ABOUT THE ARTIST

Lera Barshtein was born in Moscow, Russia in 1961. In 1981 she graduated from Moscow State Academic Art College for Memory of 1905 year. Member of Moscow Artists' Union since 1983. Repatriated to Israel in 1990. Member of International Association of Art (Israel Branch) since 1992.

 

Personal Exhibitions

2017 – The Maale Adumim Cultural Center, Israel

2017 – The Biblical Zoo, Harmony Cultural Center, Jerusalem, Israel

2010 – Melnikov Gallery, Heidelberg, Germany

1996 – IKB-Bank, Berlin, Germany

1994, 1997 – Melnikov Gallery, Heidelberg, Germany

 

Selected Group Exhibitions

2021 – Moshe Castel Museum, Maale Adumim, Israel

2021 – Museum of Nature, Jerusalem


2018–2021 – exhibitions in Rakia gallery and Skizza gallery, Jerusalem

2016 – Moshe Castel Museum, Maale Adumim, Israel

2016 – Exhibition in Santa Fe Gallery, Ontario, Canada

2016 – Exhibition in Thomas Lounge Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada

2014–2016 – Gallery Skitze, Jerusalem

2013 – The Begin Heritage Center, Jerusalem

2013 – The Rakia Gallery Jerusalem

2013 –  Archeological Museum, Old Jaffo, Israel

2013 – "Spectrum" Exhibition, Harmony Cultural Center, Jerusalem, Israel

2012 – Skizza Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel

2012 – Butik-Cinema Hotel, Tel Aviv, Israel

2011 – Skizza Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel

2010 – "Creations of Nobel Prize Winners in the Works of Immigrant Artists", Begin Center, Jerusalem

2010 – Melnikow Gallery, Heidelberg, Germany

2010 – Skizza Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel

2009 – Baker Street Art Gallery, Tel Aviv–Jaffo, Israel

2009 – Auction in Jerusalem House of Quality, Jerusalem

2007 – Hanita Museum, The Modern Art Wing, Israel

2007 – "Artsession", Jerusalem House of Quality, Jerusalem

2007 – Gerard Behar Center, Jerusalem

2004 – Hilel Auction, Jerusalem, Israel

2002 – "Nevsky Avenue, 64" Gallery, St-Petersburg, Russia

2002 – Beit Shmuei, Jerusalem, Israel

2002 – Museum of Cultural Heritage, Kiev, Ukraine

2001 – CoArt Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel

2000 – Jerusalem Theater, Jerusalem, Israel

1999 – Art Expo Madrid, Spain

1997 – Sapir Center, Jerusalem

1996 – Exodus Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel

1994, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2006 – Jewish Gallery, Berlin, Germany

1994 – Jewish Cultural Center, Frankfurt. Germany

1993 – Artist's House, Jerusalem

1993 – Ein-Harod Museum, Ein-Harod, Israel

1992, 1993, 1999 – Melnikov Gallery, Heidelberg, Germany

1991 – Jewish Cultural Center, Mannheim, Germany

1991 – Jewish Cultural Center, Heidelberg, Germany

1991 – Artists' House, Tel-Aviv, Israel

1991 – Gallery 30, Tel-Aviv, Israel

1991 – Amalia Arbel Gallery, Rishon LeZion, Israel

1991 – David Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel

1983–90 – All-Union and International Exhibitions of Young Artists, Moscow, Russia

 

Award:

1983 – The First Prize of Yanush Korchak International Picture Competition

 

I began to study painting at the age of 7. My first teacher was the artist Vladimir Vorobyov. Sitting on the open terrace at his dacha, we would paint on huge, colorful cardboard sheets. In August, V.V. would exhibit our works right in the forest clearing (he would tie a rope between two pine trees, and hang our drawings on it). Lots of visitors would come, and we were very happy.

At the very first such exhibition, I realized that being an artist was my fondest wish, and that there was nothing better than being exhibited in the woods!

At the age of 9, I was enrolled in the arts studio of the Palace of Culture. Once again, I got lucky: my teacher was Yelena Afansyeva, a gifted pedagogue and an outstanding artist. Her studio smelled of watercolors and gouache, and it had jugs with wonderful dried flowers. The older kids would paint alongside the younger ones, and there was a feeling of camaraderie.

At the age of 10, I was admitted to an arts school. It was located in an old mansion on Kropotkinskaya (Prechistenka) Street, and I attended it thrice a week. The journey to the studio required two trolleybus rides, and I did my homework en route. All the pupils at the studio were friends; we all loved painting, and took pride in it. The mansion still retained some of the old furniture, such as a sumptuous oak table with lion paws in lieu of legs. The balcony was in a precarious condition, and we were forbidden from venturing onto it. Needless to say, we ventured there all the same! The slight sense of danger, the exhilarating beauty of the surrounding buildings, the smell of paints, the art-loving friends, the lectures on art history, the amazing still lives, the photocopies of paintings from the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts that were exhibited in the hall, the end-of-year trips to plein-air sessions held in breathtakingly beautiful locales (the Botanical Gardens, the Zoo, Pereslavl-Zalessky) – all this strengthened my resolve to become an artist at all costs.

I got really lucky with my teachers. In 1977, I began to attend the faculty of stage design of the Moscow Arts School in Memory of 1905. We were taught by Tatyana Serebryakova, daughter of the artist Zinaida Serebryakova. She was chief artist of the decorations workshops of the Moscow Arts Theater. She would take us to tour the workshops and show the materials that were used to paint the decorations and props. We would cover the curtains with aniline dyes, create stone walls out of wet toilet paper, and draw lacework on pantyhose stretched across canvas. There, I acquired my love of pastose painting. One of Serebryakova's assignments was "imitating stained glass". A polyethylene sheet would be stretched across the canvas; its surface would be painted with black ink, and the spaces between the black lines would be filled in with translucent paint mixed with lacquer. When I saw the shine and glitter of the colorful parts of the stained glass, I realized that this was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. From now on, I would try to recreate this "stained-glass" shine in my paintings.