The silence in this exhibition is neither absence nor emptiness. Out of silence emerge color, form, and image, forming a visual language in which emotional reality and imagination coexist side by side.
The exhibition presents new works from the past two years by Ruti Ben Yaakov.
The paintings, in small and medium formats, were created on paper using acrylic, watercolor, pencil, oil pastel, and markers.
The works are organized in clusters that serve as gateways into emotional and imaginative spaces. Each cluster carries a unique quality, and together they create a painterly sequence moving between states of consciousness, memory, and sensation.
Ben Yaakov’s visual language moves between emotional warmth and mystery, between playfulness and concealment. The images emerge from intuitive listening and sketch out a space in which line, color, and form develop freely, without necessarily conforming to a single interpretation or a defined narrative. The paintings do not seek to explain themselves, but rather invite the viewer to linger, listen, and allow meaning to emerge through the encounter.
A rich visual symphony is woven among the clusters of works. Each cluster retains its distinct voice, while also resonating with the others. Together they create an intimate, open space that invites the viewer to slow the pace of looking, remain for a moment between certainty and uncertainty, and encounter the living silence not as an abstract concept, but as an experience.
The title of the exhibition, The Living Silence, originates in the spiritual teachings in which the artist participated under the guidance of Tamar Rothstein. “The living silence” as a way of life is the presence of attentiveness in a living space—as sensation and emotion, a field that is felt without requiring words. Yet in the space in which we live, the mind reacts through thoughts; the living silence gradually becomes an encounter with life. The silence is not emptiness but presence. It is neither a concept nor a state without words, but a voice that crystallizes into an idea, into movement and experience, into a word, form, and creation.
Curator: Adva Drori
