Salonnièr #2
Nurit Gur Lavy (Karni)
What has been erased? What is told?
Nurit Gur Lavy (Karni)
What has been erased? What is told?
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Nurit Gur Lavy (Karni)'s residency in Berlin is an exploration of wandering and gathering, of writing, drawing and walking, open to what the city will choose to offer.
Over time, the spirits and stories of the place will seep in and reveal themselves. This is Nurit Gur Lavie (Karni)'s artistic process. She wanders between spaces and times. A visit. A gaze. An impression. A testimony. A response. An attempt to grasp and examine a shifting place (as well as politically and historically). Her wandering (creative process) often begins with an encounter: an image: a photograph, a word, a diary, a person, or an object. Works then emerge and unfold across diverse techniques, including drawing, painting, installation, and video. After wandering through the landscapes of her father, and creating artworks on closeness and forgetting, a powerful body of work emerged in which she explored the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza via aerial photographs. A period of wandering through the landscapes of her mother, became intertwined with an extensive body of work centred on the deeply moving and personal story of her grandmother, Sarah Kafri (Kaplan). Sarah emigrated from Minsk to Mandatory Palestine as a young woman, and later became a pioneer and politician. However, she left behind diaries filled with pain, containing a story that was neither told nor spoken. The solo exhibition Private Papers emerged from these diaries, in which her mother erased expressions of pain so they would not be exposed. Between what is erased and what remains, the gap between the experience of personal fracture and the national ethos of heroism and pioneering is revealed. Gur Lavie (Karni) wanders between generations and the myths surrounding her family, from her father and mother to the orange packing house in Gaza and the stoic figure of her grandmother. From early European migration and the pioneering ethos to the present day, she asks: What has been silenced? What remains outside the frame? What must not be spoken of? What must not be revealed? Gur Lavie (Karni) wanders within rooted narratives, both familial and national. She maps that which does not necessarily seek exposure, leaving a gap within the images, between what has been told and what has been erased. Silencing, silence, concealment, and the withholding of personal pain, are also among the characteristics of the German locality, surfacing in Berlin's complex and painful history. What has been erased? What is told? |
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Nurit Gur Lavy (Karni) (b. 1952) lives and works in Kfar Yona, Israel. She holds a B.A. in Special Education and History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1975) and graduated from the HaMidrasha School of Art (1984). In 2000, she studied classical painting at the Jerusalem Studio School.
In recent years, Gur Lavy (Karni) has explored political, geographical, and historical landscapes through a practice rooted in mapping, botany, and cartography. Her work often has a diary-like, biographical quality, reflecting on personal, familial, and national histories. She works across a range of visual languages, from figurative to abstract, employing diverse materials, including oil on canvas, markers on wood veneer, and pigment on used ceramic plates.
Her work has been exhibited widely in Israel and internationally. Recent exhibitions include Private Papers (Artspace Gallery, Tel Aviv, 2025), curated by Yair Barak, and participation in the Blue-and-White Delftware exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, curated by Doron Lurie. Her works are held in major collections, including the Israel Museum, the Ein Harod Museum, the Library of Congress, and the Ashdod Museum of Art.
Gur Lavy (Karni) is the author of several artists' books, including Flora Palestina (2016) and Flora Palestina II: Inventories and Scrolls (2019). She has received the Ministry of Culture and Sport Prize (2019) and the Artistic Encouragement Prize (2012), and has participated in residencies at La Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.
In recent years, Gur Lavy (Karni) has explored political, geographical, and historical landscapes through a practice rooted in mapping, botany, and cartography. Her work often has a diary-like, biographical quality, reflecting on personal, familial, and national histories. She works across a range of visual languages, from figurative to abstract, employing diverse materials, including oil on canvas, markers on wood veneer, and pigment on used ceramic plates.
Her work has been exhibited widely in Israel and internationally. Recent exhibitions include Private Papers (Artspace Gallery, Tel Aviv, 2025), curated by Yair Barak, and participation in the Blue-and-White Delftware exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, curated by Doron Lurie. Her works are held in major collections, including the Israel Museum, the Ein Harod Museum, the Library of Congress, and the Ashdod Museum of Art.
Gur Lavy (Karni) is the author of several artists' books, including Flora Palestina (2016) and Flora Palestina II: Inventories and Scrolls (2019). She has received the Ministry of Culture and Sport Prize (2019) and the Artistic Encouragement Prize (2012), and has participated in residencies at La Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.