Jerusalem-based, Australian Jewish artist Avraham Vofsi is creating a new visual language for modern Jewish expression. An integral part of the emerging school of contemporary Israeli realism, Vofsi works alongside other artists developing the nascent Hebrew art movement.
Vofsi responds to the currents of modern Jewish life, in the Diaspora and Israel. Tackling the spectrum of Jewish existence, he spotlights communal and personal stories by creating oil-paint portraits, landscapes and still-lifes.
Vofsi depicts Jewish subjects in the style of European classical realism, catapulting them into an iconic oeuvre that has always excluded or fetishised them. Aesthetically traditional, Vofsi’s art exists at that non-traditional intersection as a reclamation of an art world unavailable to Jews in previous centuries. His work is new Orientalism, de-colonised and de-fetishised.
Vofsi completed a Bachelor of Illustration at Melbourne Polytechnic, but is primarily self-taught.
Previous exhibitions include:
B’aretz: Portrait of a land (2023), a reflective look at his first visit to Israel and growing Jewish identity.
Essentials: Portraits of front-line workers (2022), an homage to the essential workers of the Covid-19 lockdowns in Melbourne. An exhibition catalog is housed at the State Library of Victoria.
Djabwurrung Heritage Embassy (2020), a depiction of Indigenous Australians fighting for culture and Country.
In 2022, Vofsi was a finalist in the Archibald Prize, Australia’s most prestigious national portrait prize, for John Safran as David and Goliath. The painting was exhibited at Art Gallery NSW and the National Portrait Gallery, and is permanently housed at the Jewish Museum of Australia.
-
2022 B’Aretz: Portrait of a land, East Melbourne Synagogue | Melbourne, Victoria
2022 Essential: Portraits of front-line workers, Off The Kerb Gallery | Melbourne, Victoria
2020 Djabwurrung Heritage Embassy, Little House Studios | Melbourne, Victoria
-
2024 Free Space, Harmony Center | Jerusalem, Israel
2024 נצח שבנצח Forever & Eternity, Ari’el Performing Arts Center | Ari’el, Israel
2023 Antipodes, Beinart Gallery | Melbourne, Victoria
2022 Spring Days, Off The Kerb Gallery | Melbourne, Victoria
2018 WOW festival Brisbane, Brisbane Powerhouse | Brisbane Queensland
2017 Dark Honey, Off The Kerb Gallery | Melbourne, Victoria
2017 Peculiar Portraits, The Workshop | Melbourne, Victoria
2016 Astronaut Alley (Curator and artist), The Old Bar Fitzroy | Melbourne, Victoria
-
2015 Bachelor of Illustration, Melbourne Polytechnic | Melbourne, Victoria
-
2019, Redbubble | Melbourne, Victoria
-
Jewish Museum of Australia, State Library of Victoria, PMI Victorian History Library, Private Collections in Australia, USA, UK
-
2022 City of Yarra Small Projects Grant | Melbourne, Victoria
-
2022 Archibald portrait prize Finalist | Sydney, New South Wales
2022 Darling Portrait Prize Finalist | Canberra, ACT
2022 Maldon Portrait Prize | Maldon, Victoria
2020 Portrait prize, Southern Buoy Studios | Melbourne, Victoria
2020 Salon de Refusés, Royal Queensland Art Society | Brisbane, Queensland
2018 Emerging Artist Award 2018 Shortlist, Fortyfive Downstairs | Melbourne, Victoria
CV
Podcasts
Videos
Credits:
Directed and painted by Avraham Vofsi
Written by Avraham Vofsi and Naomi Dascal
Add'l cinematography by James McPherson
Credits:
Directed and painted by Avraham Vofsi
Edited by Tatanja Ross
Add'l cinematography by Daniel von Czarnecki
Credits:
Directed and painted by Avraham Vofsi
Cinematographer by Daniel von Czarnecki
Editor by Greta Robenstone