Artspace Tel Aviv | עמותת 'מקום לאמנות' בקרית המלאכה

Ruth Orenbach

The search for a lost goal – whether a geographic location or an image or a mood embossed never to be caught again – recurs frequently in Orenbach’s paintings. This act of constant seeking is both energetic and hurtful. Even as it cements those facts that possess the wherewithal to create a memory, it mainly provides an abundance of pain caused by its bitter loss. Orenbach paints a picture postcard of the homeland, but the postcard contains neither a date nor an address, only floating about in the space of consciousness, so as to taunt it.

These characters belong to a nuclear family in the East (Vostok), a family that really lived on a street corner whose map carries thoughts of a time, a place and a beloved man. With the help of old fading photographs, Orenbach retraces this junction.

The crumbling, yellowing photograph, as a sole souvenir to hold on to, serves as a silent piece of testimony rich in detail but offering few words and enjoys a new narrative birthed by Orenbach’s works. The ongoing activity relieves its place to introduce a moving body of colour and aesthetics: the monochromatic winter reciprocating with the various hues of fall foliage.

Nevertheless the past is very real, even if kept in memory drawers. 

Omer Lachmanovitch , literary critic

November 2018

Art collection:

Yad Va Shem Museum Art collection, Jerusalem

Israel Discount Bank, New York, U.S.A

And private collection In Israel and abroad.

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 ruth.orenbach@gmail.com / www.ruth-orenbach.com

 054-4628802 / Shvil Hameretz 4, Entrance 11