MICHAL BARATZ KOREN

Michal Baratz Koren Michal Baratz Koren's staged photographs are ensembles highlighting the lives of little known women from the Torah/the Bible's Old Testament: Eve, Rachab, Bathsheba, Delilah, Hagar and Jezebel. Baratz Koren re-interprets their stories and re-imagines their circumstances. She chooses models from her family and friends, dressing them in her grandmother's castoffs or secondhand dresses from the flea market. And she spends considerable time searching for just the right locations as settings for her staged photographs. The resulting massive ensemble portraits give space the women desire, which is both a need and a conflict that persist until today.

Michal Baratz Koren (1978, Israel) lives and works in Tel Aviv. She studied Fashion Design Studies at Shenkar College of Engineering and Design (1999-2000); Communication Art at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem (2000-2004, graduated with honors); and Photography Studies at Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan (2007-2008). She is represented by the Israeli gallery Zemack Contemporary Art and she had solo exhibitions in Zemack Contemporary Art, titled Mayne Tayere (2016, Tel Aviv) and the New Ars ltalica Gallery,titled Wonderful Scratch (2008, Milan). She was granted several scholarships and awards: Sansberg Award for unique achievements in design (2004); Govermental scholarship by the Israeli and Italian ministries of foreign affairs (2007); and First Place Award at the 'fun project' annual competition (2000, Shenka).