Curated by Iris Mendel | 18.5.23 – 10.6.23 Journey to the Heart of the Garden Elizabeta Zaidner’s exhibition brings together an exploration of the garden as a basic and essential human need, alongside a search for a personal painterly language. Having grown up within the tradition of Western painting, grounded in slow and attentive observational drawing, Zaidner turns toward new material experiments that integrate imagination and abstraction. Rather than constructing a realistic representation, her works gradually form compositions of color patches, based on free and light applications of paint. Using acrylic and oil on a variety of surfaces—canvas, wooden panels, and colored paper—Zaidner seeks to capture memory and emotion, an experience of space, and the seam between reality and imagination. The exhibition title, Locus Amoenus, means “pleasant place” in Latin and refers to a literary genre concerned with describing and defining the ideal place. Writers and poets throughout the centuries have engaged with this idea: Homer and Virgil depicted it as a pastoral space embodying harmony between nature and humanity, while Shakespeare infused it with darker meanings and sexual undertones. In this way, the locus amoenus shifts from a heavenly, protected, and tranquil paradise to a mysterious and even dangerous site. The garden fragments in Zaidner’s paintings, populated by various climbing plants, reveal a place in constant transformation—woven anew, twisting, and breathing. The artist observes the everyday gardens near her home, and under her brush they become spaces of fantasy and legend. At times the garden appears bright and airy; at others, nocturnal and mysterious. It moves between the experience of a dense, wild jungle and a paradise of stillness and contemplation. Through the act of painting and direct observation of the landscape, Zaidner seeks closeness to the garden—a connection that, in her words, leads to the heart of the matter: “to feel that reality touches me, and that I touch it.” The painting does not aim to copy the landscape, but to recreate it, transforming it into an ideal and harmonious place. In doing so, the garden returns to its primal essence, inviting detachment from everyday life, the dismantling of certainty, and entry into a dreamlike, inner space.tions. It gives people access to all the info they need, while keeping your layout clean. Link your text to anything, or set your text box to expand on click. Write your text here...
Curated by Rita Katz | 18.12.21 - 5.02.22 The exhibition consists of a series of drawings and paintings in various formats, displayed on the walls without frames or any other form of protection. Zaidner’s artistic language is grounded in the Western painterly tradition and is composed of line and stain, which evolve into chromatic harmonies, rhythm, and tonal play. The subject she chooses to explore in depth is the “garden,” or even the “search for Paradise,” a realm in which ideal conditions of calm, tranquility, and wholeness exist. “Paradise” is an archetype, a theological concept whose essence lies in the harmonious and peaceful existence of Adam and Eve. Their closeness to God enabled them to sense and perceive Him. In fact, this was a relatively brief episode, since throughout human history Paradise has existed without human beings, and humanity, since its expulsion from Eden, has never returned there. What remains above all is the desire to return—a form of collective archetype embedded in our subconscious. In the Hebrew Bible, Paradise is the place where life begins. In contrast, in the New Testament, Paradise signifies the end of life, the final station (the Heavenly Jerusalem—the eschatological conclusion). Through its gates, souls enter Paradise after the physical body has ceased to function. According to Jung’s theory of archetypes and Cassirer’s theory of symbolic forms, culture can be understood as a system of archetypes that shapes human nature and humanity as a whole. Thus, what remains in human beings after the Fall (the expulsion from Eden) is the call of archetypes to return to a paradisiacal state. These include the archetype of “Paradise,” the archetype of the “search for Paradise,” and the archetype of “culture.” The cultivation of material and spiritual nature is humanity’s spiritual essence—these are the prescriptions of the archetype of “culture” within Paradise. The unconscious aspiration shared by all of us is to return to wholeness, beauty, and freedom from worry. In her paintings, Zaidner constructs the idea of the “garden” as a space in which human beings enter into a process of interaction with nature and realize their ideas of Paradise as a perfect place. The “garden” functions as a metaphor for life. In this series of works, she gives form to a longing in search of “home” or an “inner Paradise”—where and how human beings are meant to live. This is, in essence, a utopia, a kind of escape from a frightening, complex, and threatening reality marked by wars, diseases, and other afflictions of the world. Zaidner speaks of an inner thirst for harmony and unity with the world. The dominance of Western humanity over the animal and plant realms, and its sense of superiority, prevents the achievement of a healthy balance. In contrast, in Zaidner’s works, human figures appear only as hints or smears—just one more element within the infinity of the “garden.” Like a garden, the imaginary world of her paintings is full of vitality; it is life-giving and contains an endless desire for blossoming and renewal. For Zaidner, painting remains the primary means of interaction with the world. She understands the space around her through the act of drawing. First comes the experience of internalizing the world; afterward, the artist transforms this experience and conveys it in verbal, physical, and emotional terms. Finally, reflection emerges, becoming a work filled with fantasy, contemplation, and cultural associations. Zaidner writes: “For me, painting is primarily a sensory experience—like sex, music, or dance. What I especially love is working with acrylic markers; it is closest to dance, when the surrounding reality becomes the music to which I dance.” The word “painting” in Russian derives from the root meaning “alive,” referring to the capacity of painting to transmit living energy. The presence of life in painting is the most important element for Zaidner. At times, a work may appear unfinished or executed with only a few gestures, yet it possesses pulse and vitality. At other times, a more elaborate, multilayered, and calculated painting may emerge—but feel lifeless. In Zaidner’s work, there is no correlation between the amount of time invested in a painting and its vitality. Nevertheless, all of her works maintain understatement and suggestion, leaving ample room for imagination. Zaidner’s inspiration stems from the landscapes of the Jerusalem Hills and the area of Mevaseret Zion, near her home. She often encounters this inspiration during walks with her children, which lead to discoveries of hidden gems and enchanted landscapes in the communities ascending toward Jerusalem. Parts of Mevaseret feature landscapes with mature trees that have grown without boundaries or fences, creating a fascinating harmony between cultivated, almost regal gardens and untamed nature. Between reality and fantasy, between figuration and abstraction, lies the garden of Elizabeta Zaidner. This convergence of light and shadow, trembling serenity saturated with moisture, and interwoven branches forms an infinite entity of being—from which everything emerges and to which everything returns. Rita Katz December 2021