TIMELESS GESTURES
In the biblical narrative, Bezalel was the first craftsman chosen to design the Tabernacle and sacred vessels, endowed with a divine spirit of wisdom and skill to work with gold, silver, and precious stones. Today, this legacy of craftsmanship finds its modern home at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Jerusalem.
Celebrating the Academy’s 120th anniversary, this exhibition – presented on the occasion of the Gallery’s fourth edition of The Contemporary Wall – brings a distinguished group of Bezalel artists into dialogue with a selection of ancient Judaica and jewels from Alberto Di Castro gallery.
Spanning different generations and backgrounds, artists Adi Toch, Tamar de Vries Winter, Vered Kaminski, Naama Haneman, Yasmin Zehavi, and Naama Altalef Blau share a refined mastery of precious materials, working across silver and gold to enamel.
Within the gallery, historic judaica and jewels going as far back as the 16th Century – including ornately adorned book bindings, Passover dishes, mezuzot and Archeological Revival jewelry – coexist with decorative arts, colored marbles, rare stones and Old Master paintings.
Timeless Gestures considers ritual through the language of making, tracing how gestures, symbols, and crafted objects carry memory across centuries and cultural contexts.
The exhibition thus unfolds as a dialogue between iconic artifacts and contemporary works, in an environment where historical layers echo and respond to one another, revealing how the spirit of craftsmanship first embodied by Bezalel continues to be reinterpreted through new creative forms.
Denise Di Castro and Jennifer Busnelli, exhibition curators
Download the Exhibition Catalogue
