Understandable Misunderstandings

The curatorial research project and an online exhibition, Understandable Misunderstandings, is the culmination of curator Maya Bamberger’s residency at New York’s Triangle Arts Association (2021), which was supported by Artis. Initially stemming from constraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Artis and Triangle collaboratively designed the residency to address the various possibilities to interact with art—and one another—online. This was a milestone; Artis’ first international curatorial residency to materialize and take place in an entirely virtual format. One that speaks to our organizational values of championing work grounded in dialogue with others; explores the possibility of new ways of thinking, seeing, and engaging with one another that allow for experimentation; and reflects our belief in the possibilities of new ways of thinking, and seeing that allow space for experimentation. 

In keeping with this format and then expanding it to integrate the experience of a virtual residency into her research, Maya’s project quickly took on a life of its own, evolving from a virtual undertaking in which connection was limited into a fascinating and thoughtful interactive online exhibition with a unique manifestation. During the process, Maya conducted virtual studio visits with Triangle’s artists in residence and the program’s alumni, had meetings with Triangle and Artis staff, conducted an independent study, and participated in open studios all via the screen of a computer from her home in Tel Aviv. 

Ultimately, Maya’s project entreats multiple ways of connecting beyond the flatness of the screen; finding paths that deepen relationships through art in the digital realm. Engaging with artworks by Roni Aviv, Ofri Cnaani, Asuka Goto, Shai Lee Harodi, and Vanessa Sandoval, both curator and artist(s) enter into a collective investigation of embodied art mediation. Using an innovative methodology of thinking and writing about art, we too are invited to reconsider how, as Maya puts it, “we can be with art” in more true, direct, and immediate ways; open to new avenues for understanding it, each other, and the world around us.

Please note that the project is viewable from a desktop computer. It is not viewable on a mobile device.

Maya Bamberger is an independent curator based in Tel Aviv, Israel.

In her curatorial practice, Maya explores the boundaries of knowledge-production and how the imaginary can become embedded in writing about art to offer new encounters between the artwork and the viewer.

Maya was the Curator of RawArt Gallery in Tel Aviv, a gallery dedicated to representing emerging and experimental artists, from 2019- 2023. Under this capacity she curated several solo exhibitions, including Noam Toran’s We Crave Blood (2023), Ester Schneider’s Temperance (2023), Keren Gueller’s Wet Collection (2022), Dov Heller’s Nirim (2021), Sharon Glazberg’s Nowhere (2021), and Sagie Azoulay’s Ernie (2020). One of her primary initiatives at the gallery was the Shuttle project, which was designed to help promote artists at the beginning of their careers. She also curated group exhibitions and led a myriad of projects and collaborations.

As an independent curator, she co-curated with Ronny Koren an exhibition of work by artist Hilla Toony Navok at the OnCurating Project Space in Zurich for the multi-format series, titled Choreographing the Public. The exhibition was developed with the curatorial support of Sergio Edelzstein.

Maya is a graduate of the MAS Curating program at Zurich University of the Arts, where she studied under Professor Dorothee Richter, and holds a B.A. in art history and cognitive science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is a fellow in the Alma program (2021-2023), writes for OnCurating magazine, and is one of the founders and editors of Shoket magazine for curating developed by the Israeli Association of Curators.

Roni Aviv (born 1992) is a visual artist, based in New York. Aviv works with photography, text, and installation to give form to a psychological space of re-processing experiences. Aviv holds an MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University. Her work has been published and exhibited internationally. Recent exhibitions include the Center for Book Arts, Real Art Ways, Longwood Art Gallery, Steve Turner Gallery, and The Jewish Museum. Aviv has recently been published in BOMB, GRANTA, and Erev Rav magazines. Recent residencies and fellowships include NARS (2021), Center for Book Arts (2022), and AIM Bronx Museum fellowship (2023).

Dr. Ofri Cnaani is an artist and researcher. She works across time-based media, performances, and installations. She is a guest professor at TU Wien and a research fellow at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) at the University of Amsterdam. Her work appeared at Tate Britain, UK; Venice Architecture Biennale; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC; Inhotim Institute, Brazil; PS1/MoMA, NYC; BMW Guggenheim Lab, NYC; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna. Cnaani currently works on a project at the International Space Station (ISS).

Asuka Goto is a New York-based visual artist whose recent work explores the complex, cross-cultural relationship she shares with her Japanese father. Goto received an MFA in Sculpture from Tyler School of Art and a BA and Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from Brandeis University. She has participated in residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Joan Mitchell Center, and Djerassi Resident Artists Program, among others. Goto has received the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, NYFA Artists Fellowship, Jerome Foundation Travel & Study Grant, and Joan Mitchell MFA Grant. “lost in translation”, her 2018 solo show at Tiger Strikes Asteroid NY, was named one of the “Top 15 Brooklyn Art Shows” of the year by Hyperallergic.

Shai Lee Horodi (b.1993) is an artist, writer and educator based in Tel-Aviv. She showed solo exhibitions at the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art (2015) and at Dvir Gallery Tel Aviv (2019, 2020) and published texts at Tohu Magazine (2017, 2018), Erev-Rav (2021) and Tyota Magazine (2021). Horodi teaches at Minshar School of Art and works with people with cognitive disabilities. She created a video guide for the Tel-Aviv Museum of art’s permanent exhibition of the collection (2022) aimed at people with cognitive disabilities. Horodi studied at The Midrasha Faculty of the Arts, Beit Berl (2013-2015) and received her MFA from Northwestern Department of Art Theory and Practice (2019).

Vanessa Sandoval is a visual artist with a practice in the fields of sculpture, drawing, and installation. In 2014, she was a recipient of the BLOC grant, in Cali. In 2016, she obtained a national internship in visual arts from the Ministry of Culture and participated in the 44th National Artists Salon. In 2017, she was a resident of RÉSO in Biella, Italy, and was awarded with the V Sara Modiano Prize, in Bogotá. In 2018, she was invited to show her work at Nuevos Nombres, Banco de la República, Bogotá. Lives and works in Cali, where she was the coordinator of the Documentary Center at Lugar a Dudas until 2019. In that year she was invited to participate with an intervention in the exhibition Voces para Transformar Colombia by the National Museum of Memory. Currently doing a residency in Center for Book Arts in New York.