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-Amis work at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, in Washington DC.
Foreword by Dr. Jack Rasmussen
Introduction by David M. Furchgott
Dialogue with the Artist by Dr. Jack Rasmussen
The Iron Weight of Grief by Ethan Bronner
Letter from a Refugee by Aziz Kalo
Displacement and Memory
Neither Here nor There A poem by the artist
George Kadishs photographs
And Man was Forgotten by Dr. Gideon Ofrat
Tearing Kriah by Hana Kofler
Public and Private Commissions
The Sources of Orna Ben-Ami's Art
Her Luminous Name and Fortified Hand by Riki Daskal
Orna Ben-Ami, Curriculum Vitae
Index
Artist's Acknowledgments
Photo Credits
Ethan Bronner is a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist, Israel bureau chief and a senior editor for the Middle East at Bloomberg News David Furchgott is the former director of the International Sculpture Center and founder of International Arts & Artists Dr. Orit Shaham Gover is chief curator at The Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv. Hana Kofler is a veteran independent curator. Gideon Ofrat is a leading Israeli art historian, art curator, and art critic, who specializes in Israeli art Jack Rasmussen is the director and curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center
