
ADVA DRORI
I am an artist and an art therapist. I operate in both of these spheres simultaneously and aspire to integrate them into my work. Since early childhood, I have breathed art and practiced it, and I believe it has helped me develop inner strength.
In the field of art, I have been active for over 25 years, primarily in the areas of installation and performance art in collaboration with the community. Over the years, I have developed a unique, total, feminine language, rich in textiles and labor-intensive crafts such as sewing, embroidery, felting, and knitting. I also incorporate other traditionally feminine crafts like cooking, frying, and baking into my works, through which I address psychological and social issues of gender, Israeli identity, memory, and selfhood, weaving these themes through the lens of my personal biography.
Artist’s Statement
I am an installation- and performance artist. The language of my art grows out of visual art into a new and broad space that exists as a vibrant sculptural environment in which an old world emerges alongside a bustling world in processes of exploration and growth, discovery and renewal.
As an artist, I have developed my idiom in which I initially combine various media. My works, of women’s artisanship nature, are perceived as action pieces. Through sensual physical objects of my own making, I sculpt a living environment filled with details, scents, and sounds. As a performance artist, I am integrated with the environment I create, sharing my intense experience with the viewers and enabling them to dive into an active inner space that raises personal and social issues.
Having been born and raised on a kibbutz, I bring into my work the cargo of my own life that is tied in with the kibbutz entity, all that I experienced and that became a part of me. I assume that the ceremonial aspect of my works is part of my patriarchal kibbutz heritage.
My works weave together both personal and national biographical injury. The resulting experience presents a complex world of an emotional range that calls upon us to look deep inside ourselves – as individuals struggling over their identity to the echoes of the past and the present threats.
Education
2016-2019
M.A.A.T., Art Therapy Department, David Yellin Academic College of Education, Jerusalem.
2007-2010
Art Therapy According to the Anthroposophical Approach Tobias, School of Art & Therapy, England. With honors.
School of Visual Theater, Jerusalem. With honors.
1997-2000
Photography, Bezalel Academy of Art & Design, Jerusalem
1996-1997
A selection of solo exhibitions
Installation, Second Skin, Sapir College. Curator: Yael Gilat.
2023
Installation-performance, "Lights Out," the Gallery of Kibbutz Gan Shmuel. Curator: Adi Yekutieli
2021
Installation-performance, "Night Watchwoman, Come to the Sky-Blue Garden!", The Gallery for Israeli Art, Memorial Center, Kiryat Tivon.
2019
Installation, "To be worthy - in the past, present and future", The Gallery at Kibbutz Be'eri. Curator: Dr. Ziva Yellin.
2015
"Dizengoff 147", installation and performance, Rosenfeld Gallery, Tel Aviv.
2001
A selection of group exhibitions
Installation, "Dusza", as part of the exhibition "Echo of Memories", Künstlerforum, Bonn, Germany.
Curators: Cornelia Renz & Ilka Wonchik.
2022
"Woven in Consciousness", Contemporary Textiles in Israel, Haaretz Museum, Tel Aviv. Curator: Irena Gordon.
2014
"Black hearts" performance at Jyvaskyla Museum of Art., Museum, Finland. Curator: Kari Kotilainen
2006
"Shared Accommodation", Helena Rubinstein Pavilion, Tel Aviv Museum. Curator: Tali Tamir. Supported by the Rabinowitz Foundation.
2005
"Women in Black", performance and object presentation, Karlskrona, Sweden. Art Gallery KONSTHALL
Curator: Torun Ekstrand
2005
A selection of curatorial projects
"The Girl!", Nolovaz Gallery, Tel Aviv, curator and participant.
2023
"Black Eyes", Yoni Shor, Nolobaz Gallery, Tel Aviv.
2023
"Suddenly a Painting", Yossi Saban, Nolobaz Gallery, Tel Aviv.
2022
"Powder and Handkerchief" group exhibition, Nolobaz Gallery, Tel Aviv. Co-curated with Rakefet Wiener Omer and Efrat Rubinstein.
2017
A a selection of awards and grants
Support from the Lottery for publishing a digital catalog.
2007
Winner of the "Artist Teacher" award from the Ministry of Culture, Education and Sports.
2004
America Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship.
2002
The Foundation for the Promotion of Interdisciplinary Art in Israel Award, founded by Shelter 209 named after Dan Zakheim. In favor of the multidisciplinary performance "If You Noticed Me, You Didn't Notice Me."
2000
Jerusalem Mayor's Award for the multidisciplinary installation "Queen of Seven Hearts."
2000
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