Naively stylized with bold and vivid colors, Konshtik’s paintings and drawings combine ornaments and folklore images from her native Ukrainian tradition, with local Israeli and Middle Eastern motifs, such as palm and olive trees. Using an alter-ego in the form of a matryoshka doll, she dialogues with the Sabra (a prickly pear cactus and a common term used for describing an Israeli-born Jew). Konshtik’s works, especially the video at the heart of the exhibition, are laden with hybrid excess that expresses a cultural fragmentation. For Konshtik, this split used to be a source of challenging difficulty, that had gradually healed and became a source of pride, which enables her to look at the Israeli reality more critically and humorously.

Full exhibition text (Hebrew)