Sha’ar Asher Nisgar
Artist: Deborah Bennett-Kagan
Medium: acrylic, pigment, charcoal, latex, glitter and 23K gold leaf on canvas
Size: three panels each of 3’ x 5’
Location: Kalifer Culture Hub
Deborah Bennett-Kagan’s triptych, ‘Sha’ar Asher Nisgar’, is a unified meditation on the Gate concept: three formidable black-and-white images in a classically abstract expressionistic mode. All are imposing – this triptych fills an entire wall of the exhibition. The Talmud tells us that the Torah given to Moses was “written in black fire on white fire.” Occasional flickers of 23K gold leaf are visible in the glistening black strokes in these works, which deliberately invoke the letters of the Hebrew alphabet: the three paintings constitute the word for gate (Hebrew letters shin, ayin, raash). SHA’AR is an ethereal presence in each canvas, shifting and changing from moment to moment as one considers the work.