Chicago via Tel Aviv

Artport Tel Aviv and Hyde Park Art Center are pleased to announce a new residency initiative between the two locally and globally-focused arts organizations supporting dynamic artists in their communities. Chicago via Tel Aviv features an exchange between two artists, one based in Chicago, IL and one based in Tel Aviv, Israel, to spend a focused residency period developing research for new projects, expanding their professional networks and finding links between their practices in a new city.

Chicago via Tel Aviv sends Chicago artist Marissa Lee Benedict to participate in an eight-week residency at ARTPORT in Tel Aviv from June 10 to July 22, 2017 and will conclude with Israeli artist Ronit Porat participating in the Jackman Goldwasser Residency at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago from September 7 to November 4, 2017. Additional programming announcements to follow.

“We are excited to expand the residency exchanges we’ve initiated in the US to include a new collaboration with Artport, another community-minded organization, doing incredible work locally in Israel and internationally. Partnering with Artport allows us to work with a new artist and, equally importantly, create an opportunity for a Chicago artist abroad,” said Megha Ralapati, Residency Manager at Hyde Park Art Center.

The initiative immerses artists in new cities with the goal of expanding their artist practice in that environment. Both Tel Aviv and Chicago present dynamic urban spaces rich with artistic engagement. The artists selected share an interest in unearthing histories hidden within each city. While in Tel Aviv, Benedict will conduct research into infrastructural forms related to water management and drought resistance in the Israeli landscape and their parallels in the United States. While visiting Chicago, Porat will examine the 19th century origins of criminology and its inextricable ties to photography both historically and in contemporary Chicago.

“We are thrilled about our first American exchange program. Following the success of our European exchanges, we are excited at the opportunity to facilitate this cross-pollination of our communities. Supporting the selected artist to directly participate in the social, political and artistic conversations occurring in our two vibrant cities, Tel Aviv and Chicago, is a unique opportunity. We believe this exchange with the Hyde Park Art Center is a beginning of a long and interesting partnerships between the two lively art communities”, said Vardit Gross, director of Artport Tel Aviv.

Artist bios:

Ronit Porat works with photography, archival materials and biographical texts to create photo-based installations. She is currently a member of the cooperative Indie Photography Gallery, which was founded in 2010 by a group of visual artists to provide an artistic platform for young and established contemporary artists working with photography and video. Porat has an MFA from the Chelsea School of Art and Design in London, and a B.A. in Photography and Digital Media from the Hadassah College in Jerusalem and has exhibited her work internationally.

Marissa Lee Benedict is a sculptor, writer, lecturer and avid amateur of many fields and disciplines. Motivated by a deep curiosity about the function and dysfunction of social, ecologic and industrial systems, her practice is one of active observation; of engagement; of instigation; of experimentation. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, EXPO Chicago, the DePaul Art Museum, threewalls and Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, IL; at Hauser & Wirth (Somerset) in the U.K.; and at Contemporary Art Brussels in Belgium. Benedict received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and an MFA in Sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).

About the organizations:

ARTPORT Tel Aviv
ARTPORT, founded by the Ted Arison Family Foundation, is a non-profit art organization fostering and promoting contemporary Israeli art. Through a visual arts residency program, exhibitions, workshops, art book fair and professional training, ARTPORT advances artists and the connections between art and society.

Hyde Park Art Center
Founded in 1939, Hyde Park Art Center is a unique resource that advances contemporary visual art in Chicago by connecting artists and communities across the city’s diverse landscape in unexpected ways. As an open forum for exploring the artistic process, the Art Center fosters creativity through making, learning about, seeing, and discussing art—all under one roof.