Exhibitions

The Museum's collection of African ethnographic artifacts, which has remained hidden from public view for 30 years, includes approximately 1,000 pieces, donated by avid collectors and dedicated donors from around the world, who have intensely explored specific cultures and regions of Africa. These works were once exhibited at the Haifa Museum of Ethnology, founded in the early 1950s and active on Arlozorov Street until 1995. In unveiling these works again, "Africa Calling" calls on its viewers to immerse themselves in the diverse and vibrant cultures of Africa.

For the exhibition, the Museum invited artists to create new works, exploring how digital thinking, concepts, and tools take on substance in the physical world, shaping artistic practice and material expression. Their works delve into what happens when digital aesthetics encounter physical limitations—people, matter, and unpredictability—and what it means when technology becomes an integral part of our bodies and identities.

Our home, and the objects in it, tell stories: in the kitchen cupboard there is a partial set of dishes, some broke during a move; in the living room there is a worn sofa, which has taken the shape of the body due to overuse; on the wall behind it are pictures of smiling relatives, some still alive, others no longer. Our favorite people and things are usually found in our living environment, and a representation of the interior shows everything that we love and fear for.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi was active in Rome in the mid-18th century, at a time when the city attracted intellectuals from all over Europe who gathered against the backdrop of its celebrated centuries-old buildings. In his time, Rome was one of the major centers of the Enlightenment: a mandatory destination on the Grand Tour undertaken by members of the aristocracy to explore the cultural capitals of Europe, and a focal point for the study of classical culture for artists and intellectuals. Piranesi created countless etchings in Rome featuring the city's sights, making a name for himself throughout Europe. The Haifa Museum of Art collection is blessed with a considerable selection of these etchings.

Energy does not disappear or dissipate; it only changes form. In fact, since the Big Bang, the mass of the universe has been constant, only changing its shape and state of aggregation. Ella Littwitz revisits the ancient space around the Dead Sea and Mount Sodom, an area where the winds of Creation prevail. She explores the substances she finds there as being in the midst of change, a transformation in which the artistic act can take part.

The selection presented in the exhibition, a generous gift from Ms. Lynn Schusterman to the Museum, spans mainly works from the first half of the 20th century, the formative period of Israeli art. This cluster adds a significant artistic and historical layer to the Museum's existing collection (on view in the nearby permanent exhibition), which focuses primarily on Israeli art from the 1950s onwards. It attests to the transformations that occurred in local art over the years, highlighting issues in Israeli culture that are still relevant decades later. Although they were created in different parts of the country, the scorching Israeli sun shines over all of the featured works.

The nuances, the different textures, the emanation of light or its concealment, what is highlighted and what is relegated to the shadows: in Lihie Talmor's works, every detail has a meaning and every action has a purpose. Her work is centered on a search for something that was lost, but left traces on site, despite the vicissitudes of time. The freedom inherent in printmaking enables reversal—transforming the documented into imaginary, and introducing tension between reproduction and fiction, between memory and invention. Through print, Talmor sheds light on dark chapters in the history of a place, uncovering truths and secrets hidden beneath the surface, and discussing the innate tensions between history, man, and place.

Be it in Moscow, Berlin, Be'er Sheva, or Jaffa, Natalia Zourabova primarily paints the interior of her home. The gaze at the living environment is a means of adapting to it, and Zourabova discovers the place through painting; more accurately: by rendering the domestic interior, she discovers painting. Interior depictions tie the home to the studio, life to work. The painting is created in a familiar, loved place, but at the same time it pits the challenges of life against those of painting. Every moment spent at home is a time of studying the act of painting while mapping the space, perusing the shapes, colors, and textures that make up her habitat.

In her works, Hadar Saifan functions as a soldier: she spots aircraft, clears routes, patrols evacuated settlements, and shoots with her camera. The invasion of Israel in October 2023 reinforced the role of civilians in protecting their homes—people who felt they had been abandoned by the state and chose to fill the vacuum left by the official institutions themselves.

My room is my best place. We decide what to hang on the walls in it, we keep the most important things in it, and we close ourselves in it when we want to be only with ourselves.
We invite you to show us what your room looks like, or the room of your dreams: draw the room on a postcard, and be sure to describe the objects and details that make it your special place, different from all other rooms.