HERZLIYA.- The Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art announced that the artist Haviv Kaptzon is the 2022 Recipient of the Keshet Award for Contemporary Art, founded by the Bar-Gil Avidan family.

The award exhibition at the Herzliya Museum will be curated by the international curator Nathanja van Dijk – an art researcher and independent curator, and former director of the Kunsthal Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Van Dijk came to Israel especially to conduct the selection process for the Keshet Award recipient. She made personal studio visits to the each of thirteen artists shortlisted for the award among all those who had submitted nominations for the award and proposals for solo exhibitions at the Herzliya Museum. At the end of her visit, she announced her choice of Haviv Kaptzon as the 2022 recipient of the Keshet Award.

Her reasoning: Kaptzon proposed a cohesive interdisciplinary approach that combines a futuristic utopian vision with a sober cultural view of the present. The project makes skillful use of an original visual lexicon that draws on popular culture and classical art, and distills a poetic language filled with humor, that places existential questions at its center. The proposed exhibition is based on a fictional play by the artist, which wonderfully combines emotive expressions and the macabre, and mixes the philosophical with the mundane. The exhibition will include video works, sound, treated objects, and drawings. Kaptzon’s solo exhibition, curated by Van Dijk, is scheduled to be open toward the end of 2023 at the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art.

Dr. Aya Lurie, director of the Museum writes: “The Keshet Award, now in its fourth iteration, was formulated with the needs of the field in mind. It enables the creation of a meaningful dialogue between Israeli artists and leading curators from overseas, and is used to present a solo exhibition at the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art. Its contribution is felt both in the expansion of the repertoire of the museum's exhibitions and in the forging connections between the collaborators. We are grateful to the artists, to the curator Nathanja van Dijk, to the donor Keren Bar-Gil, to the producer Vered Gadish, and to the entire staff of the Museum Herzliya of Contemporary Art for their much appreciated involvement.”




Members of the fourth Keshet Award Committee, 2022, who selected the ten shortlisted artists: Udi Edelman, Director of the Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon; Dr. Husni al-Khatib Shehadeh Senior Lecturer at Levinsky College of Education and at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, and independent curator; Lea Mauas, performance artist and co-founder of the Sala-Manca Group and Maamuta, Hansen House, Jerusalem; and Keren Bar-Gil, instigator of the award.

Dr. Aya Lurie, Director and Chief Curator of the Herzliya Museum, chaired the committee. Vered Gadish is the award producer and coordinator.

The first Keshet Award was received by Guy Goldstein (2016); the second was received by Hila Amram (2018); and the third Keshet Award was received by Yael Frank (2019).

Haviv Kaptzon (b. 1983) holds a master's degree in art from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, and a bachelor's degree in art from Shenkar – Engineering, Design, and Art, Ramat Gan. He has held solo exhibitions at Kav 16 Gallery, Tel Aviv; the Artists' Studios, Tel Aviv; and Alfred Gallery, Tel Aviv. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including at the Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon; Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv; Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Ashdod Art Museum. Kaptzon has received exhibition grants from the Yehoshua Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts, Tel Aviv; First Prize in the Israeli Video Art and Experimental Film Competition, Lia van Leer Award, at the Jerusalem Film Festival; the Young Artist Award of the Ministry of Culture; and the Margaret and Sylvan Adams Prize for Young Artists. He is also a founding member of the Anti Mehikon Art Collective.

Nathanja van Dijk is an art historian (University of Utrecht, University of Amsterdam) and a curator and cultural entrepreneur. She was artistic director of Frankendael Foundation in Amsterdam (2012–2014) and of Concordia 21rozendaal in Enschede (2010–2012). In 2014, she co-founded the art institute A Tale of a Tub in Rotterdam, and served as its director until 2019. From 2019 to 2021 she was the executive director of Kunsthal Rotterdam, one of the leading cultural institutions of the Netherlands, which holds art, design, fashion, and cinema exhibitions. She is currently an independent exhibition curator and advisor for various corporate and private collections.