughts of the beauty and fragility of life itself… Born 1959 in Tel aviv.
Studied Biochemistry and Psychology; works in Psychology and Photography.

In various corners of the Art Hotel's open spaces are positioned the bookshelves of Orna Oren Izraeli.
The shelves contain wooden beams, artifacts and books that have long lost their original significance, becoming objects, while interfused with them are historical episodes together with cultural and personal narratives.
This is an attempt at writing a material autobiography expressing the emotional experience involved in the meaning of the library and bookshelves parallel to the narratives dealing with searching for home and domesticity, voyage, wanderings and observing human society.
The world of used books linked to the essence of a personal and public library connects to the feeling of human proximity, the touch of paper and smells of material, caressing and eye contact, the sense of body and the vibrancy of human contact that is the foundation of a reformed cultural society.

Ahmed Kena'an creates combinations and inbreeding between geometrical colorful patterns and a contemporary statement of the loss and search after a Palestinian identity. The colorful decorations represent the Muslim legacy to which the artist belongs to; presented in his painting as a grid screen with holes or a dividing blurring screen through which one can see the whispers of the heart, ideas and other contents.
The horse image, usually with a rider on its back, represents the missing leader and the longing for unity, leadership, bringing together the individuals.
The observer finds himself moving between parts and layers like the artist, struggling to connect and put together the sights and the significances into one whole image 

Giora makes furniture and objects that meticulously combine what is old and traditional with new and cotemporary spirit.
The dominant material in Giora's work is iron, natural and exposed in its raw color, sending intensive vibes of power and mass Furniture were detailed and thoughtfully placed in the corners and spaces of the Gallery hotel, within the intention of creating a functional work station.
Designed furniture that invites its guests to comfortably sit, whether to rest or write, or to observe the interesting surroundings

The Mezuzahs at the hotel, which can be seen at all the rooms and event halls entrance, are not identical, and were created in a unique technique by the artist Gila Klein.
Gila started working as an artist on 2004, and in a short time became an expert with glass and ceramic art works

In an endless patience, Hagar Heffetz joins her mosaic pieces together one to the other, and in attentive scrutiny to details, slowly but surely they create the whole scene.
The complexity of the work intrigues the viewer to come explore the details up close and back again, they challenge the viewer to examine, to deeply observe. The ancient mosaic technique, with scents of classic art of Greece and Rome, are used in Hagar's hands for her personal creations of works that portray visions of private memories, flirting with the language of contemporary art…
Hagar Heffetz's mosaics can be found in many collections, presented in public and private centers (such as Bill Gates residence).

Jacques Jano's statue roof is located at the edge of the bronze floor, overlooking Haifa that lies along the Mediterranean sea. The Hebrew word for roof : "gag" defines the upper cover of a house as well as the horizontal topmost line of the Hebrew letter.
Jano's statues are made of rusty, earthly iron. They put across longing to spiritual heights through shapes of ships and synagogues, trees, letters and maps of Israel.
The shades of light blue and turquoise of the statues stress the dialogue between the spiritual and the tangible, the old and new, memory and preservation and between judaical and secularity.

Figurative visions rich in symbols that rely on Jewish texts are intertwined and invite as well as challenge the reader to read and explore. Images of angels, light, faith, abundance, Kabala and mysticism bear, fresh and original Jewish symbols.
This is contemporary Judaica that expresses the ideas of the artist who strives to achieve union between the Jewish spiritual world and the secular real world in which he lives. The aspiration to decipher the meaning of the human existence and the search for pronounced inner truth inspire Gilinsky to create complex images that combine text and image.
All this is led by the need to demonstrate and draw the abstract through the magical ever green forests of the mind that is secretive, enchanted and fascinating.

The signs at the hotel, were created by the ceramic artist Jasmin Klivner.
Creating the signs, Jasmin had to develop a new technique, which, together with her highly skills, came out as a beautifull unique product. The signs can be seen all over the hotel; by the rooms, the galleries, the event halls, the SPA and the exit of the lift

Yaakov Hefetz's series of works "The response sketches" is hung on the doors of the rooms of the olive floor. In their walk along the corridor, the hotel guests are welcome to restore the journey that the observing and conscious artist experienced while he responds to ideas, mnemonics, pictures as well as personal and collective memories, cultural references and a plethora of thoughts and feelings…
all of which are accompanied by the image of a asking and noting down hand that attempts to carry out the spirit of things in the matter. Yaacov Hefetz is a multi-disciplinary artist who studies the Israeli culture and natural environment through drawing, sculpting and architecture.

Mirit Cohen Caspi's evoke curiosity and create suspense.
The viewers find themselves getting closer to the works that convey elegancy and restraint, discipline and precise esthetics.
One might get a strange feeling while trying to take in the humoristic and absurd situations that are revealed as one comes closer to the works whose common denominator is the human image its fragility and the connection between the feminine and the masculine.
Mirit Cohen Caspi mixes images of masculine body parts with "feminine" actions of knitting and weaving and interlaces the ties between inner essence and outer form and between the body feeling and the image. She creates hybrid, intriguing and enigmatic situations that are thought provoking.
Mirit Cohen Caspi, multi-disciplinary artist, head of the Art department in Wizo Design High School, Haifa.

Between the storeys and near the staircases are the displays with Marwahat Isa's ceramic works. Marwaht's identity as an artist is based on her connection to the place, time and personal as well as collective memory of Biram refugees where her family was uprooted.
The only connection they were allowed to have with their roots is the church and the cemetery that are in the old village where they gather for weddings and funerals.
Marwahat asks questions about these two ceremonies from personal, social, religious and political points of view.
The main motifs she uses are icons, crowns, sanctified bread which she turns into pitas and handkerchiefs to wipe the tears of sorrow and pain in the funerals and happiness at weddings.

The people that Naama Aharonson sculpt with papier-mache live on the thin line between accurate imitation of well known scenes of reality and baffling and unsolved anonymity. The sculptor transfers the material from soft, expendable and vulnerable material into a material that is strong and hard as rock.
In her handling of the characters, Aharonson goes through an inquisitive journey into human behavior. The statue "in the cinema" depicts a well-known situation inviting the viewer to observe and reveal signs of identity and personality through body language.
"Cinema" is made of: net, newspaper, colored paper, glue and polish

Sarafan is the women's clothing that was worn by women in Israel before and the state was established and in its early days when the top priority was to build a home for the Jewish people.

Nava Harel Shoshani forges and mounts with grey concrete a group of colorful symbols in order to renew and refresh the ideas and conceptions that relate to well known symbols.

Red shoelaces were attached to the table cloth taken from the parents' house and symbolizing the youth movements and the sabra which stands for the Israeli born Jew and Arab.
All the symbols refer to the aggregation of collective and the individual's memories pertaining to the settlement of Israel.

'No account' (hotel reception) and 'the dressmaker' (western end of the Olive floor) are an integration of the works of a number of leading ceramic artists celebrating the cooperation and team work that is the flagship of the hotel.
Nava Shiloni Raz, producer of conferences and events, copywriter, gathers and assembles artists to create humoristic and light exhibits in which the whole is bigger and happier than the sum of its parts.

The findings, fossils and drawings that Nona Orbach presents in the square gallery reveal an underground world packed with the remains of obsolescent cultures. As the artist travels in time between the ancient world and the modern one, she promotes the insignificant materials that our society emits (go down immediately) to a level of scarcity making them worthy of being presented in a glass display case. This way the viewer is introduced to the view point of an archeologist or a nature researcher that observes her environment and draws conclusions that pertain to culture, nature and especially human nature.
The images of the boat, the cypress, the leaf, the pitcher and the wheel which are all ancient archetypes hold a conversation with the testimony tables that contain fossils of the remains of a contemporary culture and with an old fuse box that is fixed to the wall and was left as a memento and evidence.
The fuse box, that in its life had managed to supply energy and electricity to the building rooms, opens its gates as if it is also presenting its content in the context of that at the exhibition and so shares the story of local identity that unfolds among its parts and deals with issues such as remembrance and oblivion, the ancient world opposite the world that is swiftly stepping forward.
Nona Orbach, multi-disciplinary artist, therapist

The group of work called Neighbors, is currently presented in the classic dining room of hotel Gallery. It is but a part of a wider sophisticated series creation by Salo called "A Local Code".
In this complex series, Salo creatively and inquisitly attempted to explore and decipher the local Israeli codes. His critic is served spiced up with his humorous touch, coming from his unique perspective, humoristic and amused. Salo's artistic language is planted with other various visual codes from around the world. Hints, starting from our proximate Egyptian artistic lingo and all the way from Aztec and Maya art in the distant Mexico…

Salo Solomon Shaul, is a multi-disciplinary artist, thus creating in various techniques of sculpting, ceramics, installation, painting and print; born in Mexico in 1947, studied architecture, photography, ceramics and sculpting.
Lives and creates in kibbutz Ein Gev.
His works are presented in many public and private collections.

The oil painting that is hung in the lobby leading to the treatment rooms of the hotel is a realistic painting that depicts a feminine image in an intimate situation.
Rachel Wolf conceptualizes painting as a process of learning and creating intimacy and relationship. She relates to human sensuality by using light, color and texture.

Orna Ben Ami presents a feminine version of iron work when she turns hard material of masculine symbolism into soft, intimate matter representation.
In the pair of works 'Him & Her', the artist exhibits a very humorous point of view on the concept of relationship, when she bends and welds hard metal into precise, delicate forms.
Orna Ben Ami’s artwork joins a collection of iron & metal works stationed at the 'Bronze' floor of Hotel Gallery ; thus engaging in a dialogue about relationships with the works of artist Mirit Cohen kaspi, placed right next to them.

The works of Dorit Feldman have to be read like a text in an open book, in which the shapes and colors conduct a dialog symbolizing the deciphering of the secrets linked to Jewish and Israeli culture.
To the left of the hotel entrance stands the statue "Habitat" relating to the Bauhaus building where the hotel is situated. Steel, white cement and glass, materials that characterized the style of international construction, are united in the statue together with a sketch of a typical Bauhaus building, existing and positioned together while their erect posture expresses the power and durability created when spirit and material fuse.
In the relaxation corner stand three works characterized by deep blue surfaces, combining sculptural elements relating to body and nature.
The color blue is linked to tranquility, harmony and flux and it arouses spiritual development and awareness, values that the artist addresses in her works.
Between veiling and hiding, body, nature and light, the artist grasps at the infinite beyond in order to reveal the concealed, to experience infinity and to approach as much as one can the core of one's heart.

The researchers of the Bible and mythologies think that the biblical term 'chasm' is parallel to the goddess Tiamat of the Mesopotamian mythology, the goddess of the primitive ocean and the enemy of the Creator.
In the artistic video work in front of us there is a young woman sitting on the bow of a yacht and reading out of an ancient book about the meanings of the sea in the culture. The camera goes up and down like waves and the words appear on the screen in Hebrew, Phoenician, Greek and Roman letters that represent a variety of cultures of the Mediterranean Basin.
The girl's sitting on the ship's bow is reminiscent of images of chiseled goddesses and women that are placed at the front of ancient ships that knew and respected the potency of the sea and the waves.
But it seems to this modern girl that she can control the sea…calm it down… solicit it…
Have the thousands of years that have elapsed since ancient times created a momentous change in man and humanity? What is that human need that makes man want to control nature and its power?

Dvora Morag explores the concept of a Home. While she draws images from her own private home, the way she uses stripes across the picture, divides it into more generic domestic scenes that can represent any household. The dining table, the kitchen, night lamp and other artifacts in her drawings are familiar to anyone viewing it, anywhere in the world. Her works capture a certain image and at the same time deletes any sign of it, leaving no trail of it. The stripes in fact create a distortion, disturbing the viewer's sight, thus looking through them as though they were peeping slits. There's distancing created by the ambiguousness of using objects so familiar, signs of earthly life surrounding us, but at the same time putting those stripes all across them. The power of light and color combined, along with the attempt to decipher the parts and put them together, corresponds with the space in which the works are exhibited. The hotel's restaurant is located in a place divided into levels; the upper part has vertical longitude windows through which light penetrates the room. Out of the spreading and shrinking of bright and dark vertical lines, within light and shade, between past, present and future, that is where Dvora Morag "assembles time".

Hagit Shahal's prints collection, focusing on pairs of women's shoes, sandals and flip-flops, is presented in the hotel's Spa and Treatment compound. It's a collection of little moments that represent familiar daily situations, human, specifically feminine. In simple means of lines and stains, in black and white only, Shahal puts those pairs of shoes that represent women everywhere, in the center stage. Exposed on the bare background of white paper, they reveal simplicity and fragileness, reminding us the vitality and life energy of the woman that took those shoes off her feet just seconds ago. They touch our hearts with their loneliness that stands out of the emptiness surrounding them; always in a pair, alone but not entirely.
Hagit Shahal, a veteran artist, focuses on portraits and objects that represent portraits.

Roni Packer is a young artist, taking her first step in her artistic journey.
Her paintings are characterized by strong, stormy color stains, some of which came rushing out straight from the paint tube and onto the canvas. The stains lay on each other, side by side with each other, in a generous spread. The momentum created between them hides images within, a personal language. The language speaks of a lamp or a street light shedding its glow on a passing couple; two circles, a glass of wine; a bowl of salad or red fruits, and more…
The passionate color fields create a sensation of dynamic movement and playfulness, salient in their vividness, sounding like a live vibrant band; expressing a young search, alive and fresh in motion, color and shape.

Liora Kanterewicz's artworks have unusual colorfulness that stands out, with shiny glittering materials, a polished finish and seductive images, all hiding serious social criticism. The shiny wall sculptures wrapped in lucent gift ribbons, remind us a field of artificial flowers that seem to send its beholders to seek a concealed meaning among the busy decorative frills. On the floor, stands a massive wooden armchair, rich with figurative metaphors. The front of the armchair is covered with the image from "The sacrifice of Isaac", a  Renaissance masterpiece by the Italian artist Caravaggio. The chair's backside is covered by prints shaped as a Mandalas, of heads of Palestinian women next to guns, whose barrels are cut in a way that prevents them from ever killing again.
Caravaggio, a prominent Renaissance artist & one of the founders of Baroque art in Europe in the 17th century, is characterized as working with contrasts, dramatic effects, flamboyancy, reach for emotion and imagination.
Liora Kanterewicz makes an educated use of art and its history. Her pieces send out a distinct message against violence and by using shiny signals, making a point that all is not gold that glitters …

Tomashev sets his journey into the layers that compile the visual form who meets the eye. Much like the work of an architect who builds the magnificent skyscrapers, Tomashov uses an opposite, multi-layered technique, that disassembles everything in sight just for the sake of rebuilding it, a little differently, giving that special something extra for those who see it. His technique includes using paper cut out patterns; by spraying paint in them, like street-graffiti artists, one can detect the connection between arts and architecture that comes together so perfectly in Hotel art Gallery, located in an historic Bauhaus building.
Amir Tomashov, an Architect and artist, honor graduate of the Architecture Faculty in the Technion and winner of the Azriely Award for architecture. Tomashov  teaches in the Bezalel academy and Architecture Faculty in the Technion.

The modern combination of the words "to take something out of context" takes on a new meaning via the kettles statue of Ofra Amikam.
The statue's parts that are interwoven on top of each other like beads in a necklace no longer function as useful objects. The ceramic kettle is no longer capable of pouring a hot drink and one can no longer drink from the ceramic demitasse.
The traditional functions of the kettle and the demitasse have been replaced by the envelope of objects supporting textile forms and models, rhymes written from Hebrew songs and artificial flowers modeled after the natural environment of the artist in the Galilee.
When this formal and colorful abundance tempts the observer to draw closer, the latter will find him/herself reading the words of the song marked on the kettle, some of which relate to the shattering of frameworks and instruments.
The words of the songs, the artificial local flowers and the road maps sketching imaginary links between places, offer the chance to read anew the phenomena and the contexts that envelop us on all sides.

The ancient cupping glasses that were formerly used for healing are transformed by Yael Bar Lev's hands into a modernistic contemporary statue.
The fragile cups float in perfect order between heaven and earth while attached to very fine threads. The transparent glass boxes positioned on the opposite wall contain scraps of jottings of a story embroidered in red thread on invisible transparent material.
Segments of the embroidery floating in the cavities of the transparent boxes join one another and suggest pictures from a distant childhood and various memories from old stories.
The frontal media that Bar Lev uses: transparencies, transparent boxes, embroidery and cupping glasses that enable a peek at cultural zones whose time has passed and which are no longer part of the real world.
These memories have not been lost and they still exist on invisible transparent planes, deep inside one's spirit, where they transcend cultures, ethnic groups and nations. In the lobby of the Art Gallery Hotel housed in the preserved Bauhaus building, the works of Bar Lev combine past and present, contemporary culture and ancient tradition.