Elie Shamir (Born 1953, Kfar Yehoshua, Israel)
Since graduating from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, Shamir has participated in many exhibitions in Israel and abroad. After years spent in Jerusalem and Boston, Shamir returned to Kfar Yehoshua village in 1999 and resettled there, as the third generation of the place’s founders.
The issue of place is present with great force and complexity in Shamir’s work; aspects of this issue pertain, among others, to that tangled knot which is tied and unraveled throughout the generations between the Jew and the land, between the immigrant and the native-born, between the local Arab and the Hebrew pioneer and his vision, between the farmer and his field.
The clumps of earth in Shamir’s paintings are placed on geological strata charged with biblical past, with primeval culture, with Zionist history, with socio-economic ideology, with artistic tradition but also with his own personal family story. Kfar Yehoshua is both a personal, specific case of an agricultural village in the valley of Jezre’el, and the story of a local ethos and starting point for fundamental questions about place.
ELIE SHAMIR CV
Born 1953, Israel
Lives and works in Kfar Yeohsua
EDUCATION
1981 BFA, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem
1996 MA, Based on exhibitions and publications
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2013 “Kfar Yehoshua”, Zemack Contemporary Art’ Tel Aviv
2009 “EMEK- On the road to Kfar Yehoshua”, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv
2003 “Paintings 1995-2003”, Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv
1999 “Portraits” the Gallery at “Oranim”, College for Art Education
1998 “Elie Shamir, Kfar Yehoshua, Jesreel Valley”, Memorial Center, Kiriat Tivon
1997 “Portraits”, Gallery of the Visual Art College, Beer Sheva
1994 “Paintings and works on photographic paper”, Binet Gallery, Tel-Aviv
1993 “Paintings and works on photographic paper”, Ashuah-Irving Gallery, Boston
1991 “Paintings and objects”, Different Angle Gallery, Boston
1990 “Paintings”, Wessel Library Gallery, Tufts University
1989 “Paintings”, Gallery of the Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem
1989 “Objects and painting”, Mabat Art Gallery, Tel Aviv
1987 “Paintings”, Meimad Art Gallery, Tel-Aviv
1986 “Paintings”, Meimad Kathan Gallery, Tel-Aviv
1986 “Paintings”, Artists House, Jerusalem
1984 “Paintings”, Tatrama Gallery, Tel Aviv
1984 “Paintings”, Debel Gallery, Jerusalem
1972 “Drawings”, International Culture Center for youth, Jerusalem
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2016 40,30,20, Zemack Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv
2014 “The giving tree”, Um El Fahm art gallery Islamic Museum, Jerusalem
2011 “BP Portrait Award”, the National Portrait Gallery, London
2009 “The Rebels”, The new gallery in Ofakim, Ofakim
2009 “Constellation-Israeli Contemporary Art” Ermanno Tedeschi Gallery, Rome
2009 “As is”, Vittoriano Museum, Rome
2008 “BP Portrait Award”, National Portrait Gallery, London
2006 “Winners of the Culture and Education Ministry award”, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
2005 “Die Hebräer”, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin
2003 “Art of the 80`s”, Gallery of Oranim, College of Art Education
2003 “Water”, Tel Aviv Museum, Youth Wing, Tel Aviv
2003 “Shivat Tzion…”, Zman Leomanut, Tel Aviv
2002 “Portraits”, Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv
2002 “Focus on Paintings”, Haifa Museum, Haifa
2001 “Reshamim, Contemporary Drawings in Israel”, Bet Haomanim, Jerusalem
2001 “Landscapes”, Potsdam – Israel, Villa Grenzenlos, Potsdam, Germany
1999 “90 Years to Tel Aviv”, Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv
1998 “Voice of Respect, Yanko Dada Museum, Ein Hod
1998 “Earth”, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
1998 “The Gallery Artists”, Ice Gallery, NY
1997 “Family Stories”, Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv
1993 “Locus”, Contemporary Art from Israel, Fisher Gallery, LA, California
1989 “International Biennale of Prints”, Ljublijana, Yugoslavia
1986 “International Festival of Paintings, Cagne Sur Mer, France