Smadar Sheffi


Smadar Sheffi is an art critic, researcher of art and culture, and a curator of contemporary art. She is the founder of the Contemporary Art Center, Ramle – CACR and was the Chief Curator.
Over past years, she has gained vast experience in curating exhibitions in historical structures, among them the Bialik House Museum in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem Artists House, Contemporary Art Center, Ramla - CACR, and the Pool of Arches, Ramla.
Dr. Sheffi’s bilingual blog of art criticism and notes on contemporary culture, The Window, has been active since 2012.

Biography

Smadar Sheffi holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is currently a lecturer at the COLLMAN - College of Management Academic Studies, Rishon Lezion.
She is a past lecturer at the Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Institute for Israeli Art.
Her research interests, among others, are representations of the Holocaust in contemporary art, Israeli art and Modernism. Sheffi’s doctoral dissertation, "From Vienna to Jerusalem: Forgotten portraits by Grete Wolf Krakauer", was written under the direction of Prof. Gannit Ankori.
Since 2013 Sheffi is the contemporary art curator of the Bialik Museum in Tel Aviv. The curatorial program is focused on creating cultural linkage between the heritage of Israel's national poet H. N. Bialik and contemporary Israeli art and theory. In 2023, the book "Art. Bialik." was published by the Municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo on the occasion of the 150th centennial events marking the birth of the national poet. The book is a compilation of the exhibitions 2013 - 2023 and an anthology of the writings by Bialik that inspired them.
Dr. Sheffi was the chief curator of the CACR – Contemporary Art Center Ramla, an art initiative she launched in 2019. The curatorial program led by Dr. Sheffi embraces difference and multiple viewpoints as core values, addressing issues of diversity and civil society as reflected in contemporary Israeli art.
Since 2024, she has been editing and curating an annual literature–art project in collaboration with the Institut français in Tel Aviv, focusing on the works of major figures in French literature: Georges Perec in 2024 and Marcel Proust in 2025. Each project comprises a group exhibition of contemporary Israeli art in dialogue with the featured author’s work, alongside a public cultural program that includes panel discussions, lectures, film screenings, guided tours, and concerts.
Image:תערוכה במכון הצרפתי - אוצרת ד"ר סמדר שפי.jpg|thumb|From the project "Proust – Tel Aviv – Proust" 2025
In recent years, she has curated several solo exhibitions for leading artists, including Yoav Weinfeld at the Eretz Israel Museum, Michal Heiman at Mishkenot Sha’ananim as part of the opening events of the International Writers Festival, and Merav Shin Ben-Alon at Max Liebling House in Tel Aviv.
Dr. Sheffi curated two exhibitions in 2023 - 2024 at the Laurie M. Tisch Gallery at the JCC, Manhattan: "Tales + Textiles" and "Cities and Valleys".
Continuing her research on contemporary Israeli art, Dr. Sheffi delivered lectures at the Summer University for Jewish Studies, Hohenems, Austria ; The Jewish Museum, Munich ; and at the American University, Washington DC at the conference Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel.
Dr. Sheffi is the art critic for Galei Zahal Radio since 2007, and for 20 years was the art critic for leading Haaretz. She is the author of numerous catalog articles and gallery texts, an art consultant, and leader of in-depth Israeli and international art tours.

Curated exhibitions

  • 2012, New Directions I – Beit Mani, Tel Aviv.
  • 2013 Screening Layers, Beverly Barkat, Tel Aviv Artists’ House
  • 2013 New Directions II – Beit Mani, Tel Aviv.
  • 2014 Simon Adjiashvili, One city, one summer, Gallery Rothschild Fine Art Gallery, Tel Aviv
  • 2015 United Colors of Judaica – Eliahou Eric Bokobza – Beit Hatfutsot Museum of the Jewish People Ramat Aviv.
  • 2015 Lisa Gross, Turmoil, Tel Aviv Artists’ House
  • 2016 genius loci, Rothschild Fine Art Gallery Tel Aviv.
  • 2017 Partial Portrait: Fragmentation of Identity, Jerusalem Artists’ House
  • 2018 Grete Wolf Krakauer: From Vienna to Jerusalem, Mishkan Museum of Art, Ein Harod
  • 2019 Adi Oz-Ari: Epidermis, Photo Lab Gallery, Tel Aviv
  • 2019 Human Nature: Shared Sensitivities, the Jerusalem Biennale 2019
  • 2019 Things We Remember, CACR – Contemporary Art Center Ramla
  • 2019 Behind the City, CACR – Contemporary Art Center Ramla
  • 2019 Beloved, CACR – Contemporary Art Center Ramla
  • 2021 Diana Kogan: "Time didn't exist, Space didn't either", Almacen Gallery, Jaffa
  • 2022 Dor Zlekha Levy: "Reflection", installation at the Pool of the Arches, Ramla
  • 2022 Meydad Eliyahu, "Copper Wing", CACR – Contemporary Art Center Ramla
  • 2023 Nahed Abo Alhega Hamza, Anna Hayat and Slava Pirsky, "Tales + Textiles", the Laurie M. Tisch Gallery at the JCC, Manhattan
  • 2024 Eliahou Eric Bokobza, Esther Cohen, "Cities and Valleys", the Laurie M. Tisch Gallery at the JCC, Manhattan
  • 2013 -, Art Intervention Projects, Beit Bialik Museum, Tel Aviv
  • 2018 -, "The Second Floor in Beit Bialik" - a series of site-specific, research-based exhibitions in cooperation with the Bialik Archive

    Publications

  • 2013 - Catalog for solo exhibition by Beverly Barkat
  • 2015 - Catalog for solo exhibition by Eric Eliahou Bokobza – United Colors of Judaica
  • 2015 - Booklet for solo exhibition by Lisa Gross Turmoil
  • 2016 - Exhibition Catalog, Intricate Affinities: Recollections of Western Tradition in Local Contemporary Art, Petach Tikva Museum of Art
  • 2018 - Catalog of the exhibition, Grete Wolf Krakauer: From Vienna to Jerusalem
  • 2023 - The book "Art. Bialik.", Bialik Museum, Tel Aviv

    Interviews and podcasts

  • , on "Partial portrait: Fragmentation of identity"
  • Podcast on Kan TV with Shiri Lev-Ari and
  • on "Grete Wolf Krakauer: From Vienna to Jerusalem"
  • Interview on Grete Wolf Krakauer, "Eretz Vateva" Magazine, #181 "Aliya"
  • , on 'Me and you' - Checks and balances inspired by H.N. Bialik’s poem 'See Saw'
  • , about the Second Floor in Beit Bialik series
  • , about Pesi Girsch
  • about "Bloved"