Art Kibbutz presents a new group exhibition, Rooted: The Ecological Duality of Nature and Jewish Identity, featuring 20 artists that will be on view at the Manny Cantor Center from October 13 to December 1, 2015. This exhibition will explore the dual role of art embedded in the environment and Jewish identity.

Presented by Art Kibbutz, co-sponsored by the Jewish Art Salon and the Manny Cantor Center, this exhibition highlights the complex relationship artists’ have with the changing environment and to Jewish culture. Each artist, as an observer and participant, has an individual experience with their surrounding ecological system – Earth, Judaism, or both. These experiences are showcased through a wide survey of media – from unconditional raw materials, like dirt, branches, and bones, to innovative technology, like Augmented Reality.

Viewers are encouraged to participate in questioning and understanding the world around them as they experience the artists’ multiple perspectives and shared observations.

The artists’ work range from Ken Goldman’s Dirty Jew, a self-portrait that depicts the Israeli artist proudly drenched in the organic waste of 350 milking cows; to Cynthia Beth Rubin’s Roots, which uses Augmented Reality to show source material such as plankton in water, an artwork she started developing at Art Kibbutz’s first artists residency program at Eden Village. Complete with conceptual and commissioned work, the exhibition also showcases the art of two pioneers of ecological art, Jackie Brookner and Helène Aylon, who have devoted decades to teaching art as activism and “rescuing” the body, the Earth and G-d.

Exhibiting artists represent the Art Kibbutz artist community, and each has found a different, meaningful Jewish connection through the arts. Their work has been widely informed by their artist residency experiences at Art Kibbutz. Each residency program was created to harness and maximize residents’ creative work related to Jewish responses to the environment, farming, and sustainability.

Visitors are encouraged to contemplate their own roots of their upbringing and environment. This incentive is further realized in the upcoming Art Kibbutz Creative Catalyst symposium dedicated to art activism in memory of Jackie Brookner, a former Art Kibbutz resident and activist.

Rooted: The Ecological Duality of Nature and Jewish Identity is curated by Aimee Rubensteen, with curatorial assistance from Yona Verwer.

The opening reception is today, October 13th 2015, 6:00 – 9:00 PM.