The New Logistics Center in South Tel Aviv, on the border of Holon , is the latest venue selected for the Fresh Paint Contemporary Art Fair, now in its sixth incarnation.  (A plea to the organizers: next year, please refrain from opting for another ‘surprising’ location, and settle instead on a more easily accessible venue).
The big news was the introduction of Fresh Design – where well known designers are displaying their work in the same space as 33 up-and- coming young designers(‘The Design Greenhouse.’) In the Art section of the …

The 8th Tel Aviv International LGBT Film Festival (TLVFest), will open on June 8, 2013 with Snails in the Rain, the debut feature by director Yariv Mozer (The Invisible Men). Set in Tel Aviv of 1989, the film depicts the rupture created in the life of Boaz, a young man who receives obsessive love letters from an anonymous man, leading him to question his sexual identity. The film is based on a short story by Yossi Avni-Levy, first published in The Garden of Dead Trees, and stars Moran Rosenblatt (Lipstikka) …

CoPro 16 – The Israel Documentary Screen Market, will take place from May 26 – June 2, 2013. 60 international film and television industry members will arrive in Israel for the annual event, a unique independent marketing channel for documentary filmmakers, founded and directed by Orna Yarmut. Now in its 15th edition, CoPro events will take place in Hangar 11 at the Port of Tel Aviv, the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, and the Arab-Hebrew Theatre in Jaffa.
Simon Chinn, producer of the Oscar-winning documentary Searching for Sugarman and Man on a Wire, …

Tel Aviv’s 24th Jazz Festival is fast approaching, with three days of the world’s best jazz musicians coming together for one of Israel’s most revered and important music events. Musical directors Nitzan Kremer and Barak Weiss have planned a world-class lineup to take place at the new Tel Aviv Cinemateque on May 29th – 31st.
Over the years, Tel Aviv’s annual jazz festival has gained a reputation both locally and abroad for hosting some of the scene’s most well established musicians and collaborations. More than anything, the event has become a …

The exhibition Flesh and Blood is not for the faint-hearted. Curated by Raphi Etgar, the founder and director of this socio-political Museum, it brings together works by 28 artists from Israel, Europe and the US that focus on Man’s harsh treatment of animals. The result is an exceptionally high quality show, but one that certainly has the potential to distress the viewer.
A wall text set alongside Aquarium, a series of shadowy paintings by Etgar of fish, explains that his  ‘curatorial journey” towards this particular exhibition began long ago while visiting …

Run, don’t walk, to see Yasmeen Godder’s new work: See Her Change. The premiere performances will take place at Suzanne Dellal on April 22nd & 23rd, 2013 at 21:00.
Change is the operative term here, in more ways than one. I’ve just had the exhilarating experience of seeing a full run in the studio that made my heart race and sent a myriad of thoughts through my head in every direction. Yet I know that when I see this performance onstage at Suzanne Dellal next week that it will be a …

The relationship between words and music is perhaps one of the most complex and oft-discussed questions in the world of art. The two come together most often on the operatic stage, where, in order to create a complete work of art, the text and music must be meshed together perfectly, like a tightly-woven cloth. The 2012-2013 seasons of the New Israel Opera will contemplate this relationship with a series of operas based on some of the masterpieces of world literature.
The season will open with Alban Berg’s first opera, Wozzeck (first …

I entered a painting exhibition by Alma Itzhaky (b. 1984, an honors graduate from the Midrasha School of Art,) most curious to find out why she, out of a long list of hopefuls, was awarded the 2012 Osnat Mozes Prize for a Promising Young Artist. I found the answer easily enough. Plainly put, it lies in her ability to express what it feels like to be young, awash with emotions. And then, also, her approach to painting is youthful and uninhibited. She is not weighed down by the history of …

After four years of renovations, Israeli concertgoers will be able to return to the Chamber Music Center’s home at the Israel Conservatory of Music, on the corner of Stricker and Louis Marshal Streets in Tel Aviv. The Chamber Music Center’s 2012-2013 season promises to be as exciting as ever. The new season will celebrate not only the Chamber Music Center’s return home, but also important milestones for two of Israel’s most prominent music ensembles: the Jerusalem Trio and the New Israel Quintet.
The internationally-acclaimed Jerusalem Trio will open the season in …

A Breugel painting. A winter landscape in aerial perspective. Villagers skating or playing on ice. In the foreground a trapdoor set to catch birds. A scene believed to symbolize the precariousness of life. But which Breugel painted it amongst this formidable dynasty of Flemish painters? Pieter ‘Peasant’ Breugel the Elder its founding genius? His sons Pieter or Jan Breughel the Younger? Or was it one of the many talented offspring who kept the Breughel reputation alive for four generations?
Many questions like this one are resolved in All My Sons, a …