Michael Berkowitz
b. 1952 in Brooklyn, NY; lives in New York City
Selected Collections/Honors:
Jewish Museum, NY; Yeshiva University
Museum, NY; National Endowment for the Arts Award; MacDowell
Colony Fellowships
Demon Binding Costumes and Mizrach,
2001
Stencil on satin, paint, and fabric; 8' x 5' x 3'
Addressing religious issues and the need for ritual, Berkowitz creates amulet
costumes that he covers in Hebrew scripture to invoke God’s help with particu-
lar issues or problems. These garments request God’s help in subduing personal
demons, and draw text from Psalms, including “My soul He restores. He di-
rects me in the path of righteousness for the sake of his name.” (Psalms 23:3)
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Doug Beube
b. 1950 in Ontario, Canada; lives in Brooklyn, NY
Selected Collections:
Brooklyn Museum, NY; Museum of Arts &
Design, NY; Museum of Modern Art, NY; New York Public Library,
Byrd Collection, NY
Vest for The NewWorld,
2008
Altered encyclopedia, wire, wax, metal, vinyl; vest fabricated by Shipra
Mishra; 20" x 25" x 5"
“
Vest for The NewWorld
is antithetical to the proverbial suicide vest.
Instead of using explosives, which destroy life and kill when the bombs
are detonated, the altered books in
Vest for The NewWorld,
when
metaphorically discharged, imaginatively burst into streams of cultural
and political fragments so that everyone in the vicinity is struck with either
propaganda or wisdom.”
Helène Aylon
b. 1931 in Brooklyn, NY; lives in New York City
Selected Exhibitions/Honors:
Jewish Museum, NY; Whitney Museum
of American Art, NY; National Endowment for the Arts Award
The Foremother’s Challah Cover,
2009
Embroidery on mesh linen; 24" x 24"
Channeling her Orthodox Jewish background, Aylon takes Hebrew
and English texts from the Torah and turns them into installations.
The Foremother’s Challah Cover
contains an embroidered imaginary
vision of ancestors performing traditional female Sabbath rituals.
Photo: David Potter