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
Chaya Ruckin, born in 1984, lives and works in Tel Aviv; holds an M.F.A from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, received an Asylum Arts grant in 2015.
Ruckin’s practice combines video, photography, sculpture, performance and drawing, through which she explores the relation between body and object, in the everyday environments and the exhibition space. In her work she raises the question: Where does life come from? The question is not a scientific or religious one, but rather what drives us forward and upward even as we are counting down to death from the moment we are born.
Ruckin has participated in many exhibitions, festivals and cultural events in Israel and abroad, among which: the Tel Aviv Artist Studios, Barbur gallery Jerusalem, FIAC International Contemporary Art Fair, Grand Palais, Paris; the Center for Digital Art, Holon; the Queens Museum, New York; the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography and more. Ruckin has participated in the Asylum Arts residency program (New York, 2014) and the Beita Residency (Jerusalem, 2014)
Avi Sabah (1977) was born in Ma’alot Tarshiha.
In 2004, he graduated with honors from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem and since 2006 has served as the lecturer. Sabah was part of the founding team of preparatory studies of Bezalel and taught there from 2011-2019.
In 2017-2018, he also served as a lecturer in Bezalel's Second-Degree Studies and in 2018, was awarded an Outstanding Lecturer Award at Bezalel.
Sabah is also one of the founders of the Barbur Art Gallery in Jerusalem, a contemporary and social art gallery, where he curated numerous exhibitions and established art workshops for youth and senior citizens.
Sabah taught in the art department in a variety of courses: painting, printmaking, first-year studio, conceptual workshops and personal guidance.
Sabah's work has been widely exhibited in Israel and around the world. Among other things, he exhibited solo exhibitions at the Asuncion Biennial in Paraguay and at the Curitiba Biennale, Brazil. In addition, he showed at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Bat Yam Museum of Art, Haifa Museum, Israel Museum, Givon Art Forum, Givon Gallery, Tel Aviv Artists' Workshops, Regina Rex Gallery in New York, Zorcher Gallery in New York, Tokyo Wonder City, Magazine 4 in Austria, Gallery 39 in Tel Aviv and more.
Awards: Excellence Award at Bezalel (2004), Moses Award for Painting (2009), Young Artist Award (2011), Bezalel Excellence Lecturer Award (2018), and Culture Minister's Award from the Ministry of Culture (2018).
