FSA invited Tel Aviv-based artist Yifat Bezalel for a month-long Charleston residency in Spring 2024. Her drawings are a profound reflection of her intricate identity–a fusion of global contemporaneity with a deep-rooted connection to Judaism, exploring the intersections of art, spirituality, and society, known for her unique blend of mysticism, feminism, and faith. Academically and classically trained, Bezalel describes her artistic process: “I superimpose semi-transparent pencil layers of figurative and realistic images, creating surreal realms. The images slowly reveal and unfold themselves on the paper, rising from the white void, curling and folding. They are first and foremost a record of time and of movement, and only then do they evolve to become an idea or a story.” Bezalel engaged the community of Charleston with public programs and an open studio, ranging from a drawing workshop for women at the Chabad of Charleston, to giving an interdepartmental artist talk at the College of Charleston, to an artist presentation at Bishop Gadsden Retirement Center. Please read more about each of her programs listed below. To view her open studio, click here.

About the Artist

Yifat Bezalel (b. 1975) graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, where she has also been teaching since 2016, and currently lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel. 

She exhibited at the “Personal Structures” project during the 2013 Venice Biennale, and in 2017, had her major solo exhibition, “Tehila,” at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. She has also exhibited at the Tate Liverpool, the Rovereto Contemporary Museum, the Hamburg Kunsthalle, the MACRO Roma, the Vida Museum in Sweden, the Negev Museum, the 2019 and 2021 Drawing Biennial in London, at Purdy Hicks Gallery in London, in various group and solo exhibitions at Geneva’s Gowen Contemporary Galley. Bezalel was awarded the Cultural and Sport Minister award in 2014, the Outset support grant in 2015, and the Rappaport Prize in 2016. Bezalel’s works have been shown at various art fairs, ArtGeneve, Drawing Now Paris. Bezalel took part in the “Tracey Emin Charity Postcard Sale” at DB London 2018 Frieze art fair, and in the Saatchi II X Stella McCartney Still Life Project. Her most recent solo exhibition, “I Tried to Trick the Gatekeepers” (2023), was curated by Roy Brand at Parterre Projects. In 2023, she also participated in NYC’s Residency Unlimited. She has also participated in various group and solo exhibitions at MK projects in Tel Aviv.

Her works can be found at the V&A collection, the Deutsche Bank collection, TAMA museum, Wirth private collection, and the Art Partners Fund.