Exhibitions

Varda Getzow is an Israeli artist living in Berlin. She is a “second generation” descendant, and her works, which deal with themes related to the Holocaust, do so through subtle hints that leave the subject present yet absent. Getzow usually creates series on paper.

The exhibition features two groups of works: one is a series of watercolor paintings on paper, and the other is a site-specific “ready-made” sculptural piece made from soft, everyday materials—such as hair. These materials evoke associative connections in the viewer between the watercolor works and a kind of reality embodied in the sculpture. The relationships among all the exhibited pieces create pairs of formal and thematic contrasts.

The title of the exhibition, Dayenu, refers on one hand to a liturgical poem from the Passover Haggadah, which expresses the singers’ gratitude to the Creator for His deeds, and on the other hand responds with a sense of “we’ve had enough” and anger toward a situation that is not hard to imagine.

The composition of the watercolors is built from a combination of figurative and abstract elements. The transparent, contourless color stains are deceptive, introducing a sense of lightness into the compositions. The heads and portraits, which coexist with the abstract forms, add a heavy element—perhaps even a balancing one—though they too are abstract in their own way.

The soft sculptural work has a limited existence: although it was created through a process of adding and subtracting materials, its existence will continue only in photographs after the exhibition ends. The sculpture includes elements that bring nature into the field of vision, serving as a somber, melancholic, frightening, and enigmatic backdrop to what appears to be an inverted figure—an abstraction of crucifixion or a covered and hidden object.