Essa Grayeb is the Recipient of the Ilana Elovic-Bezalel Prize for Excellence in the Arts 2023

Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Jerusalem together with Dr. Eugene Elovic and Family are proud to announce that the recipient of the Ilana Elovic-Bezalel Prize for Excellence in the Arts 2023 is Essa Grayeb. Grayeb is a graduate of the Department of Department of Photography (with honors), and the Master’s Program in Fine Arts. As an artist, Grayeb utilizes the mediums of photography, video and installation.

According to the Selection Committee: "Through his in-depth examination and astute observations, Grayeb’s work brings to the surface fascinating questions about a complex reality. In his work he moves between historic moments and narratives on the one hand and cultural markers and precise and poetic interpretation on the other, placing them at an instructive yet unpressured distance which generates identification with the viewer. His artworks are woven together by collecting and sampling existing materials within our culture, formulating parallel myths, dismantling conventional categories and boundaries and enriching the human-political experience. Whether originating from collective memory or gathered from different areas of the complex terrain he inhabits, Grayeb’s works are woven into current popular culture, delineating new observational processes with an impressive and alert gentleness."

Selection Committee Members: Chair - Jossef Krispel, Head of the Department of Fine Arts; Prof. Sharon Yaari, lecturer in the Department of Photography; Talia Israeli, lecturer in the Department of Fine Arts; and Shua Ben Ari, Curator at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, as public representative.

The prize ceremony in the presence of Dr. Eugene Elovic and family will be held on 6 November 2023 at the Ilana Elovic Gallery in Bezalel Academy's Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Campus.

Previous recipients of the Prize are: Danielle Kaganov (2022), Tal Engelstein (2021), 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.

The prize in memory of Ilana is intended to help and encourage young artists at the start of their careers and is awarded to graduates of Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Jerusalem, up to 7 years from their graduation.