‘Resilience and Reflection’ features various mediums, including painting, poems, sculpture, video, and mixed media, ‘each serving as a personal response and reflection on the events of that day.’
By Shiryn Ghermezian, The Algemeiner
A new art exhibition opening in New York City on Thursday to honor the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre will showcase a variety of memories, stories, and emotions — including grief, resilience and hope — surrounding the deadly attacks in southern Israel.
“Resilience and Reflection: An Artistic Response to October 7th” will be open to the public at the David Benrimon Fine Art Gallery. The exhibit features 24 works of art from emerging and established Israeli artists, and each piece of art included in the exhibit tells a personal story connected to Oct. 7.
“Art has long been a powerful tool for processing collective trauma and catalyzing communal healing. ‘Resilience and Reflection’ aims not only to remember the lives and stories intertwined with October 7th but also to showcase the incredible capacity of human beings to seek hope and renewal in the face of despair,” according to a released statement about the exhibit.
“Resilience and Reflection” features various mediums, including painting, poems, sculpture, video, and mixed media, “each serving as a personal response and reflection on the events of that day.”
A print photo by Benzi Brofman showcasing the Bibas family is a mostly black-and-white image, except for some background color and the bright red hair of the Bibas children Kfir and Ariel.
The entire Bibas family was abducted from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7 and remain held hostage by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
Kfir, the youngest hostage to be abducted by Hamas during its deadly rampage across southern Israel, was 9 months old when he was kidnapped.
One Hebrew language poem is featured in a mixed media piece titled “Handful of Dreams,” by Dede Bandaid and Nitzan Mintz.
Its translation reads: “A bed bakes my body like bread/filling it with a handful of dreams/When I open my eyes/How great is the hunger/Woe to the walls.” The artists said that the poem is about “hope, hard reality and big dreams.”
The duo also created a collage titled “October” that includes different memories connected to the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
A hand-carved wooden sculpture of a solitary individual standing beside a small house with a red roof was created my mixed media artist Yarin Didi and is titled “Cut Apart.”
It is part of an Oct. 7 sculpture series and was made from oak, olive, and eucalyptus woods. Didi said the small house with a red roof “stands as a testament to the horrors around Gaza on that fateful October 7th.”
“The earth beneath the figure, crafted from olive wood, symbolizes peace with its olive branch. The entire composition — from the figure to the ground and the house — captures emotions too heavy for most to bear or speak of,” he added.
“In silence, I create. I carve memories and experiences of that October from wood, teetering between hardship and hope — that change may come, and we might yet find healing and joy.”
Danielle R’Bibo is the curator of the exhibit, and this is her first solo curated show.
“Art allows us to communicate the inexpressible, to process pain, and to find hope amid sorrow,” R’bibo said.
“The artists in this exhibition are deeply moved by the opportunity to share their work in America. Through their art, they aim to honor the memories of those lost, bringing a human face to the war. This exhibition is not about politics; it’s about the people — their stories, their pain, and their resilience.”
“Resilience and Reflection: An Artist Response to October 7th” will be open to the public Sept. 12-26 at the David Benrimon Fine Art Gallery.