Smadar Sheffi ( Hebrew: סמדר שפי) is the Chief Curator of the Contemporary Art Center, Ramle – CACR. She is an art critic, researcher of contemporary art and culture, and independent curator. Over past years, she has gained vast experience in curating exhibitions in historical structures, among them the Bialik House Museum, Jerusalem Artists House, Contemporary Art Center, Ramla-CACR, and the Pool of the Arches, Ramla. [1] Dr. Sheffi’s bilingual blog of art criticism and notes on contemporary culture, The Window, has been active since 2012. [2]
Smadar Sheffi holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is currently a lecturer at the COLLMAN-College of Management Academic Studies, Rishon Lezion. She is a past lecturer at the Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Institute for Israeli Art. [3] Her research interests, among others, are representations of the Holocaust in contemporary art, [4] Israeli art and Modernism. Sheffi’s doctoral dissertation, "From Vienna to Jerusalem: Forgotten portraits by Grete Wolf Krakauer", was written under the direction of Prof. Gannit Ankori.
Continuing her research on contemporary Israeli art, Dr. Sheffi recently delivered lectures at the Summer University for Jewish Studies, Hohenems, Austria (“Food in Modern Israeli Art”); The Jewish Museum, Munich (“Reflection on the ‘other’: The image of the Arab in Israeli Art”); and at the American University, Washington DC at the conference Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel (“Portraying states of uprootedness in Israeli art”).
Since 2013 Sheffi is the contemporary art curator of the Bialik Museum in Tel Aviv. [5] The curatorial program is focused on creating cultural linkage between the heritage of Israel's national poet H. N. Bialik (who was also a publisher, publicist and editor) and contemporary Israeli art and theory. [6] In 2023, the book "Art. Bialik." was published by the Municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo on the occasion of the 150th centennial events marking the birth of the national poet. The book is a compilation of the exhibitions 2013 - 2023 and an anthology of the writings by Bialik that inspired them. [7]
Dr. Sheffi is founder and Chief Curator of the CACR – Contemporary Art Center Ramla, an art initiative she launched in 2019. The curatorial program led by Dr. Sheffi embraces difference and multiple viewpoints as core values, addressing issues of diversity and civil society as reflected in contemporary Israeli art. [8] [9]
Dr. Sheffi is the art critic for Galei Zahal Radio since 2007, and for 20 years was the art critic for leading Haaretz. [10] She is the author of numerous catalog articles and gallery texts, an art consultant, and leader of in-depth Israeli and international art tours.
Smadar Sheffi ( Hebrew: סמדר שפי) is the Chief Curator of the Contemporary Art Center, Ramle – CACR. She is an art critic, researcher of contemporary art and culture, and independent curator. Over past years, she has gained vast experience in curating exhibitions in historical structures, among them the Bialik House Museum, Jerusalem Artists House, Contemporary Art Center, Ramla-CACR, and the Pool of the Arches, Ramla. [1] Dr. Sheffi’s bilingual blog of art criticism and notes on contemporary culture, The Window, has been active since 2012. [2]
Smadar Sheffi holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is currently a lecturer at the COLLMAN-College of Management Academic Studies, Rishon Lezion. She is a past lecturer at the Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Institute for Israeli Art. [3] Her research interests, among others, are representations of the Holocaust in contemporary art, [4] Israeli art and Modernism. Sheffi’s doctoral dissertation, "From Vienna to Jerusalem: Forgotten portraits by Grete Wolf Krakauer", was written under the direction of Prof. Gannit Ankori.
Continuing her research on contemporary Israeli art, Dr. Sheffi recently delivered lectures at the Summer University for Jewish Studies, Hohenems, Austria (“Food in Modern Israeli Art”); The Jewish Museum, Munich (“Reflection on the ‘other’: The image of the Arab in Israeli Art”); and at the American University, Washington DC at the conference Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel (“Portraying states of uprootedness in Israeli art”).
Since 2013 Sheffi is the contemporary art curator of the Bialik Museum in Tel Aviv. [5] The curatorial program is focused on creating cultural linkage between the heritage of Israel's national poet H. N. Bialik (who was also a publisher, publicist and editor) and contemporary Israeli art and theory. [6] In 2023, the book "Art. Bialik." was published by the Municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo on the occasion of the 150th centennial events marking the birth of the national poet. The book is a compilation of the exhibitions 2013 - 2023 and an anthology of the writings by Bialik that inspired them. [7]
Dr. Sheffi is founder and Chief Curator of the CACR – Contemporary Art Center Ramla, an art initiative she launched in 2019. The curatorial program led by Dr. Sheffi embraces difference and multiple viewpoints as core values, addressing issues of diversity and civil society as reflected in contemporary Israeli art. [8] [9]
Dr. Sheffi is the art critic for Galei Zahal Radio since 2007, and for 20 years was the art critic for leading Haaretz. [10] She is the author of numerous catalog articles and gallery texts, an art consultant, and leader of in-depth Israeli and international art tours.