Michal Worke
Listen to the radio, 2021
About:
Michal Worke (b. Ethiopia, 1982) moved to Israel in 1984 as part of “Operation Moses”, an experience that has profoundly shaped her studio practice. She now lives and works in Tel Aviv. Worke studied painting and drawing at HaTahana Studio from 2007-2008, after which she received a Certificate in Multidisciplinary Art from Musrara (2008-2010) and attended Shenkar College of Art (2010-2013). In 2019 Worke received the Meron Sima Award for Visual Arts from Artists’ House, Jerusalem and in 2020 was awarded the Mitchell and Lauren Prize for Contemporary Art from the Herzliya Museum. Institutional solo exhibitions include Portrait Time (2020) at Herzliya Museum, Herzliya; Portrait of Many Portraits (2019) and I am black and I am proud (2017) both at The Artists’ House, Tel Aviv. Group exhibitions include Pictures from Family Life (2018) at Eretz Israel Museum and A Woman for Sisters (2017) at Herzl Lillenblum Museum. Goodman Gallery would like to thank Tamar Arnon and Eli Zagury for their support in developing this exhibition.
A moment of sleep, 2020/Good Friends, 2022/After Paula, 2022
Laden with symbolism, these latest paintings feature recurring objects and sentimental items of clothing. For example, the Netela, a traditional handmade scarf worn by Ethiopian and Eritrean women appears in Worke’s most recent paintings to invoke the Ethiopian diasporic experience and is a visual signifier shared by communities in Israeli, where the artist now resides.