Tal Engelstein is the winner of the Ilana Elovic - Bezalel Prize for Excellence in the Arts 2021

The prize in memory of Ilana Elovic, at the amount of $7,000, is awarded to graduates of Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Jerusalem, up to 7 years from their graduation, for excellence in the arts. More than 60 graduates who are active in the field of art and have a rich portfolio submitted their application this year.

The winner of the Ilana Elovic - Bezalel Prize for Excellence in the Arts 2021, is Tal Engelstein, graduate of the Department of Fine Arts and an award-winning artist whose works have been exhibited in Israel and around the world.

According to the Selection Committee: "Tal Engelstein creates installations and performances which consistently and courageously explore extreme physical and mental existential spaces. His work displays extraordinary artistic ambition, both in its imaginative and exceptional production, and in the viewing experience it provides the viewers – intensive, challenging and demanding, at times painfully so.

Engelstein's work is produced and displayed in social spaces that are always social and therefore politically dangerous, where the poetic and vulgar are inseparable, temptations quickly deteriorate into harassment and any violent intrusion is identified as fragile".

Selection Committee Members: Chair - Jossef Krispel, Head of the Department of Fine Arts at Bezalel, Prof. Yehudit Sasportas, artist and senior lecturer in the Department of Fine Arts at Bezalel, Smadar Keren, curator of the Beit Uri and Rami Nehoshtan Museum, Ashdot Ya'akov, Uri Nir, artist and lecturer in the Department of Fine Arts at Bezalel, and Noa Sadka, photographer and lecturer in the Department of Photography at Bezalel.

The prize ceremony will be held on 25 October, 2021, at 12:30, at Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem, in the presence of Dr. Eugene Elovic and family.

Previous winners are: Asaf Elkalai (2018), Oree Holban (2017), Esther Schneider (2016), Yitzhak Golombek (2014) and Amnon Ben Ami (2012).

Ilana Elovic passed away in 2006 after battling with cancer. Ilana dedicated her life to art, and worked in different mediums, including painting, ceramics, glass and jewelry design. Upon learning of her illness, Ilana began to engage almost exclusively in her artistic work.