Tal Yerushalmi 

b. 1978, Netanya, Israel; lives and works in Tel Aviv.

Tal Yerushalmi's paintings and painting installations are spawned by a tangled dialogue with archeology and with hand-crafted objects (weaves, braids, hewn flints, and carved tools), and a painterly imitation of the way they were made. In her paintings, she detaches them from their original meaning, lending them a new, unexpected context. The archaeological excavation site functions as a treasure trove of images, but also dictates her modus operandi and the underlying concept of her work. The stratified quality is significant: the painting is constructed as layers of times and places that were accumulated and piled up, obscuring details.

On the truck, Yerushalmi painted animals inspired by mosaics excavated in Israel: the bird mosaic floor in Caesarea, the mosaic floor of the Ma'on synagogue, and the mosaic floor in Lod (Lydda). The birds, tigers, hares, and deer were painted in the studio using soot, a lit candle that she moved along the canvas, tracing the animal's contour in black. The painting with fire gave rise to fire coloration and burnt holes in the resulting works. As she couldn't use the fire technique on the truck, she replaced it with spray paint, whose appearance resembles that of candle soot. The painting on the truck was guided by a sense of burning, of being consumed, alongside the enormous energy that accompanies fire, heat, and the burning process. On the other side of the truck, Yerushalmi wanted to lower the flames and put the fire out, and therefore painted vegetation and water in cold colors.

​

Holds a BFA and an MFA from the Department of Fine Arts, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Teaches in the Multidisciplinary Art School, Shenkar Academic College of Engineering, Design, and Art, and at Thelma Yellin High School for the Arts, Tel Aviv. Her works have been featured in numerous exhibitions in museums and galleries in Israel, including Noga Gallery of Contemporary Art, Maya Gallery, Hezi Cohen Gallery, Braverman Gallery, Alon Segev Gallery, and the Fresh Paint Art & Design Fair, all in Tel Aviv; Bar-David Museum of Art and Judaica, Kibbutz Bar'am; Jerusalem Artists House; Barbur Gallery, Jerusalem; Petach Tikva Museum of Art; Ashdod Art Museum; Janco-Dada Museum, Ein Hod, Israel; and around the world, in the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art, Bremen, German, among other venues. Received various grants and awards, including the America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarship; the Artist-Teacher Grant from the Israel Ministry of Culture and Sports; the Israel Lottery Council for Culture and Art grant for an exhibition and an artist's book; Creativity Encouragement Award from the Israel Ministry of Culture; and the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design MFA residency program grant.