Activities & Learning
Artist Search
The PJCC is currently accepting artist submissions for our 2009-2010 gallery season.
Email arts@pjcc.org for submission guidelines.
Questions?
Do you have a question about events or exhibits? If so, please contact:
Cultural Arts Coordinator
-
Phone: 650.378.2751
PJCC Art Gallery Exhibits
The Art Gallery at the Peninsula Jewish Community Center is committed to showcasing the works of talented Jewish artists as well as presenting exhibits that explore Jewish values, themes and ideas. It is our hope that along with adorning our walls, the exhibits will serve to stimulate personal thought and lively conversations among our members and guests.
During your next visit to the PJCC stop by our gallery located in our lobby and in the Koret Learning Center hall. Exhibits are free and open to the public!
On Display
PJCC Art Gallery presents
The Dead Sea Photography Exhibit
June 10 - August 28, 2009
Enjoy this unique perspective of the sea from the sky. See for yourself how the drying of the Dead Sea can be simultaneously devastating and abstractly beautiful.
Related Reading: Read a recent Associated Press article on how sinkholes in the Dead Sea are swallowing people. You can see these sinkholes in the artists photos. Read More...
About the Artist
Israeli aerial photographer Ofir Ben-Tov bought his first camera at the age of fourteen and has been behind the lens ever since. While on active duty with the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), Ben-Tov served as a Lieutenant Commander of an elite military unit that specializes in aerial photography.
“At eighteen I took my first photographic flight and what I saw changed my life,” Ben-Tov says.” The Holy Land of Israel, stripped of politics and strife, as an amazing canvass from the sky. The beauty that nature could offer was astounding. From the land, as seen from the sky, I found a connection with another passion of mine, mathematics. Through mathematics I discovered photography and now, through photography, I could see mathematical principles reflected in nature as an insight from above.”
Ben-Tov has clocked over 3,000 hours in-flight, performing duties which include acute-photography and observations.
The 29 year-old artist’s work has been exhibited in Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland and Guatemala.
Ofir Ben-Tov currently resides in Tel Aviv.
About the Dead Sea
Situated between Israel and Jordan, the shores of the Dead Sea represent the lowest land surfaces on the planet. With 33.7% salinity, it is among the world’s saltiest bodies of waters. Because of the saline saturation level, aquatic plants and animals cannot survive, hence its name.
The Dead Sea is of great historic and economic importance to Israel. Rich in minerals, including magnesium and bromine, these elements are refined and exported around the world. With its high average temperature visitors come year round to float (the salt content results in extra buoyancy) on the surface of the Dead Sea. Tourists who prefer to stay on shore partake in mud baths and other spa and skin care treatments for which the region is well known.
The Dead Sea is suffering a dramatic physical recession. Over the past 30 years the water level has decreased 25 meters and more than 800 craters have been created in areas that were once water.
Artist Statement
The Dead Sea is a place of healing and spirituality for many cultures throughout history. In these photographs a viewer can see breathtaking beauty whose existence is unknown until seen from a bird’s eye view.
Over the past four years I have documented, from an airplane, the deteriorating condition of the Dead Sea, but it comes alive and hopefully stays alive through the photographs. The paradox is to find the aesthetic beauty from a process of destruction; how to take the negative and create beautiful art. The art that appears before you documents the sea’s path to destruction and at the same time gives the sea eternal life. Despite all the difficulties, I believe we can help to improve and correct the destruction.
Coming Up
PJCC Art Gallery presents
New Translations and Seeing Sinai
September 12 – November 23, 2009
In six delicate mixed media color assemblages, New York artist Jill Nathanson strives to create a relationship between the six days of creation and the necessity of painting. New Translations echoes the creation of light, matter, separation, form and life while Seeing Sinai explores color, Kabbalah and the return of Moses to Mount Sinai.
Fall Art Gallery Opening Reception Artist Jill Nathanson
Meet NY artist Jill Nathanson whose New Translations and Seeing Sinai projects will be on display the fall at the PJCC Art Gallery. In New Translations, comprised of six mixed media color assemblages, Nathanson echoes the creation of light, matter, separation, form and life. Seeing Sinai explores color, kabbalah and the return of Moses to Mount Sinai. Reception begins at 2:00 pm. Artist talk and guided tour begins at 2:30 pm.
