Etchings from the Negev Museum of Art Collection
Etchings from the Ze’ev Wulfgang Mayer Etching Institute Collection
Etchings from the Jerusalem Print Workshop

The Negev Museum of Art Presents Works by Michael Gross and Ori Reisman from the Phoenix Company Collection
A joint exhibition of Michael Gross and Ori Reisman has not been staged to date. While various group or thematic exhibitions indeed featured small selections of their work simultaneously, alongside the work of many other artists, their artistic interrelations were never concretely addressed. Those swift encounters created the impression that Gross’s and Reisman’s works are very similar. Only an extensive presentation of their works side by side reveals each artist’s unique qualities, elucidating their great divergence, despite their conceptual and personal affinities.
The works on display were loaned to the Museum by the management of The Phoenix Ltd. as a gesture of friendship and goodwill, and as an expression of the company’s care for the community. The Phoenix Company Collection of Israeli Art is considered one of the best and most comprehensive in its field, alongside the collections of the country’s leading museums. Most of the artists who left their imprint on the course of Israeli art, from the 1920s to the year 2000, are represented in the collection in a manner that enables tracing not only their quintessential achievements, but also their personal evolution throughout its various phases.
We hope that the exhibition, and the catalogue essay, will shed light on the work of both Michael Gross and Ori Reisman and the motivation behind each one’s work, while reinforcing the distinction between them and accentuating each artist’s uniqueness.