That is perhaps the best way to describe a recent visit to Rehovot's Beit Dondikov museum and exhibition space for a new painting gallery display by local artist Gerry Hornreich.The Saturday evening opening at Beit Dondikov, a short drive from either Jerusalem or Tel Aviv in light traffic, was a pleasant event, with visitors entering the gallery space including Shuki Kromer, who holds Rehovot Municipality¹s Sports and Culture portfolio.
Hornreich, a veteran olah who settled with her husband and the first of her three children in Rehovot in 1970, arrived in Israel with a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. She has had previous solo exhibitions at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot and Amalia Arbel Art Gallery in Rishon Lezion, as well as a group exhibition at the Gallerie Gunar Barthel in Berlin, Germany.Painting largely in an Abstract Expressionist style, Hornreich succeeds in conveying an inchoate sense of scene and place with depictions of inspiring views not yet fully formed, similar in effect to the way a cinematographer adjusts his lenses when focusing in on a beautiful scene."I just paint whatever image comes into my mind and I later name my paintings, occasionally with some help from my friend Tzvia,” says Hornreich.Perhaps the best two examples of this effect are the paintings City Streets and Fall. When looking at City Streets one gets the feeling of staring at an approaching city with the details of the cityscape only beginning to emerge from an urban haze of red, yellow, and black. Fall manages a similar effect in a markedly different setting. With a blurred view of leaves falling, Fall transcendentally captures the color of the autumnal leaves as they descend towards the ground.The gallery exhibit is not a particularly long affair, about two dozen paintings, but it is certainly worth a visit if you're in the area.The paintings will be on display Sunday and Thursday from 5 -7 p.m. and Monday and Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. from Sunday, Oct. 10 to Thursday, Oct. 28. Admission is free of charge.