Varda Sollel-Shamay is about to hold a one person show at the in the Castra Art Center in Haifa. Her exhibition, entitled Woman - Model - Woman focuses on the woman as model and image of her creative work. Through her, the artist conveys to the viewers her feelings and thoughts about the woman and her conflicts with regard to society in a palette rich in shades and motifs from music, including several variations on the subject "Female Identity".

Sollel-Shamay paints many realistic narratives with a critical approach. The fusion of art history movements such as Renaissance and the Paris School with landscapes of the Land of Israel at the beginning of the last century is merged into an comprehensive harmony and a personal expression, a festival of art and a feast to the eyes of the viewers.

In our post-modern era which hosts various publics and approaches, the artists, including this one, often interpret their messages as a staged game, contrary to previous direct and concise approaches, in order to present reality and society in a kind of Absurd Theater.

The artist relates to the Renaissance as beginning to symbolize the freedom of the individual, but not of woman, since no woman artist was mentioned at that time. In our media-oriented era, governed by political and economic interests, conditions of women have improved; however, questions of individual freedom are being discussed again. This is reflected in Sollel-Shamay's work which places the woman in contrast to the male object, taken from an imaginary dream world. He appears in the works as a demon and is titled as such, accompanied by a set of negative values and characteristics.

Like the many contrasts in Art, restrained by inner balance, Sollel-Shamay's creative work expresses her rich inner world in diametrically opposed fields. In a clear space, dream-like and utopian, she describes an unreachable reality as a central component, in contrast to the dark space which represents negative elements and forces around her. These areas which serve as background in her work, were inspired by the landscape of the Land of Israel and its artists at the beginning of the last century, such as Boris Shatz and Nachum Gutman. The pastoral landscape and the initially oriental reality fit the theatrical scenes, meticulously staged, with a metaphysical aura which enlightens somewhat mystically her feminine narratives and her complex relationship with her environment and society.

Varda Sollel-Shamay was born in Tel-Aviv and as a child absorbed the rural spaces and orchards of Petach-Tikva. Today she lives and creates in Haifa. Her studies in the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice enriched her work with figurative elements. She also studied at the Tel Aviv Dizengoff Museum, took part in creative courses at the University of Haifa under the guidance of teachers and artists such as Avraham Ofek, Micha Ulman and Avner Katz. Later she worked with the artist Angela Hope in Toronto, where she completed studies of sculpture, space conception, installation and environmental design. According to her: "My work reflects various periods in a woman's life, crises, fears, growth, facing shattered relationships and female identity. The feminine figures in my work are beautiful and aesthetic, standing on stage with a background fit for any event."

Zvika Israel.

From Hebrew: Miryam Stein-Grossmann