This June, British Friends of the Art Museums of Israel (BFAMI) will honour artist Rachel Feinstein at the art organisation’s longstanding renowned Women in Art Lunch. Previous editions celebrated other global contemporary peers, including: Cornelia Parker, Sue Webster, Gayson Perry, Tracey Emin, Jenny Holzer RA, and most recently, Marina Abramovic.
From sculptures to large scale paintings on mirror and multi-part installations, the New York based artist reveals the “dark messages hidden behind beauty“. By enmeshing together contradictory binaries, such as romance and pornography, elegance and baseness, she challenges ideals and morals. Feinstein pursues an ongoing project which constantly questions and explores the sumptuous materiality of historical European luxury. Feinstein holds both a preoccupation and fascination with fantastical, multi-dimensional environments drawing inspiration from historical contrasts, from Renaissance paintings to contemporary cartoons. Her very approach to art-making shifts fluidly between different poles. In an interview with Katherine McMahon she declared that
“I always have two different styles of making sculpture. One is like the classic Bernini kind of madness of forms all swirling together that are made with resin. And then there are these other paper ones that are mimicking a drawing vs sculpture.”
Borrowing freely from religious iconography, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe realities, or Baroque and Rococo artistic methods, Feinstein explores the intricate issues of taste and desire. Her works also reflect her own personal experience of motherhood and feminist ideologies.
Rachel Feinstein, Chuey, 2019. Enamel on mirror mounted on wood. 25×32 inches, 63.5×81.3cm (unframed) Courtesy of Gagosian, Photographed by Rob McKeever.
At the Women in Art Lunch, Feinstein will be in conversation with former BBC Director, Alan Yentob, to discuss her practice and wide achievements to date. The event is organized to raise money for vital educational programmes run by the Art Museums of Israel. For this purpose, Chuey, created especially for the Women in Art lunch by Feinstein (courtesy of Gagosian) will be raffled.
As Pamela Crystal, Co-Chairman of BFAMI, commented:
“BFAMI is delighted to host Rachel Feinstein as this year’s Women in Art lunch guest of honour. Since Rachel’s first solo show in 1999, the artist’s baroque style paintings and sculptures have sparked the imagination of the viewer with her reconstructed fairy tales. Rachel has generously donated an original painting especially for the Women in Art raffle, the proceeds will help to support our educational programmes run by the Art Museums of Israel, which look to create bridges and forge meaningful relationships across Israeli cultural initiatives.”
Alongside Rachel’s work, The Gritti Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Venice has donated a two night stay in a Serenissima Suite for two people, inclusive of a daily breakfast buffet and a spa treatment for two at The Gritti SPA – Sisley Paris. Other raffle prizes have been donated by Lalique; Fortnum & Mason; Hotel Bristol, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Vienna; Vacheron Constantin Master Watchmaker; Assouline Publishing; and Outset Contemporary Art Fund. Tickets for the event can be purchased individually at £200 a seat (Young Patrons under 35 can purchase at £125) or alternatively by hosting a full table of 12 at £2400.
Founded in 1947, BFAMI is a not for profit organisation dedicated to raising funds to support educational projects run by the Art Museums of Israel. Originally, the funds were solely used for the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and later for the Israel Museum, Jerusalem when it was founded in 1965. BFAMI has since expanded to support programmes run by additional contemporary art museums in Israel such as the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Petach Tikva Museum of Art, Haifa Museum of Art, Janco Dada Museum, Nachum Gutman Museum of Art and the Museums of Bat Yam (MoBY). This November BFAMI will be hosting a trip to Israel to visit some of these projects. All provide equal opportunities to men and women of every nationality and religious background. The events are incredibly varied, ranging from intimate private views to innovative exhibitions and artist studio visits, cultural trips abroad, to the annual Gala Dinner and Women in Art lunch. To learn more about BFAMI and the programmes the organisation supports, www.bfami.org
