Department of Photography
המחלקה לצילום
قسم التصوير الفوتوغرافي
David Adika is a photographer, artist, and Head of the Photography Department at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Jerusalem. A senior lecturer in the Department of Photography since 1999, he holds bachelor’s (BFA) and master’s (MFA) degrees from Bezalel.
David Adika’s work focuses on the visual and cultural facets of the local Middle Eastern space as a microcosm that reflects his social and family identity. His photographic corpus contains representations of various still life and portraits, blurring the boundaries between abstract conceptual language and lavish visual accuracy. Adika’s visual research explores intimate yet universal biographies, while the photographs unfold familiar and unfamiliar aspects of everyday life and highlight questions of taste and social status.
Adika has had many solo exhibitions in Israeli and international venues, among them Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Art Museum in Riga, Latvia, Bologna MUSEI, Casa Morandi, Italy, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, and Braverman Gallery in Tel Aviv. He has won many awards, including the Minister and the Emerging Artist Prizes from the Ministry of Culture and Sports, and the Jack Nailor Award for Photography. His photographs are included in many collections, such as the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Haifa Museum of Art, Petach Tikva Museum of Art, Casa Morandi in Italy, the Knesset and private collections in Israel and abroad.
He lives in Jaffa and works in Jerusalem
Dr. Gal Hertz is the head of the Visual and Material Culture Department at Bezalel. He is a Germanist and a cultural researcher. His research creates a connection between the history and philosophy of science and cultural studies. He examines the rise of social disciplines around 1900 in the German-speaking world, such as criminology, sociology, sexology, law and psychiatry; This is from an affinity to popular culture, development of the press and media, theater, literature, and art. According to Hertz, the connecting point between seemingly unrelated fields is the establishment of a social order based on a new imagined normative base. Hertz holds a master's degree and a doctorate from the Cohn Institute at Tel Aviv University, pursued post-doctoral studies at the Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL Berlin), and taught at both Humboldt University and the Free University of Berlin. After that he was co-director of the research project "Humanities in Conflict Zones" at the Minerva Humanities center, and served as a research and teaching fellow at the Cohn Institute and the School of Cultural Studies at Tel Aviv University. In parallel to his work at the university, he is the editor of "MiNituk LeShiluv" (“From Disconnection to Integration”), an academic journal of the Ministry of Education Department for the Education of Children and At-Risk Youth, in which he is also involved in the processes of training teaching staff and in the development and implementation of the department's approach: therapeutic pedagogy.
Studied in the Graphic Design Department at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem between 1986-1990. After graduation, began working at David Tartakover’s studio, designing the signage system at the Suzan Dallal Center in Tel Aviv and a relief at the arrivals hall in Ben Gurion Airport, Terminal 2 and more. Later accepted as a major designer at Phillipe Bulakia’s branding studio. Managed the design of branding and packaging design of prominent brands in Israel. In 1998 became a lecturer at Bezalel and opened his independent studio the same year. Among the studio’s clients: Yediot-Sfraim Publishing, The Israel Democracy Institute, Bez-Zvi Institute, Spielman Photography Center and more. As a freelance designed books, guides and informational signage system for six shared heritage sites in Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and Israel, declared by UNESCO. Designed the book: “A Promise of Peace: The Jordan River Peace Park” that was granted to the king of Jordan, Hussain. Commissioned by Niv Kasher’s studio as a typographic counselor for the way-finding signage system in the renovated Culture-Hall in Tel Aviv. Designed catalogues for artist as: Roni Ben-Ari, Mosh Kashi, Yael Atzmoni, Faride Golbahar and more. Curated the graduate’s exhibition of the Graphic Design Department at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in 2008, and designed catalogue of works for the Glass and Ceramic design Department at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design For the academy’s centenary. From 2012 researches the well-established Hebrew letter designer Zvi Narkiss, expected to be publishes during 2021 as a book.
Gaston Zvi Ickowicz born in 1974, Buenos Aires, immigrated to Israel in 1980.
Through Video and Photography His works center on the interaction between people and landscape in a socio-political context.
Ickowicz graduated with honors Photography Studies at Musrara School of Photography (2000), and Advanced Arts Studies in the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design (2009).
He has had solo and group shows in Israel and abroad in Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art (2008); The Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv(2016); Hezi Cohen Gallery, Tel Aviv (2015); Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2011); the MACRO, Rome (2013); the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (2013); and more.
Ickowicz has received numerous awards and prizes, including the The Lauren & Mitchell Presser Contemporary Art Grant (2018), the Gerard Levi Young Photographer's Prize from the Israel Museum (2008) and the Young Artist Award from the Israeli Ministry of Culture (2010).
In 2018, Ickowicz participated in an artist residency program at Cite International des Arts in Paris, during which he presented a solo exhibition. Ickowicz is a lecturer in photography at the Bezalel Visual Communication department, Seminar Hakibutzim and the Maale film school.
