Ophrah Shemesh (December 9, 1952) is an American artist, best known for her intense, existentially themed oil and tempera paintings of women and men. Ophrah Shemesh 2017-06-01

Early life and career

Born in Haifa, Israel, to Albert Shemesh 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. Shemesh studied at the

Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design () is a public college of design and art located in Jerusalem. Established in 1906 by Jewish painter and sculptor Boris Schatz, Bezalel is Israel's oldest institution of higher education and is considered the ...

in Jerusalem (1972-1976). In 1973, Israeli filmmaker and director

Amos Gitai Amos Gitai () is an artist and an Israelis, Israeli filmmaker, born 11 October 1950 in Haifa, Israel. Gitai's work was presented in several major retrospectives in Pompidou Center in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Lincoln Center for ...

cast her in a short film, ''My Mother at the Seashore'', and later gave her a leading role in ''Golem, the Spirit of Exile'' (1991), also starring

Hanna Schygulla Hanna Schygulla (; born 25 December 1943) is a German actress and chanson singer associated with the theater and film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. She first worked for Fassbinder in 1965 and became an active participant in the New German ...

Sam Fuller Samuel Michael Fuller (August 12, 1912 – October 30, 1997) was an American film director, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, and actor. He was known for directing low-budget genre movies with controversial themes, often made outside t ...

, and

Bernardo Bertolucci Bernardo Bertolucci ( ; ; 16 March 1941 – 26 November 2018) was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in the history of cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved inte ...

. Shemesh attended the

New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture The New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture at 8 West 8th Street, in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York State is an art school formed in 1963 by a group of students and their teacher, Mercedes Matter, all o ...

(NYSS) from 1979-1983. In 1986, she was one of a new group of teachers brought in by then dean, Bruce Gagnier, and has been a member of the faculty since. In 2009, she was interviewed by

Stanley Crouch Stanley Lawrence Crouch (December 14, 1945 – September 16, 2020) was an American cultural critic, poet, playwright, novelist, biographer, and syndicated columnist. He was known for his jazz criticism and his 2000 novel ''Don't the Moon Lo ...

as part of the NYSS Evening Lecture Series, "In Conversation with Stanley Crouch". Shemesh has also taught and spoken in a variety of other programs and symposia, including the

Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

, Kremer Pigments, the International School of Painting, Drawing and Sculpture, the Sicily Artist in Residence Program (SARP), and the College de France. Shemesh’s work is in the permanent collection of

Collezione Maramotti The Collezione Maramotti is the private collection of contemporary art of Achille Maramotti, who founded Max Mara. It is housed in the former premises of the company in Reggio Emilia, in Emilia Romagna in central Italy, converted for the purp ...

and appears in Mario Diacono (2012), ''Archetypes and Historicity: Painting and Other Radical Forms, 1995-2007'', ''Ophrah Shemesh: Silence of the Sirens, 2008-2011'', and Max Tomasinelli (2011), ''Portraits of Artists''.

Solo exhibitions

Ophrah Shemesh and model by Max Tomasinelli 2011

*Harms & Twombly, New York, NY, 2017 *Freight & Volume, New York, NY, 2008 *Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 2003 *Baumgartner Gallery, New York, NY, 2002 *Guy McIntyre Gallery, New York, NY, 1997 *Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston, MA, 1995 *Galleria S.A.L.E.S., Rome, Italy, 1995 *Galleria Philippe Daverio, Milan, Italy, 1992

Reviews

*Tosi, Barbara, “Tanti Retratti di Divi Non Illustri,” ''La Repubblica'', May 24, 1995. *Coen, Vittoria, “Ophrah Shemesh at Galleria S.A.L.E.S.,” ''Flash Art'', 1995. *Sherman, Mary, “Ophrah Shemesh, Mario Diacono,” ''ARTnews'', December 1995. *Ebony, David, “David Ebony’s Top Ten of 1997: Ophrah Shemesh at Guy McIntyre,” ''Artnet'', December 23, 1997. *Gagnier, Bruce Mitchel, “Ophrah Shemesh at Guy McIntyre,” ''Art in America'', September, 1998. *Goodman, Jonathan, “Ophrah Shemesh at Baumgartner,” ''Art in America'', February, 2003. *Amy, Michaël J., “Ophrah Shemesh: Freight + Volume,” ''Art in America'', November, 2008. *Cohen, David, “Deliciously Distressed,” ''New York Sun'', March 13, 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shemesh, Ophrah 1952 births 20th-century American painters 21st-century American painters 20th-century women painters 21st-century women painters Iraqi Jews Israeli people of Iraqi-Jewish descent New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture alumni New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture faculty Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design alumni Living people 20th-century American women painters 21st-century American women painters American women academics