EVGENIA KIRSHTEIN: Wide-Eyed Art

A rising star of naive art, Evgenia Kirshtein lives in the heart of Jerusalem, in a house constituted of the walls of 4 other houses and a roof. There’s no coincidence in it. Restoration artist by her first profession, currently studying ceramics art at the Bezalel academy, Evgenia is attracted by the idea of rethinking the past.

A few years after moving to Israel from the moist of St. Petersburg, she walks down the chilling winter Prophets street. She's taking a moment to rethink her own past, when she notices an abandoned, wet, unfortunate being left near a dump. That being is a tender and fragile old painting. She can’t pass by the tragedy of oblivion. In the same way as some people rescue homeless kittens, she takes the poor thing home, breathes life into it with her brush and paints, and hangs it on the wall.

Evgenia turns the past inside out. Her works, including those made from scratch, are full of historical references. She can mix ancient Greek pottery concept with her favorite Russian iconography to create a grotesque allegorical depiction of COVID-hit Jerusalem of 2020.

Her sketches of daily life are as naive and straightforward as the reality itself, and the reality doesn’t want to be separated from Evgenia’s sketches.

Even the eternal Jerusalem of stone, so short on colors, suddenly wants to show its essence of a colorful cozy Mediterranean town. Harsh sunlight with deep shadows wants to get transformed into a sentimental playful shine scattered by leaves.

The microcosm of Evgenia’s tiny house with surrounding backyard which is known for its famous inhabitant, Rachel Blewstein, provides endless inspiration. As the sun makes its daily walk across the sky, its light points out various hidden corners of the backyard, revealing to the artist all the well-kept old secrets. This game results in paintings which gradually make the backyard wider and wider known for its new inhabitant and praiser, Evgenia Kirshtein.