The Jewish Art Salon and Current Arts Gallery are excited to present Translations: The 613 – Ancient rules, contemporary visions.
This groundbreaking exhibition presents 29 contemporary American and Israeli artists’ personal reactions and contemporary interpretations of the classic 613 Mitzvot (commandments) found in the Five Books of Moses.
The aim is to reach both secular and religious audiences and create an environment of exposure and interaction with the profundity of Jewish heritage through the lens of contemporary visual creativity. It also exposes secular and religious audiences of different faiths to the 613 as well.
This contemporary exhibit will stimulate contemporary Jews and non-Jews to realize the relevance of classic Jewish texts and concepts, effectively a translation of a code of law into a modern American dialogue.
Current Arts Gallery, 17 Essex Street, New York, NY 10002
Thursday November 5, Opening reception 6:00-9:00 pm.
Sunday November 8, Bagel brunch with live music 1:00-4:00 pm.
Additional hours
Fri. November 6 and Tues. November 10, 2-6 pm
Monday November 9 by appointment
Bus: M15 Bus to Grand St; M15 SBS to Hester St.; M14-A SBS to Grand St/Essex St.
Subway: F to East Broadway; B & D to Grand St.
About the exhibition
In total, the 613 forms a cornerstone of Jewish culture through ritual, practice, history, and ethics for Jews and for much of the world at large. The Hebrew Bible is parent to the Christian New Testament as well as many aspects of the Koran. In this respect, it has served as the ethical blueprint for Western civilization. For observant Jews, the mitzvot are the way to interact in the world. For the secular, they are a structure to understand how traditional Jewish culture functions in a historically adaptive, morally responsive, and creative way.
The 613 Mitzvot, so conceptually important, is generally not well known by the general public, essentially translating these laws into visual statements by artists, creates new meaning for a contemporary audience. The 613 allows artists to engage and examine the themes of ethics, morals and imagination that flow through our lives.
Each artist took one mitzvah as a point of departure and turned it into a visual response to the present. Identity, gender, migration, ecology, technology, power, and justice collide with contemporary experience. The result is a conversation across time.
Curators
Richard McBee, Joel Silverstein & Yona Verwer
Hosted by
Ashley Frey, Founder of Current Arts
Samuel Abelow, Director at Current Arts
Participating artists
Samuel Abelow, Efrat Baler-Moses, Gabriella Boros, Mel Brown, Leah Caroline, Harriet Finck, Goldie Gross, Debbie Guedalia, Dan Harris, Ellen Holtzblatt, Susan Rosenberg Jones, Tobi Kahn, Omer Kaplan, Nancy Schwartz Katz, Shoshana Gugenheim Kedem, Carol Man, Paul Margolis, Richard McBee, Lenore Mizrachi-Cohen, Shani Nizan, Carmi Plaut, Archie Rand, Cynthia Beth Rubin, Joel Silverstein, Max Tzinman, Deborah Ugoretz, Yona Verwer, David Wander, Billha Zussman.
Acknowledgments
With thanks to the UJA Federation NY, Natan Fund, and the Israeli Ambassador to the UN .
The Jewish Art Salon is supported by CANVAS.
Image by Lenore Mizrachi-Cohen.
