I’ve just returned from the immensely successful and well-attended Habitus Magazine launch party at The Jerusalem Print Workshop — one of the most gorgeous spaces I’ve ever had the pleasure of occupying during my time here in Israel. The gallery’s current exhibition features the work of Zvi Tolkovsky, a Haifa native and award-winning artist who was one of the founders of the Bezalel Academy of Art & Design in Jerusalem.
Though the exhibit represented a mere sampling of the man’s total body of work, I was immediately drawn to Tolkovsky’s art, which seemed to elicit elements of Jean-Michel Basquiat, the mail art of Otto David Sherman, and the eerie ornamentalism of Mark Ryden, though of course Tolkovsky was well on his way long before any of these characters broke onto the scene.
It would seem that it’s all about Tolkovsky in Jerusalem this month, whereas another exhibit of his work has just opened at The Jerusalem Artists’ House, along with an exhibition of works in his honor by his former Bezalel students. More on that in JPost.
If you’re in J-town and have a chance to drop in on the Jerusalem Print Workshop, I highly recommend giving Tolkovsky’s work a viddy. I’ll definitely be making my way over to The Jerusalem Artists’ House to check out the other exhibit, which I anticipate will be just as exciting.