"I consider my art as an extension of my life and my life is an extension of my art."
Janna Shulrufer is a member of the Israeli Painters and Sculptors Association and a member of the Artists' Community of Safed. She works in her art studio-gallery in Artist's Colony in Safed. She studied drawing and art history at the State Pedagogical University in Moscow and studied the technique of etching in the Artists' House in Tel Aviv. Her artworks are displayed at the General Exhibition in Safed (Israel), and at private collections of many countries. Janna Shulrufer is included in the catalog "Contemporary International Artists" and in the Art Encyclopedia: The "Russian" Artists of Israel at the turn of the 21st century.
Select Group Shows
2020 - 10th painting and mixed media competition Sofia, Bulgaria
2019 - 39th Mini Print International of Cadaqués, 2019 Cadaqués, Spain
2018 - Artists of Israel Jerusalem, Israel
2018 - 38-th Mini print International of Cadaques Cadaqués, Spain
2018 -The International Biennale of Grafic Art Jerusalem, Israel
2017 - Place Montefiore Salon in Tel-Aviv, Israel
2017 - Annual exhibition of The Israel Painters & Sculptors Association Shagall House in Haifa, Israel
2016 - Automn Salon Jerusalem, Israe
2015 - On the paper - The International Biennale of Grafic Art Jerusalem, Israel
2014 - Mini print International of Cadaques Cadaques, Spain
Select Solo Shows
2020 - Tanakh is a strategy for survival - Solo Exhibition Safed, Israel
2018 - Solo exhibition - General Exhibition in Safed, Israel
2016 - Tauromahia - General Exhibition in Safed, Israel
2014 - Spring exhibition - General Exhibition in Safed, Israel
2012 - Feminity (International Cultural Union) - Kastra Center in Haifa, Israel
2011 - New reality - General Exhibition in Safed, Israel
"When the artist knows what to play, the development of their work becomes relatively easy and they execute their work without any possible benefits because these are inherent in the same execution. The Israeli artist, Janna Shulrufer, seems to conceive this idea in her paintings, indicating features of marked personality and nobility, as if simplicity and austerity functioned as central elements of aesthetic quality. With vigorous strokes and categorical color combinations, Janna Shulrufer defines her concept of figuration in art, face to face in front of the world, confirming that poetry is feasible. Because the formal condition of her paintings, reflecting refined emotions and incisive meanings, is projected as bridges that connect imagination with reality.
The allegorical articulation of people or very defined animals, looking frontally, for example in her pieces "Bulls" or "Repatriation on the Bull" suggest the power of the demand, the affirmation of the living, noting the presence of art as a revealing element in front of the happiness and the underlying tragedy in humanity. One could risk an interpretation related to the figurative condition of the paintings, indicating that they propose a silent reflection on the nature of living beings; from the intrinsic pain of existence and the inevitable fatality, to the pleasure of the fragrances that they collect in their life.
The preposterous artificiality prevalent in the current art where we try at any cost to install the genius of the author does not confuse certain artists like Janna. Her work is direct as we face the true emotions or deep feelings that we all experience. These are points of departure, that is to say, that her paintings are nourished by ideas and sensations that merge into the pictorial space, defining a particular process that turns action into art."
- Dr. Ricardo Cesar Lescano, 'Frontal Looks'
This review was published by Circle Foundation for the Arts © CFA Press ∙ Images are courtesy of the artist