Andi LaVine ARNOVITZ was born and raised in the United States. Her father and grandmother were in the fabrics and notions business and she grew up surrounded by women sewing. She received her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis and eventually immigrated to Israel at the age of forty. A conceptual artist, Arnovitz lives and works in Jerusalem a place that is an unending source of inspiration.
Her work focuses on the points of tension where politics, religion and gender meet. Of special interest are themes of modesty, repression/silencing of female voices, reproductive politics and religious coercion. She explores these themes within various media: printmaking -both etching and silkscreen, artist’s books, sculpture and installation. She uses paper, fabrics and other media to create art which both educates and simultaneously protests aspects of society which she deeply believes are in need of change.
Living in the Middle East, confronted by a society teeming with political, religious, and class tension, Arnovitz feels challenged to transmit her experience visually. She began repurposing religious items into her work, mimicking the gesticulations of Jewish tradition in her re-appropriation of ritual objects. She describes the inception of her methodology: “I started tearing and rolling paper... we’re the ‘people of book,’ so paper figures enormously.”
Arnovitz also explored and investigated subcultures and segregated minorities in Israel. Bursting with migrant workers from the Far East, Sudan and beyond, rife with obscure religious sects, her new home proved an ideal testing ground to examine outlier complexes. As an émigré, her own sense of alienation predisposed Arnovitz to locate struggling outcasts, and she quickly absorbed their craft and visual vocabularies. She became aware of religious cults and their pandemic suppression of women—excluded from the public forum, confined to the domestic, exiled from roles of authority and empowerment. She sought to comment on the injustice of the status quo. This became the impetus for a new body of feminist work.
Arnovitz holds fast to her creative ethic, namely that it is imperative to use “the right media to transmit the idea.” Her feminist work is no exception. Working with embroidery, needlepoint, decoupage, and other methods traditionally classified as “women’s arts,” Arnovitz embraces her garment-trade roots and purposefully layers techniques to convey her ironic commentary. “For centuries,” she says, “women had few means of creative expression, so many of them poured their talents into the creation of these objects. I attempt to honor these women through my work.”
Andi Arnovitz’s work has been shown in Europe, Israel, Canada, the Unites States and Eastern Europe. Her works are in many collections including the United States Library of Congress; The Israel National Library; museums in both the United States and Israel; foreign ministries and private collections. She was very pleased to have multiple works, including her much lauded installation A Delicate Balance featured in the groundbreaking feminist show Matronita at the Museum of Art in Ein Harod, Israel in 2012. In 2014 her work was selected for two different Biennales in Israel. In 2015 she will have two solo shows in Israel, and one in Los Angeles. She is represented in the States by Shulamit Gallery, in Los Angeles, and by State of the Arts Gallery in Jerusalem. Andi is an invited member of the Feminist Artist Base of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and a board member of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design of Hebrew University.
Her work focuses on the points of tension where politics, religion and gender meet. Of special interest are themes of modesty, repression/silencing of female voices, reproductive politics and religious coercion. She explores these themes within various media: printmaking -both etching and silkscreen, artist’s books, sculpture and installation. She uses paper, fabrics and other media to create art which both educates and simultaneously protests aspects of society which she deeply believes are in need of change.
Living in the Middle East, confronted by a society teeming with political, religious, and class tension, Arnovitz feels challenged to transmit her experience visually. She began repurposing religious items into her work, mimicking the gesticulations of Jewish tradition in her re-appropriation of ritual objects. She describes the inception of her methodology: “I started tearing and rolling paper... we’re the ‘people of book,’ so paper figures enormously.”
Arnovitz also explored and investigated subcultures and segregated minorities in Israel. Bursting with migrant workers from the Far East, Sudan and beyond, rife with obscure religious sects, her new home proved an ideal testing ground to examine outlier complexes. As an émigré, her own sense of alienation predisposed Arnovitz to locate struggling outcasts, and she quickly absorbed their craft and visual vocabularies. She became aware of religious cults and their pandemic suppression of women—excluded from the public forum, confined to the domestic, exiled from roles of authority and empowerment. She sought to comment on the injustice of the status quo. This became the impetus for a new body of feminist work.
Arnovitz holds fast to her creative ethic, namely that it is imperative to use “the right media to transmit the idea.” Her feminist work is no exception. Working with embroidery, needlepoint, decoupage, and other methods traditionally classified as “women’s arts,” Arnovitz embraces her garment-trade roots and purposefully layers techniques to convey her ironic commentary. “For centuries,” she says, “women had few means of creative expression, so many of them poured their talents into the creation of these objects. I attempt to honor these women through my work.”
Andi Arnovitz’s work has been shown in Europe, Israel, Canada, the Unites States and Eastern Europe. Her works are in many collections including the United States Library of Congress; The Israel National Library; museums in both the United States and Israel; foreign ministries and private collections. She was very pleased to have multiple works, including her much lauded installation A Delicate Balance featured in the groundbreaking feminist show Matronita at the Museum of Art in Ein Harod, Israel in 2012. In 2014 her work was selected for two different Biennales in Israel. In 2015 she will have two solo shows in Israel, and one in Los Angeles. She is represented in the States by Shulamit Gallery, in Los Angeles, and by State of the Arts Gallery in Jerusalem. Andi is an invited member of the Feminist Artist Base of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and a board member of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design of Hebrew University.