An entirely new retrospective survey of the work of Israeli artist Orna Ben-Ami, including her monumental public works, from the early 1990s to the present day. Orna Ben-Ami sculpts by cutting and welding iron. She also creates unique artworks by attaching her iron sculptures to flat photographic prints. The artist first started to learn gold and silversmithing at the Jerusalem Technological Centre, before studying sculpture at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC between 1990 and 1992. She became fully engaged in sculpture in 1994, using iron as the principal raw material both for her artistic expression and for the preservation of private and collective memories, particularly the memories of transient and displaced people. This retrospective volume presents 195 key artworks covering the major influences Ben-Ami has drawn upon since the early 1990s. These include Jews in Europe that were forced to leave to the Ghetto during WWII, Syrian and African refugees from the last 30 years, the destruction of life and houses in the Israeli villages around the Gaza Strip during and post October 7, 2023, and Palestinian child refugees within the Gaza Strip. AUTHORS: Ethan Bronner is a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist, Israel bureau chief and a senior editor for the Middle East at Bloomberg News, which he joined in 2015 following 17 years at The New York Times. He is the author of Battle for Justice: How the Bork Nomination Shook America (2007). Gideon Ofrat is a leading Israeli art historian, art curator, and art critic, who specializes in Israeli art. Jack Rasmussen is the director and curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center. He previously held Executive Director positions at di Rosa Preserve: Art & Nature, Maryland Art Place, and Rockville Arts Place, and was the owner and director of Jack Rasmussen Gallery in Washington, DC. SELLING POINTS: . A major review of Orna Ben-Ami's work within the context of her thirty two-year career as a sculptor. . Features her recent sculptures and iron elements attached to press photographs, by a special technique that she has developed to underscore the fragility of human existence. 195 colour illustrations
