Khen Shish
Khen Shish
Cell. +972 505 642 441
Email: studio@khenshish.com
Website: www.khenshish.com
Instagram: @khenshish
Facebook: /khenshish
Wikipedia: Khen Shish
About the Artist
Khen Shish was born in Safed, Israel, in 1970 to parents of Tunisian-Jewish origin. She studied art at the Art Institute, Oranim Academic College, Tivon, receiving a BFA in 1995. After graduation, she spent several years in Europe, living in Paris, London, Rome, and Berlin. In 1998 she returned to Israel and completed an MFA at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and the Hebrew University, Jerusalem (1997-1999). Shish is also a graduate of the New Seminar for Visual Culture, Criticism and Theory, Camera Obscura School of Art, Tel Aviv (2000-2001).
Shish works in a wide range of techniques. Her oeuvre includes paintings, drawings, collage, works executed on television screens, large-scale wall paintings, and installations. Her works introduce expressive sites oscillating between chaos and horror, nature and culture, refinement and excess, frugal and Baroque. Her works have been exhibited in leading museums and galleries in Israel and abroad.
Education, Scholarships and Awards
2013 - Landau Foundation Prize for Painting
2009 - The Ministry of Culture and Sport Award
2007 - Legacy Heritage Fund Prize, Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Artist in Residence, Cité des Arts, Paris
2004 - Young Artist Award, Ministry of Culture and Sport; America-Israel Cultural Foundation Grant for a stay abroad
2003 - Eugen Kolb Foundation Award, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
2000 - Camera Obscura School of Art, Tel Aviv; Studying at the New Seminar for Visual Culture, Theory, and Criticism
1999 - The Anglo-Israeli Photographic Award (Multi-Exposure): grant to make a project in London; MFA, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design and the Hebrew University, Jerusalem
1996 - 1998 America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarships
1995 - BFA, The Art institute, Oranim Academic College, Kiryat Tivon
1994 - America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship
Solo exhibitions
2017 - "Dangerous Art", Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, curated by: Svetlana Reingold
2017 - "La distanza delle ragioni", Anna Marra Contemporanea Gallery, Rome, Italy, curated by: Giorgia Calò
2015 - "Tunisian Bride", Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv
2015 - "De Kooning and Me - Family", The Gallery of Kibbutz Beeri, curator: Ziva Yalin
2014 - "Hand Made Bombs", C1 Gallery, Berlin; curator: Doreet LeVitte-Harten
2013 - "I Didn't Have the Heart to Wake You", Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv
2013 - "All The Tears I cried For You", Gordon Gallery booth at Fresh Paint Art Fair 6, Tel Aviv
2010 - In the Black Distance: Lea Nickel and Khen Shish, Ashdod Art Museum; guest curator: Naomi Aviv
2009 - Fire, Smoke, and Scales, Oranim Gallery for Israeli Art, Kiryat Tivon; curators: Students supervised by David Wakstein
2009 - Ornements et plis, Hagalleria, Paris
2008 - This Damned Heart of Mine", Habers Gallery, Vienna
2008 - Nerves Sing, Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv
2006 - Transit, Kodra Visual Arts Festival, Thessaloniki, Greece; curator: Tal Ben-Zvi
2006 - I was Kidnapped by Indians, The University Art Gallery, University of Haifa; curator: Ruti Direktor
2005 - La Vie en Rose, Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv
2003 - Birthday, Hagar Gallery, Jaffa; curators: Tal Ben-Zvi, Naomi Aviv
2000 - Buongiorno Giotto, Department of Photography Gallery, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem
1999 - The Goat and the Sesame, Antea Gellery, Jerusalem
1998 - Part Time Witch, Jerusalem Artists House; curator: Nahum Tevet
1997 - Henna", Beit-Hagefen Gallery, Haifa (with Rana Bishara); curator: Hannah Koppler
1995 - Installation at the Protestant Church, Wadi Nisnas, Haifa
Selected Group Exhibitions
2017 - "The Female Side of God", Jewish Museum Hohenems, Austria, in colaboration with the Jewish Museum Frankfurt and the Museum of the Bible, Washington DC, Curators: Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek, Michaela Feurstein-Prasser
2016 - "Art Camp", The Negev Museum, Be'er Sheva, curator: David Wakstein; "From Inside and from outside", Gottesman Etching Center, Kibbutz Cabri; "(Dis)Place", Ashdod Art Museum, Curators: Yuval Beaton and Roni Cohen-Binyamini; "The Circle of Life", NordArt, Kunstwerk, Büdelsdorf, Germany, Curator of the Israeli Pavilion: Carmit Blumensohn; Chief Curator of NordArt: Wolfgang Gramm; "Fragile": ZDSLU Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia, curator: Olga Butinar Čeh; guest curators: Rachel Sukman and Hana Kofler
2015 - "Beuys, Beuys, Beuys", The Artists' House, Tel Aviv, curator: Liav Mizrahi
2014 - "Mazal U'Bracha - Myth and Superstition in Contemporary Israeli Art", Beit Hatfutsot, Tel Aviv; curator: Carmit Blumensohn (catalogue); "Confron Tation", Galerie Le Minotaure and Galerie Alain Le Gaillard, Paris; curator: Marie Shek
2013 - "Print Time, Works from the Jerusalem Print Workshop and Gottesman Etching Center, Kibbutz Cabri", The Open Museum, Tefen Industrial Park; "Momentum — Paris – Tel Aviv – Paris", Minotaure Gallery, Tel Aviv; curator: Marie Shek; "Scar", Petah Tikva Museum of Art; curators: Drorit Gur-Arye, Sigal Kahat-Krinsky and Hila Cohen-Shneidermann; "Curator: Yona Fischer Beginnings of a Collection", Ashdod Art Museum, Ashdod; curator: Yuval Beaton, Roni Cohen-Binyamini (catalogue); "Time of Human Experience", Inga Gallery of Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv
2012 - "The Happy Mummy", Museum of Israeli Art, Ramat Gan; curator: Mira Hannan Avgar (catalogue)
2011 - "The Museum Presents Itself — Israeli Art from the Museum Collection", Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv; curator: Ellen Ginton (catalogue);"New on Paper", The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; curators: Ronit Sorek, Nirit Sharon-Debel, and Eva Sznajderman (catalogue)
2010 - "Day Light", Nechoshtan Compound, Tel Aviv; curator: Yoav Hirsch; "Recipients of the Ministry of Culture and Sports Awards", Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art; curators: Dalia Levin, Dana Orland (catalogue)
2009 - "Osculation Point: A Dialogue Between Image and Word, from the Benno Kalev Collection", Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv; In Drawers", Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv; curator: Guy Morag-Tzepelewitz; "Selected Artists", Hagalleria, Paris; "Spring – Summer", The Gottesman Etching Center, Kibbutz Cabri; "League: 101 Tel Aviv Female Artists", Amiad Center, Jaffa; curator: Galia Yahav; "Consolation", Inga Gallery for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv; curator: David Adika; "Israeli Art Now", Naomi Arin Gallery, Las Vegas, Nevada; curator: Omer Shani;
2008 - "Short Cuts", Habers Gallery, Vienna; "Near and Apparent: Connections and Contexts from the Benno Kalev Collection", The Open Museum, Tefen industrial Park; curator: Ruth Ofek (catalogue); "Rooms of Their Own: Art, Video, and Installation", Ticho House, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; curator: Timna Seligman; "NOIR", Bineth Gallery, Tel Aviv; Curator: Ben Tzur
2007 - "Young Israeli Art: Recipients of the Legacy Heritage Fund Prize", Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv Museum of Art; curator: Olga Cohen (catalogue); "Traces 3: The Third Biennale for Drawing in Israel", Jerusalem Artists House; curator: Dalia Manor (catalogue); "Manual Labor", Beit-Hagefen Gallery, Haifa; curator: Dalia Markovich (catalogue); "Selected Artists", Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv; "The Other Sea", Jerusalem Artists House; curators: Dalia Markovich, Ktzia Alon (catalogue); "Looking at the Trees and Seeing More than the Forest: from Raffi Lavie's House", Givon Art Gallery, Tel Aviv
2006 - "Sigalit Landau, Gal Weinstein, Khen Shish", Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv; "Present Now: Art of the Land 5", Reading Power Station Compound, Tel Aviv; curator: Tel Ben-Zvi
2005 - "Recipients of the Ministry of Culture and Sport Awards", Tel Aviv Museum of Art; curator: Ellen Ginton (catalogue)
2004 - "Intensive Care", Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv; curator: Doron Rabina
2003 - "Young Israeli Art: The Jacques and Eugenie O'Hana Collection", Tel Aviv Museum of Art; curator: Ellen Ginton (catalogue; "The Promise, the Land", OK Center for Contemporary Art, Linz, Austria; curator: Stella Rolig (catalogue); "There are Flowers", Line 16 Gallery, Tel Aviv; curator: Galia Yahav; "Scar", The New Gallery, Teddy Stadium, Jerusalem; curator: Hedva Shemesh (catalogue)
2002 - "BodyCase", RAM Foundation Gallery, Rotterdam
2000 - "Mother Tongue", Museum of Art, Ein-Harod; curator: Tal Ben-Zvi (catalogue); "Exile: Recipients of the Anglo-Israeli Photographic Award (Multi-Exposure)", Hamumche Gallery, Tel Aviv; Wigmore Fine Art Gallery, London (catalogue)
1999 - Biennale degli Artisti Giovani, MACRO, Rome; curator: Alfredo Pirri (catalogue); "Hidden, Latent, Unknown", Ami Steinitz Gallery for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv; "Look Mamma Look", The Old Bezalel, Jerusalem (in the framework of Art Focus); curator: Yitzhak Livneh; "Artic: Recipients of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarships", Museum of Israeli Art, Ramat Gan (catalogue); "Here and not from Here", WIZO Design College, Haifa; curators: Students supervised by Anat Gateniu (catalogue); "Sister", Jerusalem Artists House; curators: Shula Keshet, Rita Mendes-Flohr (catalogue); "The House in Musrara 3", Musrara Gallery, Jerusalem; curator: Rachel Sukman
1998 - "Seeing with your Fingertips", the New Art Workshop, Ramat Eliyahu, Rishon-Lezion; curator: Sharon Barak-Bachar
1997 - "Artic: Recipients of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarships", Museum of Israeli Art, Ramat Gan (catalogue); "Sixty Horsepower", Installations in Wadi Nisnas, Haifa (catalogue)
1995 - "Gathering on the 5th Floor", New Central Bus Station, Tel Aviv; "Point", Pyramida Center for Contemporary Art, Haifa; "Artic: Recipients of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarships", The Genia Schreiber University Art Gallery, Tel Aviv University (catalogue)
Artworks
