Land|Sea|Air Exhibition

In the exhibition the artist Ronit Shalem presents a series of paintings that employ a unique mixture of techniques on canvas, wood, and leather-like fabrics. She creates a colorful world representing earth, water, animals, and plants, with repetitive dots, lines and shapes. Her technique is reminiscent of the folk art style commonly found in Australian Aboriginal art.

The exhibition’s name is borrowed from the children's game “Land, Sea, Air” where game participants leap to defined areas that are announced by the game leader. Shalem takes the viewers of her art on a journey through landscapes that she has created, where imaginary animals dwell. The animals in the paintings are not highly defined, rather feature more generic elements where geometry is essentially at the heart of the story — it matters less what animal it is, but more the look and feel of the scenes and stories that convey warmth and humanity.

For Shalem, nature symbolizes freedom in its purest form, void of criticism and reproach. Nature accepts us for who we are, in any shape or shade, and its dynamic symbolism allows Shalem to express her inner world through her paintings

Textiles and textures intrigue Shalem, she draws artistic inspiration from exploring shapes, colors, patterns, the infinite ways in which they can be combined, and the surprises and secrets that can be weaved among them.Shalem chooses to expose the work surfaces as part of the color palette, to which she applies contemporary pigments by means of processed markers and acrylic paint.

Born in 1974, Ronit Shalem graduated with a B.A., from Vital Art and design school and majored in graphic design. She has presented her art, in solo and group exhibitions, in Israel and around the world.