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Impressive art exhibitions and festivals around Israel. including the fourth annual Print Screen Festival at the Holon Cinematheque.

By BARRY DAVIS
Israel Museum shadow dancing 370 (photo credit: Courtesy Israel Museum)
Israel Museum shadow dancing 370
(photo credit: Courtesy Israel Museum)
Looking at nature
Tel Aviv’s Eretz Israel Museum will be hosting an international and Israeli wildlife photography exhibition next month, titled “World Wildlife, Local Wildlife.”
This is the second year in which the international side of the exhibition, an initiative of London’s Natural History Museum and the BBC, will be shown here. The prestigious British exhibition, which is in its 49th year, will go on display alongside the “Wildlife Picture 2” show – an exhibition of animals in nature in Israel, initiated by the Eretz Israel Museum. The latter exhibition’s curator is Moran Shoub.
The two shows comprise photographs that previously won competitions. The international exhibition features 100 winning photographs from the “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” competition. A panel of jurors headed by Jim Brandenburg, one of the world’s most respected photographers, selected those photos from over 43,000 that wildlife photographers from all over the world submitted.
The Israeli show, meanwhile, offers the public an in-depth and eye-opening view of wildlife in the Middle East, and presents a variety of ecosystems in our region. The items that will be on display fall into a number of categories, including animal portraits; birds; reptiles and amphibians; conflicts between humans and animals; and animal humor.
The exhibition opens May 9 and closes on August 25. For more information: (03) 641- 5244 or www.eretzmuseum.org.il.
Embroidered work
Artist Batya Shani’s “EmbroideryEmbroideryEmbroideryEmbroideryEmbroidery” exhibition will open at the 69 Rothschild Boulevard art space in Tel Aviv at 11 a.m. today, and will run until May 17.
The show is Shani’s salute to New York-based artist Charles LeDray’s miniature sculpted creations in stitched fabric, carved bone and wheel-thrown clay. The name of the exhibition – in Hebrew, “RikmaRikmaRikmaRikmaRikma” – is also a play on the Hebrew words for “fast” (maher), “what” (ma), and “only” (rak). “Rikma” also includes three letters from the name of Shani’s late mother, whose dresses have provided the artist with raw materials for her embroidery work.
The centerpiece of the exhibit is a large metal cage suspended from the ceiling, containing miniature dresses made of cloth and paper that Shani has sewn together. The show also includes embroidered texts that pose tantalizing existential questions.
For more information: www.rothschild69.co.il.
Print Screen
The fourth annual Print Screen Festival will kick off at the Holon Cinematheque next week. Running from April 30 to May 3, the event program features movie screenings, lectures and shows that address the interface of the spheres of art, design and digital technology.
This year’s festival is called “Forget It!” and poses the question of whether, in this age of mass documentation, we are capable of forgetting, and whether it is possible to be forgotten.
The film roster includes category winners previously screened at the Sundance Festival and SXSW, such as the Dutch-made App, which makes interactive use of the viewers’ cellphones during the screening, and 2014 Sundance Festival winner Love Child, which investigates the phenomenon of addiction to computer games. The lecturer guest list includes British composer and filmmaker Alexis Kirke, Polish digital and new media artist Michal Szota, and German counterpart Julian Oliver.
Print Screen also features exhibitions, workshops for children and panel discussions.
For tickets and more information: (03) 502-1555, or www.printscreenfestival.com.
Fancy fencing
Irit Yatziv’s “Megu(n)darot” exhibition will open at the Office gallery in Tel Aviv on May 9. The show title means “Fencedoff Women” without the parenthesized letter, and “Dolled-up Women” with it.
Yatziv works in a range of areas, including embroidery, collage, painting and performance art. She uses garments to portray her approach to a rich array of colors. “Megu(n)darot” includes unlikely combinations of shapes, shades and materials, both two-dimensional and 3D, and seeks to do away with the separation between daily life and art.
For more information: (03) 643- 7306 and www.officeintelavivgallery.com.