Art and design on display in Haifa as creativity trumps tensions

It’s a summer of new exhibits in Haifa, despite the nervous anticipation of a likely escalation of fighting with Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group in the north, which could see the port city hammered with rockets.

Six new exhibits opened in the Haifa Museum of Art on August 1, all solo affairs featuring works by female artists, either from the north or with strong connections to the region. At the same time the city’s Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art has welcomed a traveling exhibit and two more local presentations — including one about the art of sushi rolled for reservists on the frontlines.

The Museum of Art’s exhibits, open until early January, are part of its resolve to support and bolster residents of the north, with tens of thousands of people still displaced from their homes after 10 months of cross-border attacks by Hezbollah since the war in Gaza began.

“At a time of pain, anger and terror, the museum is making a gesture of trust and support for the forces of creativity, beauty and life in the country’s north — from the Jezreel Valley, through Haifa and the Krayot to the frontlines in the Upper Galilee and the Western Galilee,” said Kobi Ben-Meir, the chief curator at the Haifa museum.

The six solo exhibitions study a variety of ways in which women view life in Israel and the adversities of war.

The participating artists include Ella Littwitz, a multidisciplinary artist who was born in Haifa and brings her imagery to the exhibit with sculpture, photography, video and audio works, relating to the human desire for battle and the concurrent hope that light can emerge from the darkness.

Ella Littwitz’s work, ‘Anthology of the Emptiness’ from her exhibit at the Haifa Museum of Art, through January 2025 (Ziv Mor from Dead Sea Works Geology Institute)

Three other artists are Liron Hana Ohayon and Amit Gavish, along with Rachel Anyo, who were all part of the Haifa museum’s artist incubator.

Ohayon and Gavish’s exhibit displays six video works they made of six women who recently moved to Haifa, showing six acts of female healing, personal passions and fears, all taking place on the streets of the city.

From Liron Hana Ohayon and Amit Gavish’s exhibit at the Haifa Museum of Art, through January 2025 (Courtesy Yasmin Shefet)

Anyo’s work focuses on Ethiopian pasts and culture, as she recruited 13 women of Ethiopian origin and of different ages for a collage project that explores the culture, based on images from Anyo’s family albums, and the participants’ experiences.

Hadar Saifan, born in a community in the Upper Galilee and now a resident of Gesher in the Western Galilee, brings her works of video and photography that she created on the northern border as she followed the actions of soldiers, patrolling, shooting with her camera and spotting aircraft in her solo exhibit. It’s an echo of how Israelis have felt the need to protect their own homes after a sense of deep abandonment by the government and army during the Hamas attack of October 7.

Hadar Saifan’s work on patrols on the northern border, part of her exhibit at the Haifa Museum of Art, through January 2025 (Courtesy)

There are the print works of Lihie Talmor, born in Tel Aviv, usually residing in the northern town of Admit but now evacuated to Acre, as she peels off layers of her photographs, bringing new ingenuity to her prints and their play on light and darkness.

The cave-like drawings and mixed media works of Merav Sudaey transform her exhibition space into a cave with painted walls, a ritual site for an ancient goddess that draws inspiration from wall paintings in Hindu and Buddhist temples and monasteries.

From Rachel Anyo’s exhibit at the Haifa Museum of Art, through January 2025 (Courtesy)

The Tikotin Museum opened three exhibits in June that close at the end of November.

The museum’s exhibit most connected to the current climate in Israel is Hedva Rokach’s photographs of six Japanese-Israeli women preparing rolls of sushi for soldiers serving on the frontlines.

From ‘Japanese Sushi Girls,’ an exhibit at Haifa’s Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art through November 2024 (Courtesy Hedva Rokach)

The photographs tell the stories of each woman, their decisions to live in Israel far from their families and homeland, and spotlights their skilled hands and focused faces as they cook, slice and roll their ingredients into colorful, carefully packaged treats for the troops.

From ‘Japanese Design Today 100’ at Haifa’s Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art through November 2024 (Courtesy)

“Japanese Design Today 100” is a traveling exhibit, currently at Tikotin, featuring well-known pieces of Japanese design, from the Kikkoman soy sauce bottle and rice cookers to familiar boxes of the Nikon camera, Gameboy, Walkman and a lemon reamer for juicing citrus fruit.

There is also “Light on Skin,” photographer Michael Sela’s black-and-white photographs from his nearly four years of travels in Japan.

From ‘Light on Skin’ at Haifa’s Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art through November 2024 (Courtesy Michael Sela)

For more information about visiting hours and tickets at all Haifa museums, including the Haifa Museum of Art and Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art, go to the Haifa museums website.