‘Jerusalem of Gold’ exhibition brings five Israeli artists to the capital’s theater

Light-rail construction has turned Jerusalem’s Emek Refaim into a maze of ditches and detours, but curator Chaya Gross has found another route for Israeli art to reach the public.

Her new group exhibition, “Jerusalem of Gold,” opened at the Jerusalem Theatre’s Salon Gallery with work by five Israeli artists: Aaron Kraus, Maureen Fain, Miriam Jaskierowicz-Arman, Danielle Meyer Feder and Orit Simchoni. The exhibition remains on view until the end of September.

Gross, who owns Chaya’s Place gallery, opened after Oct. 7 to promote Israeli fine art and crafts. As construction increasingly disrupted the German Colony’s main shopping street, she began looking for a more accessible meeting place for artists and audiences. The Jerusalem Theatre, she said, offers Israeli artists “an accessible venue with the opportunity to meet the artists and buy their work directly from them.”

The theater is best known for concerts, dance, festivals, arthouse films and stage productions, while its eight galleries receive less attention. The galleries have distinct atmospheres and host exhibitions throughout the year under the direction of in-house curator Dr. Batsheva Ida, with most shows running for a month.

The five artists bring sharply different backgrounds and methods. Jerusalem-based Kraus entered professional art circles as a child, painting at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art alongside students about a decade older. After studying at the David Wakstein Studio and HIT Holon, he worked as senior assistant to Jerusalem post-impressionist Huvy Elisha before opening his own studio after Elisha’s death.

Kraus’s defining technique is painting in near-total darkness. Trained in realistic painting, he turned to darkness to move beyond its constraints and convey not only how Jerusalem looks, but how it feels to him, including its holiness, longing and hope. Jerusalem stone, especially vivid in the sun at dawn and dusk, remains central to his work.

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an accessible venue with the opportunity to meet the artists and buy their work directly from them.