Naomi Mendel and Hilla Spitzer have been engaged for some time in an exploration of thicket painting. Their dialogue began two years ago, when they met on a train to Jerusalem while teaching together. Although their practices developed from different directions—Mendel moving from the outside in, and Spitzer from the inside out—a shared conversation gradually emerged between them.
With the passage of time, and against the backdrop of war, this dialogue has taken on new meanings and new motivations. The exhibition brings together two distinct bodies of work created over recent months, tracing parallel yet interconnected paths of observation, painting and transformation.
Borrowing its title from a line by the Finnish poet Eva Kilpi, Lift Your Foot off the Gas Pedal: The Butterfly Is Crossing the Road, the exhibition invites a moment of attentiveness. It suggests a pause in which even the smallest gesture or the most fragile presence may alter the way we perceive the world around us.
Curator: Vered Nachmani
