Mikedem Gallery

The MiKedem Gallery is one of Tzfat's newest galleries in Tzfat. The gallery is owned and managed by Bezalel Shemesh and Ehud Yotam who exhibit the artwork of some of Israel’s best-known sculptors and painters including Leonid Balaklav, Ruth Bloch, Zvi Lachman and Nadav Bloch.

Ruth Bloch

Ruth Bloch grew up on Kibbutz Alonim in the Lower Galilee. There, she enjoyed the opportunity to develop her artwork. She studed at Avni Art Institute in Tel Aviv where she established herself as a sculptor. Her pieces aim to demonstrate moral integrity and resolve. Ruth's studies of psychology influence her work. Her sculptures represent the process of perpetuating good through feelings, actions and deeds. Ruth's sculptures include both masculine and feminine forms. She works in bronze and glass. She is careful to avoid any type of “statements” in her artwork, which reflect her optimism and display visions of nature, life and humankind.

Leonid Balaklav

Leonid Balaklav, is a native of Moldavia where he studied at the Kiev School of Arts and at the Odessa Art Institute. Balaklav settled in Jerusalem in 1990 and immediately began to turn his attention to painting his new land. Whereas his former paintings were heavy in blacks and browns, his Israeli works were expressed in light pastels and colorful hues. The colors and subjects of his Israeli paintings express Balaklav’s delight with the lightness that he feels in Israel. Balaklav paints portraits and landscapes of Jerusalem’s doorways, alleyways, and other local scenery. Balaklav often inserts himself into his paintings.

Zvi Lachman

Zvi Lachman is a native of Tel Aviv. He studied sculpture with some of Israel’s greatest sculptors including Ashkenazi, Sternschuss and Danziger as well as at the Parsons School of Design in New York and with Paul Resika and Leland Bell. Lachman prefers to sculpt busts and he incorporates the formation of the head’s tissues as he emphasizes the piece’s creation which include layers, small indentations, notches and combinations.

Nadav Bloch

Nadav Bloch's paintings focuse on Hebrew, Arabic and Latin letters as representatives of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Bloch builds transparent layers of letters in earthy tones, expressing, he envisions, different periods in the development of man. The ongoing process of construction and extinction evolves in the same way that old layers disappear and new layers are added to his work. Bloch sees these layers as representing extinction, confusion and the barriers that languages create. Bloch aims to create a dialogue that will bring understanding between the three monotheistic languages.

Mikedem represents additional artists including Ya’akov Agam, Ziona Tagger, Mark Tochilkin, Ilan Baruch, Motta Brim and Tolla Inbar.

Contact

Mikedem can be contacted at [email protected] or (04)6829002.