Suly B Wolff

Born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil, I was exposed to art from a very young age. By 11 years old, I started taking organized sketching classes. At the age of 18, I immigrated to Israel and studied at Seminar Ha'kibbutzim to became a teacher of the very young. A few years later I decided to go for interior design and studied another 3 years at "ORT". Designing in all it's forms fascinated me and I dealt in a variety of its aspects. 13 years ago I decided to devote myself to painting.

My creative work is marked and affected by my being an immigrant who has been uprooted from one country Brazil to another Israel.

While trying to accommodate myself to a new place, a new language and a new culture, I found myself attracted by certain species of trees which seemed to me alien to this new landscape, mainly tropical palm trees and Eucalyptuses. These trees where themselves imported from other places for different reasons: the palm trees were meant to decorate and enrich Israeli gardens, visually and aesthetically, while the Eucalyptus played a major role in cultivating the wild land of Israel, as they used to absorb the waters of the many swamps, thus fighting against the Malaria mosquitoes.

These trees, mainly Eucalyptus, became a major theme in my paintings, as well as a kind of consolation and encouragement. This is an ongoing source of creation for me, in which I find endless possibilities.

S. Bornstein Wolff

2000
Painting with painter Ilana Bar-David

1998
Drawing instructions with sculpture Yael Bareket, Sketching, aquarelle and acrylic painting.
Association of painting and sculptures in Tel Aviv with painter Shaike Granot.

1998-1999
Various combined technique sketching and oil on canvas with painter Noga Meierhof, Center for Arts, Tel Aviv.
Sketching an oil canvas with painter Miri Neshri.

1981-1983
Architecture and interior design, Ort.

1980-1981
Jewelry design, Tel Aviv.

1976
Sketching in charcoal and oil painting with painter Lev Steinman, Tel Aviv.

1969
Painting and sketching, Sao Paolo.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2010 Beit Gabriel (on the Kinneret), Jordan Valley, Israel
2010 A comment on Landscape (Painting), The Artists'
House, Tel Aviv, Israel
2010 The Jerusalem Theatre, Israel
2009 Karandaji Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2008 The Migdalor Gallery, Jaffa, Israel
2008 The Collection Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2006 Efrat gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2006 Shorashim Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2005 Artura Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2004 Jerusalem Theatre, Israel
2004 Yahalom Theatre, Ramat Gan, Israel
2000 Amalia Arbel Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
1999 Beit Amcha, Tel Aviv, Israel

Selected Group Exhibitions

2010 The arts' house, Singapore
2009 The Arts center, Kfar Saba, Israel
2008 ZE Architecture Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2007 Florence Biennale, Italy
2007 Villa Pignano, Volterra, Italy
2006 Artexpo, Jacov Javits Center, New York, USA
2005 Habitat Center, New Delhi, India
2005 LINEART International Art Fair, Flanders Expo, Gent, Belgium
2004 Artexpo, Jacov Javits Center, New York, USA
2004 Mayerov Art Center, Holon, Israel
2004 Globes House, Rishon Le Zion, Israel
2003 Euro Art, Geneva, Switzerland
2003 Artexpo, Jacov Javits Center, New York, USA
2002 Windsor gallery, San Francisco, USA
2001 Beit Glickman, Ramat Hasharon, Israel

Suly Bornstein Wolff's recent series of paintings is inspired by the night. After having investigated such vegetation as Eucalyptuses and palm trees in the harsh light of her native Israel, as metaphors for uprooting and immigration, she dives into what seems to be her "Night Shift", a wide series in which these two metaphors are reborn in the darkness of the night. As much as these paintings seem as Chiaroscuro investigations led by a virtuoso painter, they are also personal and autobiographic paintings, as this is often the case with Bornstein Wolff's work.

A sense of magic, mixed with an unclear sense of threat characterizes these dark paintings. In some, one might feel trapped in a forest inhabited by fairies, as in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Some branches or leaves shine in the dark but the source of light is hidden and its nature unknown. In others, a lonely palm tree stands in the heat of the night, its black or deep blue background scratched, and its branches enlightened as if the light is bursting forth from within. Yet in other paintings, the tree is accompanied by a group of houses, hardly seen as they are almost vanishing in the obscurity.

In art history, night nature paintings are not common, and are found mainly in the Romantic and Symbolic movements, but Bornstein Wolff's paintings are neither romantic nor symbolic; they are mental landscapes in which she confronts her personal history and background. Nighttime is the time for reflection, a time of transition and in-between. It is the time of the lovers, but also that of the lonely ones. The paintings bear these notions and contradictions while depicting flora and habitat without any human presence, functioning almost as mirrors and objects of contemplation and meditation.

As such, each of these paintings is an invitation to a voyage. They are apparently closed and introspective, but the artist leaves a wide window open for the viewer's interpretation, and some light to lead him through the darkness.

Ilan Wizgan