Bloodline: The Artist's Family

Bloodline: The Artist’s Family

A group exhibition inspired by the painting The Artist's Wife (1946) by Avraham Naton
Artists: Daniel Enkaoua, Mati Elmaliach, Itamar Freed, Michele Bubacco, Sara Beninga, Youval Hai

Curator: Hadas Glazer

The exhibition Bloodline: The Artist's Family features works by established and emerging artists. The works explore the dual gaze of artists on their families, touching on questions of group and individual identity, childhood and adulthood, innate and acquired behavior, and time and memory.

Throughout the history of art family paintings were used as means to proclaim social status, power, and wealth. The evolvement of photography in the 19th century saw a great expansion of the representation of families in visual culture, mostly through portraits and group photos marking major life events. The photographs and paintings presented in this exhibition work together to create an elastic range of familial images in contemporary art – from documentary and processed photography to figurative to abstract painting – all stemming from personal stories, family photo albums, places, and memories. Beside portraying family members and dynamics, the artists raise social and universal issues concerning intimacy, fragility, and attachment. While seemingly idealized, a darker notion resides underneath: familial power struggles, silences, and uncomfortable truths. Together, the works establish a multi-dimensional vision of the “family” and offer a glance into a larger context and complexity that resonates with the viewer’s private memory.