Hi Friend! Real Quick…
Sign up for the best local stories delivered to your inbox every morning for FREE!
- This event has passed.
Art at the JCC Presents: Love, Hope, Memory. Featuring Artworks by Local Survivors, Shula Singer Arbel + Lev Moross
November 1, 2018 @ 5:00 am - 8:00 am PDT
1st Thursday Reception – The 1st Thursday Reception is free and open to the public.
Thursday, November 1, 2018 • 5:00-8:00 pm
Kristallnacht Commemoration – This program is free and open to the public. Friday, November 9, 2018 9:30-12:00 pm
Jewish Federation’s Bronfman Family Jewish Community Center (JCC)
524 Chapala Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. For more information, visit https://jewishsantabarbara.
Santa Barbara, California (October 17, 2018) – On Thursday, November 1, 2018 from 5:00-8:00 PM, Art at the JCC will host an official 1st Thursday reception for Love, Hope, Memory, an exhibition and collaborative benefit for Portraits of Survival: Life Journeys During the Holocaust and Beyond + Upstanders: Courage in the Face of Evil. The exhibit runs from October 29 through December 31st, at the Jewish Federation’s Bronfman Family Jewish Community Center. Art at the JCC is able to offer this exhibition to the public with the generosity of benefactors and donors, including the Squire Foundation. The reception will include remarks from Lynn M. Holley, M.A. Curator, and artists of the evening. Enjoy appetizers, wine and world class entertainment from acclaimed local musician, Adam Phillips, 5:15-6:30. Followed by a welcoming and artist talk.
This poignant exhibition celebrates the lives of Holocaust survivors and refugees, with a fresh and artistic approach on love, hope and memory, rather than destruction, exile, war, which many experienced.
This exhibition includes important works of local Holocaust survivors, refugees and descendants, notable artists: Margaret Singer, Maria Segal, Edith Ostern, Erika Kahn, Mary Freericks, Freddy Caston, Ralph Baxter, among others. These particular individuals offer their legacies of endurance and hope; the lessons from their lives teach us about the power of the human spirit in the face of unthinkable evil. A number of these extraordinary local survivors have been life-long professional artists, while others have been art educators, or found their creative talents later in life. Collectively, their works offer insight into the experience of living through one of the darkest chapters in human history.
The shows featured artist, Shula Singer Arbel is a Los Angeles artist working in acrylic and mixed media. Her work is a fusion of abstract, representational and dream like images; a flattening of form mixed with painterly surfaces. Her newest series, “Love, Hope, Memory” deals with issues of displacement, loss and rebirth; exploring the re-entry into “normal” life, after the Holocaust.
LOVE, HOPE, MEMORY is a series of 19 prints—numbered, signed, limited editions that tell the story of Arbel’s parents. Michael and Edith met in 1946 in a Displaced Persons Camp in Heidenheim, Germany, right after World War II. Edith was a survivor of Auschwitz and Michael had been a soldier in the Russian and Polish Armies. They arrived at this refugee camp with nothing. In spite of the tremendous loss and unimaginable suffering they experienced, this was a time of great hope and optimism for the future. It was a time of building new lives and looking forward.
The paintings are based on black & white photographs found in an old, forgotten photo album. The portraits are a fusion of representational, abstract, and dream-like images; a flattening of form mixed with painterly surfaces. The figures in the paintings are intentionally faceless to create a more universal narrative.
This series explores the issue of re-entry into “normal” life, after the Holocaust and ravages of war. Although it deals with a specific time and place, the issues of displacement, trauma and rebirth are universal, particularly in today’s world.*
Additionally, this unique show includes sketches and prints by the remarkable artist, Jewish Russian immigrant, Lev Moross:
What makes Moross’ story different is that he found success in the U.S. after immigrating to America from Soviet Russia speaking no English and having to start from scratch. The Camarillo resident may still have a Russian accent, but he has lived the American dream. Art has always been part of his story. Moross began studying art and publishing in the USSR, graduating from the Academy of Art in Leningrad in 1958 and attending the Moscow Polygraphic Institute, the country’s premier printing school, in the late ’60s. He worked in graphic design and book illustration, and was art director of the country’s largest sports magazine, but Moross knew that as long as he stayed in the Communist-controlled regime he would never be able to fully express his artistic side, especially because he is Jewish.
After his family escaped Soviet rule, Moross found a fulfilling career as a serigrapher, or silkscreen printer, and worked his way up, eventually becoming the owner of art galleries. He helped Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, who is also an artist.**
Friday, November 9th, from 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM, a 80th Anniversary Commemoration of Kristallnacht will take place in the main gallery at the JCC, on the actual date of the Anniversary. A very special program is planned to mark this somber anniversary, which will include students from San Marcos High School, with local Holocaust Survivors, number of whom were eye-witnesses to the events of Kristallnacht 80 years ago. The public is invited to participate in this free event, and also tour the art exhibition. Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass), took place on November 9, 1938, and was the first case of organized violence throughout the German Reich against the Jews – and the true beginning of the terrible dark night of the Holocaust which was to come. As we move into the 80th anniversary year of this horrible chapter in human history, we stand together as a community which will pledge to never forget, but will also move forward with light and beauty, with survival and with hope. As we do every year, we will honor our cherished Survivor community of friends, and mourn those in this group who we have lost this year. We have also dedicated ourselves to keeping their stories alive, as we will be filming and preserving the last of their stories this year for a permanent archive to keep here for generations to come.
Proceeds of all sales from this art exhibition will benefit the Portraits of Survival/Upstanders Exhibits and Programs: Courage in the Face of Evil Permanent Exhibits and Educational Programs. This special and permanent installation has welcomed over 20,000 visitors since its inception in November 2003.
Art at the JCC is a program of the Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara. Through its exhibition and outreach programs, Art at the JCC honors and shares the universality of Jewish values, history and culture through various forms of artistic expression.
———————
Extended Biographies:
*Shula Singer Arbel was born in Israel and moved to Los Angeles at the age of three. She received a MFA degree from UCLA in Film Production and worked in the film industry as an editor, writer and researcher. Shula was the first recipient of the Barbra Streisand screenwriting award. She wrote and directed short films before leaving the business to teach and raise a family. She is now a full-time artist and exhibits her work extensively. Her work has also been displayed and installed in public venues—Pershing Square Park in Downtown, Los Angeles, Wilshire Vermont Metro Station, Los Angeles, and a billboard in Culver City, CA She is a member of Los Angeles Art Association, Women Painters West and Jewish Artist Initiative. She has received numerous awards including the Best of Show Award for the 2010 Gold Medal Exhibition at Valley Institute of Visual Arts (VIVA).
**Lev Moross continued: His limitations in Russia were made clear to him when he was passed over in the mid-’70s as a candidate for art director of the Summer Olympics, which were slated to be held in Moscow in 1980. So in 1975, he and his wife, Julia, and their son immigrated to Los Angeles. They made the move with the help of a Jewish organization and joined Moross’ parents and sister, who had arrived two years earlier. “First, it was the idea to come all together, my parents, me, my wife,” he said. “Then, my father made a smart decision to separate us. Otherwise, it would be too many, too difficult to immigrate all together.” His father ’s plan proved sound. He also served as an artist, consultant and sometimes an actor on movies like “The Secret Life of Plants” and used his printing skills to help studios including Disney and Hanna- Barbera reproduce their early works. “I couldn’t do my own art anymore, I was so busy,” he said. Now Moross said he wants to make Camarillo home to a more vibrant arts scene. “When I came to the United States, it was the country of my dream,” he said. “Los Angeles is not (my) dream anymore. What will happen in Camarillo and what I’ve found already in Camarillo, that is still my American dream. People smile, people are so friendly.” He and Julia moved to Leisure Village in February 2017. Last year he opened a new studio in town, the Nina Frost Art Studio at 725 W. Ventura Blvd. His mother’s name was Nina, and “moross” translates to “frost” in English. “It sounds very good, Nina Frost. And my mom was a very important person to me in my life,” he said. “Everything good I have as a creative person, everything that directs me even now, I get from my mom. She is the hero of my life.” He held the studio’s grand opening Feb. 4 and said he wants to pass down his six decades of art knowledge. Moross began attending the Chabad Jewish Center of Camarillo, and Rabbi Aryeh Lang said the artist is using his God-given talents to better the community. “He definitely has a lot of knowledge about art, and he likes to use that talent to teach kids. It’s very interesting to meet him, and he has a good heart,” Lang said. Moross said he hopes to work with students from California State University Channels Islands, who he hopes will help him use the internet to connect with the next generation of artists.
Coast and other artists from all disciplines the opportunity to bring their work to the Santa Barbara community. Because art is a universal language, our programs will cross all boundaries of religion, race, gender and age, and strive to maintain communication. Its mission is to promote identification and connectedness to the Jewish community and the community at large.
Artist and collector Eli Luria z”l launched Art at the JCC in 1999 to provide high-caliber, strongly-themed exhibits for the Santa Barbara community. The exhibit openings often feature gallery talks and panels with artists, curators and collectors that draw lively crowds.
Housed at the Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara, Portraits of Survival/Upstanders Exhibits and Programs: Life Journeys During the Holocaust and Beyondhas hosted over 20,000 visitors since its inception in November 2003. The Portraits educational program is making a life-changing impact on all those who participate, particularly community youth who engage with survivors around shared issues of identity, belonging, and experiences of being disenfranchised from the general population.