Hila Sali, born 1973, lives and works in Yokne’am.

MFA in Creative Arts from Haifa University (2013), Painting studies with Leonid Balaklav (2009), B.Ed., Beit Berl Art College (2006).

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In my work as a painter, I aim to communicate my gaze onto the substance and material, using mostly oil on canvas in various sizes. My works are usually serial and focus on daily events and objects, such as cloths on the bed, found objects on the way to the studio, nature outside my window and sometimes more dramatic occurrences such as a funeral or a prayer session. My paintings and drawings are rich and colorful, expressive, tender and gentle, yet at times work on a higher emotional frequency. They seem intimate as if they were to tell you something private, yet I use personal and cultural themes (such as my family and home) countered by elements from nature, to also provide a more objective standpoint.

Those elements have been prominent in my work these recent years. In the series Green Grass, I paint synthetic grass which evokes the spectator to wonder is it an intimate piece or a fake plastic still life? The Greenhouse series is based on photographs of my father, while he was working in his Greenhouse, trying to develop new species of plants. It evokes questions regarding intimacy and cultivated versus raw nature. Interiors show a series of paintings where the star is my bedroom, trying to make is distant and close at the same time. The series of Funeral painting, show the visitors to my uncle’s funeral, while they work and contemplate, showing work and grief as a part of nature and human society.

2017