Orna Ben-Ami, Displacement and Memory

An entirely new retrospective survey of the work of Israeli artist Orna Ben-Ami, including her monumental public works, from the early 1990s to the present day.Orna Ben-Ami sculpts by cutting and welding iron. She also creates unique artworks by attaching her iron sculptures to flat photographic prints. The artist first started to learn gold and silversmithing at the Jerusalem Technological Centre, before studying sculpture at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC between 1990 and 1992. She became fully engaged in sculpture in 1994, using iron as the principal raw material both for her artistic expression and for the preservation of private and collective memories, particularly the memories of transient and displaced people.This retrospective volume presents 195 key artworks covering the major influences Ben-Ami has drawn upon since the early 1990s. These include Jews in Europe that were forced to leave to the Ghetto during WWII, Syrian and African refugees from the last 30 years, the destruction of life and houses in the Israeli villages around the Gaza Strip during and post October 7, 2023, and Palestinian child refugees within the Gaza Strip.Accompanies the opening of a major exhibition of Ben-Ami's work at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, in Washington DC.