Dance, travel inform artist’s work

Silvina Mizrahi’s multi-media paintings and sculpture are on display through April at the Taylor House Bed and Breakfast part of the B&B’s Music and Art series.

Mizrahi moved to West Roxbury about 10 years ago by way of her hometown, Tucuman, in the north of Argentina, Buenos Aires and Israel, and then a trip around the world. She earned a fine arts degree. Yet it was through travel; modern dance, folk and ballet; and mentors she met after formal training, that she discovered her sense of color, vision and voice.

Her sculpture uses wax and organic material such as orange peels, twigs and flower buds. “These fine elongated figures dance as a way of praying, searching for the sublime,” Mizrahi said of her sculpture. “Daily tools…give up their utility to become part of an artistic purpose.”

In paintings and collage, which she began in Boston, Mizrahi draws on primitive Argentine mythological figures, and mixes in such objects as pebbles, crashed eggs and candles to “fuse our unconscious and our reality, our past and our present, into in a timeless moment.”

Though a maker and builder since childhood, Mizrahi wondered after college whether she ever would want to make art again. She met award-winning Argentine sculptor Antonia Pujia in Buenos Aires, whom she credits with renewing and nurturing her passion for art.

When she began working with Pujio, Mizrahi was immersed in dance. It was fortuitous that the famous sculptor is known for his depiction of dancers. From him she learned the lost wax method of creating work in bronze, a hallmark of her sculpture today. Both artists are inspired by Alberto Giacometti, whose elongated sculpture bears the imprint of the maker’s hand, also features of Mizrahi’s elegant work.

Soon after returning to art, Mizrahi moved to Israel, where she began to show and garner acclaim. She was selected for two solo shows, in Jerusalem’s Municipal Gallery and at the Center for Performing Arts. She also received an Israeli National Fellowship for New Immigrants.

In Boston, recognition for Mizrahi continues. She was elected to the Copley Society of Boston, from which she received a major award. She has exhibited at Boston Convention Center, Institute for Contemporary Art,  DeCordova Museum of Art in Lincoln, and Rice-Polak Gallery in Provincetown. The Argentine Consulate in New York City invited her to mount a solo show, and she just returned from a major exhibit at the Timoteo Navarro Museum in her home city of Tucuman.

Mizrahi’s sculptures at Taylor House include not only dancers, but exotic birds and women in all phases of life. Her paintings, pulsing with color, show her love for children, the farmers markets, sailing boats and landscapes of her South American origins and her worldwide travels.

Mizrahi’s work can be seen during Friday and Sunday concerts, or by appointment, at Taylor House, 50 Burroughs St. An artist’s reception, free and open to the public, will be held Sat., March 17, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. For more information, see taylorhouse.com/musicandart.

Arlene Snyder, Special to the Gazette

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *