Orna Ben-Ami, Displacement and Memory - (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

An entirely new retrospective survey of the work of Israeli artist Orna Ben-Ami, including her monumental public works, from the early 1990s to the present day.

Orna Ben-Ami sculpts by cutting and welding iron. She also creates unique artworks by attaching her iron sculptures to flat photographic prints. The artist first started to learn gold and silversmithing at the Jerusalem Technological Centre, before studying sculpture at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC between 1990 and 1992. She became fully engaged in sculpture in 1994, using iron as the principal raw material both for her artistic expression and for the preservation of private and collective memories, particularly the memories of transient and displaced people.

This retrospective volume presents 195 key artworks covering the major influences Ben-Ami has drawn upon since the early 1990s. These include Jews in Europe that were forced to leave to the Ghetto during WWII, Syrian and African refugees from the last 30 years, the destruction of life and houses in the Israeli villages around the Gaza Strip during and post October 7, 2023, and Palestinian child refugees within the Gaza Strip.

Accompanies the opening of a major exhibition of Ben-Ami's work at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, in Washington DC.

About the Author

Ethan Bronner has been a journalist for more than four decades, covering Europe, Latin America, and the United States. He served four tours as a correspondent in Israel, including as New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief and Bloomberg Israel bureau chief.

David M. Furchgott lives in Charleston, South Carolina, after a forty-year career in Washington, DC, initially as the first executive director of the International Sculpture Center and the publisher of Sculpture magazine, and then as the founder of International Arts & Artists.

Dr. Orit Shaham Gover is chief curator at The Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv. Among other positions, she has been the chief curator of the archaeological site at Massada and curator of the exhibition center for the Knesset, Israel's Parliament.

Hana Kofler is a veteran independent curator. She was the chief curator of the Open Museum at Tefan and at the Beit-Ha'Gefen, the Arab-Jewish Cultural Center in Haifa, and has been the curator of the exhibition at Haifa's Festival of Festivals.

Dr. Gideon Ofrat is a leading Israeli art historian, art curator, and art critic, known internationally for his writing on the development of Israeli art, the theory of aesthetics, and general philosophy.

Dr. Jack Rasmussen is C. Nicholas Keating and Carleen B. Keating Director, The American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC.