Tamy Ben-Tor (; born 1975) is an Israeli

visual artist The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

Biography

Ben-Tor is one of a number of prominent female artists inventing characters and playing them herself, her work combines

performance A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Performance has evolved glo ...

with photography and/or video. Included in this lineage of artists are

Claude Cahun Claude Cahun (, born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob; 25 October 1894 – 8 December 1954) was a French surrealist photographer, sculptor, and writer. Schwob adopted the pseudonym Claude Cahun in 1914. Cahun is best known as a writer and self-portra ...

Eleanor Antin Eleanor Antin (née Fineman; February 27, 1935) is an American performance artist, film-maker, installation artist, conceptual artist, feminist artist, and university professor. Early life and education Eleanor Fineman was born in the Bronx o ...

, Martha Wilson and

Cindy Sherman Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. Her breakthrough work is often co ...

. Her themes draw on the social observation of daily life and

gender role A gender role, or sex role, is a social norm deemed appropriate or desirable for individuals based on their gender or sex. Gender roles are usually centered on conceptions of masculinity and femininity. The specifics regarding these gendered ...

s, but dig with more risky commentary into issues relating to Jewishness and Israel, her country of origin where she graduated from the School of Visual Theatre. Graduating then from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

's MFA Program in 2006, she lives and works in New York and shows with

Zach Feuer Gallery The Zach Feuer Gallery was a contemporary art gallery that operated from 2000 to 2016 in New York City; Hudson, New York; and Los Angeles. History Zach Feuer Gallery was founded in 2000 as the LFL Gallery by Nick Lawrence, Russell LaMontagne an ...

. Ben-Tor's work belongs to a generation of artists that use absurdity and humor to comment on serious ideas. Underlying her outlandish caricatures and purposefully lowtech artifice of minimal make-up and settings, is a fusion of illusion and a stupid-smart whiplash arriving at unexpected views into the complexity of the human condition. At the same time, Ben-Tor believes herself to be ahistorical in her own thinking. When asked about

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

's role in her work at a 2006 conference on the very topic, she claimed that she "doesn't think about feminism at all." She said "It is problematic to associate myself with any ideology," and referred to feminist positions as "weak." In October 2023, during the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

, Ben-Tor published a satirical video titled "Dear Hamas..." in which she caricatures a "liberal academic" who is "on the fence about the massacre of the babies".

Pro-Palestinian Palestinian nationalism is the national movement of the Palestinian people that espouses self-determination and sovereignty over the region of Palestine The region of Palestine, also known as historic Palestine, is a geographical ar ...

student groups at the

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

where she teaches have criticized the video and called for her dismissal. Ben-Tor, in agreement with the Hunter administration, has sent an apology letter explaining her position on the controversy.

Press

She has been profiled and reviewed by a range of major news outlets including ''

Art Forum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ × 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notably ...

,'' ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

,'' and ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

.'' In one such article Ken Johnson of ''The New York Times'' describes Ben-Tor as the, "

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...

of today's video art." The critic

Roberta Smith Roberta Smith (born 1948) is co-chief art critic of ''The New York Times'' and a lecturer on contemporary art. She is the first woman to hold that position at the Times. Education and early life Born in 1948 in New York City and raised in Lawre ...

has likened her work to the similarly shapeshifting works of Cindy Sherman.

Collections and awards

Tamy Ben-Tor has work in many public collections including The

Pérez Art Museum Miami Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)—officially known as the Jorge M. Pérez Art Museum of Miami-Dade County—is a contemporary art museum that relocated in 2013 to the Maurice A. Ferré Park in Downtown Miami, Florida. Founded in 1984 as the Cent ...

, The

Tel Aviv Museum of Art The Tel Aviv Museum of Art ( ''Muzeon Tel Aviv Leomanut'') is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. The museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of modern and contemporary art both from Israel and around the world. History The Tel Aviv ...

, The

Israel Museum The Israel Museum (, ''Muze'on Yisrael'', ) is an Art museum, art and archaeology museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world's leading Encyclopedic museum, encyclopa ...

, and The

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

. She has won numerous awards for her work including the

Foundation for Contemporary Art The Foundation for Contemporary Art (FCA) is a Ghanaian visual arts foundation that aims to create an active network of artists and provide a critical forum for the development of contemporary art in Ghana. Based on the name idea and respective fu ...

Grants to Artists award (2008), New York and Art Matters Foundation.

References

External links

Tamy Ben-Tor at the Zach Feuer Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ben-Tor, Tamy 1975 births Living people 21st-century Israeli women artists Israeli contemporary artists Columbia University School of the Arts alumni