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Community Corner

ex·pose: dana harel

Dana Harel’s first museum exhibition in the U.S. presents a new series of work, Between Dreams and Nightmares,
on display in the museum’s lower level galleries. The series is drawn
from the artist’s relationships to the men in her family and ties to
military life: “As an Israeli female soldier, a daughter of a soldier, a
wife of a soldier, and a mother of a young sensitive male, I have
witnessed men in their most intimate and tender moments, sometimes in
the most unexpected of places. I draw on this experience and perspective
in my work, sifting through the memories and truths that have shaped me
as a woman…”

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Between Dreams and Nightmares consists of mixed media drawings
of strongly lit figures with deep shadows, all distorted in one form or
another. They are a reflection of the messiness of war and its effects
on the survivors: “When gladiators depart the ring or soldiers return
from battle, they must suppress their inner animal, but the reptile
brain, having being stimulated for so long does not sleep easy.”

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The exhibition also includes Wrestling with God, a large-scale
drawing that stems from the narrative of Jacob wrestling an angel in the
Book of Genesis. Harel references this ambiguous moment as a way of
illustrating the male psyche in a place of perpetual war. Harel uses
boxing and wrestling images marked by moments of tenderness.

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Exhibition support for ex·pose: dana harel is generously provided by Igal and Diane Silber, Pat Tourk Lee, and the Contemporary Collectors Council.

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