My Israeli State solo exhibition, 2018

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This exhibition examines themes of home, identity and belonging that were at my focus in the last year as a Visual Arts Certificate program student at NSCAD University in Halifax, NS. My artistic exploration started during the process of immigrating to Canada from Israel, my homeland, and a place where I still hold many emotional ties.

Throughout the process of my research, I explored the architecture and urban landscape of the places where I grew up in in Israel. The architectural vernacular in my paintings is very common in the Israeli urban landscape, which I wanted to capture through colour, light and texture.

In order to express the atmosphere of those environments, I stripped down the architecture to its core elements. Using Google Street View, online images and my memory, I chose specific points of view in and around these buildings, keeping strong grid-like compositions while deliberately limiting other details. My goal was to paint an atmosphere epitomizing extreme heat, exhaustion and tension.

Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS, Canada

HILA PELEG