Curator Susan Spiritus says, "I loved the confusion in Deborah Sfez’s photograph, “Crossroads I” as it clearly spoke to the confusion in life along ones path, the journey. We come and we go; we drive, we walk, we ride – from place to place. The journey, our life, is in flux, at times, clear and sometimes blurry, like the photograph, but we continue on into the light as our eye is directed into the lower right corner of brightness and we continue onward and out of the photograph."

BEYOND IMAGINATION

I had left one morning with some belongings in a handbag,

Not knowing where I was going or why I had taken the road on that specific dawn.

An incessant, profound desire to leave,

Since my very young childhood,

To leave the infernal circle which defines me,

limits me and makes me suffocate

For some mysterious reason

I had accepted the risks of adventure.

For there's a voice,

Underlying all events,

And scenes,

There's a threat,

In all appearances,

Of joy that left,

I felt deserted,

Planted,

In an unknown soil,

Stranger to its disorder,

Inexplicable Chaos,

Unacceptable filth,

Peculiar hygienic manners,

Sometimes funny methods,

Unfamiliar ways of doing very common acts,

Outrageous at times,

Yet I was attracted

By the white clouds,

The faithful black-skinned fishermen,

Who believed in a goddess named Mary, whom they worship as a fetish,

I was attracted by the strong vivid colors,

Put together in an odd way,

Not so harmonious to my stranger's eye,

Yet delicious and kind,

I was driven by a sense of innocence

And the childish pride,

Of poor-people solutions for a better life,

And the elegance of women amid a chaotic land,

And men not even aware of their savage life,

Inhuman, brutal and harsh,

Imprisoned in a continent,

Without future,

Or hope,

Living in another time,

Aspiring to expand and multiply like in a pink kaleidoscope to the African sky.

Deborah Sfez, Abidjan, 2018.

Deborah Sfez says, "I am an Israeli artist born in 1964, now working in Israel and Ivory Coast, focusing on the fields of Photography and Video in all their creative configurations.

I studied French and English Literature in Haifa University, Fashion Design in ESMOD Paris, and Scenery and Costume Design at Rakefet Levi's school of Theatre Design in Tel Aviv.

I have been practicing the profession of Fashion Design and Theatre Costume Design for over twenty years before I decided to concentrate exclusively on Art.

I have been exhibiting photography and video works in Israel, France, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Italy, England and the U.S.A in the last five years, gained acknowledgment and wan several photography and art prizes."

C.V:

PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO.

2018        Solo Exhibition,“Land of Memory”A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, Texas, U.S.A

2018        Solo Exhibition,“Land of Memory”,Zaritsky Artists House Tel Aviv

2017      “Home-Land” Sehnsucht Galerie, group exhibition, Rotterdam, Netherlands


2017      Video Installation “The Memory Of Trees”, UNESCO World Humanities conference, Liege, Belgium

2016     “Mirabella's Song” Solo Exhibition, Zaritsky Artists House Tel Aviv

2015     “Mirabella” Solo Exhibition, Memoire de L'Avenir Gallery Paris

MUSEUMS:

2018      “Yad Vashem”, Jeusalem, visual center archive, “A Journey to Land of Memory” film.

2017      The New Museum of Networked Art Wilfried Agricola de Cologne, Shoah Film Collection

Video work “A Journey to the Land of Memory”

AWARDS:

2017       Finalist, Top Ten, at Portrait Exhibition Photography Award, Hellerau, Dresden, Germany

2014       PWP - Professional Women Photographer Jurors selection for best portraiture, NY

2014       Short Listed in ASFF Aesthetic Short film Festival for Video “SFEZMATOZOID” York England

2013       Short Listed in Beers Contemporary Award for Emerging Art, London

Languages: Hebrew, French, English, (speaking and writing).

www.deborah-s-artist.com

----------------------------------------