Maayan Sheleff is an independent art curator and artist based in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

, Israel. Her projects explore social and political issues through participatory practices, at the intersection of art and technology.

Biography

Sheleff was raised in

Kiryat Ono Kiryat Ono ( he, קִרְיַת אוֹנוֹ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel. It is located east of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of . Modern Kiryat Ono is not to be confused with the biblical Ono, which was located in the ar ...

, Israel. She studied plastic arts at the Thelma Yellin High School of Arts,

Givatayim Givatayim ( he, גִּבְעָתַיִים, lit. "two hills") is a city in Israel east of Tel Aviv. It is part of the metropolitan area known as Gush Dan. Givatayim was established in 1922 by pioneers of the Second Aliyah. In it had a population o ...

. Sheleff graduated

Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design ( he, בצלאל, אקדמיה לאמנות ועיצוב) is a public college of design and art located in Jerusalem. Established in 1906 by Jewish painter and sculptor Boris Schatz, Bezalel is Israel's oldes ...

with a B.Des in

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advan ...

, also studying at the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

and

Politecnico di Milano The Polytechnic University of Milan () is the largest technical university in Italy, with about 42,000 students. The university offers undergraduate, graduate and higher education courses in engineering, architecture and design. Founded in 186 ...

. She later pursued postgraduate studies at the Interdisciplinary Arts Program,

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

. She is currently studying towards a PhD at the Curatorial Platform in

Zurich University of the Arts Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK, german: Zürcher Hochschule der Künste) has approximately 2,500 students, which makes it the largest arts university in Switzerland. The university was established in 2007, following the merger between Zurich' ...

(ZHdK) and

Reading University The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

, UK. Sheleff has been regularly teaching at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, department of photography, the International Curatorial Studies Program of the

Kibbutzim College Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts ( he, סמינר הקיבוצים, ''Seminar HaKibbutzim'') is a college based in Tel Aviv, Israel. The college specialises in teacher training, offering B.Ed and M.Ed degrees, and is the la ...

, Tel Aviv, at the

Sam Spiegel Film and Television School The Sam Spiegel Film and Television School is a film and television school in Israel that was founded in 1989. It was renamed in honor of Sam Spiegel in 1996, with the support of the Sam Spiegel Estate. The school has been the subject of some 19 ...

, Jerusalem and at

Sapir Academic College Sapir College ( he, המכללה האקדמית ספיר, ''HaMikhlela HaAkademit Sapir'') is a college in Israel, located in the northwestern Negev desert near Sderot. It is the largest public college in Israel, with an enrollment of 8,000 stude ...

Sderot Sderot ( he, שְׂדֵרוֹת, , lit. ''Boulevards'', ar, سديروت) is a western Negev city and former development town in the Southern District of Israel. In it had a population of . Sderot is located less than a mile from Gaza (the c ...

. She has been a guest lecturer in many institutions such as HaMidrasha – Faculty of the Arts, and the

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology ( he, הטכניון – מכון טכנולוגי לישראל) is a public research university located in Haifa, Israel. Established in 1912 under the dominion of the Ottoman Empire, the Technion ...

's Division of Continuing Education and External Studies curating program.

Curatorial positions

* 2014– Artistic Advisor and chair of artistic committee at the Art Cube Artists' Studios,

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

and curator of its international residency program, LowRes Jerusalem * 2009–2012 – Curator at the Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv * 2009–2012 – Assistant Director at the International Curatorial Studies Program of the

and the CCA Tel Aviv * 2006–2009 – Director and chief curator of Line 16, a public gallery for contemporary art

Awards, grants and residencies

* 2015 – International Curatorial Retreat, organized by Vessel/Mada, Bari, Italy * 2014 – Residency Unlimited, NYC * 2014 – Quartier 21,

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, invited by Paraflows Festival for

Digital Art Digital art refers to any artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative or presentation process, or more specifically computational art that uses and engages with digital media. Since the 1960s, various names ...

* 2012 – Truth is Concrete, Steirischer Herbst Festival,

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

, Austria * 2012–2013 – Artport residency, Tel Aviv * 2012 – Artis grant recipient * 2012 –

International Studio & Curatorial Program International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) is a contemporary art institution that runs an international residency program and related exhibitions and events based in Brooklyn, New York. ISCP's exhibitions, talks, screenings and lectures gene ...

(ISCP) Curator Award * 2010 –

Independent Curators International Independent Curators International (ICI) is a non-profit headquartered in New York City that has produced exhibitions, events, publications, and training opportunities since 1975. History Independent Curators International (ICI) was founded in 197 ...

(ICI) Curatorial Intensive, New York City * 2010 – Artis grant recipient

Selected exhibitions

* 2017 – Poland ↔ Israel,

Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków The Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków (MOCAK), ( pl, links=no, Muzeum Sztuki Współczesnej w Krakowie), is a contemporary art gallery in Kraków, Poland that opened on 19 May 2011. Situated 3 kilometres from the centre of the city, on a demo ...

(co-curated with Agnieszka Sachar, in collaboration with Miri Segal) * 2015 – Preaching to the Choir,

Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art The Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art ( he, מוזיאון הרצליה לאמנות) is contemporary art museum. History The museum was established in 1965 in Herzeliya, Israel. The museum's main focus is on Israeli and international contempo ...

* 2014 – The Infiltrators, Artport Tel Aviv * 2013 – The Promised Land, The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan * 2012 – Other Lives,

Bloomfield Science Museum Bloomfield Science Museum is a science museum in Jerusalem, established in 1992. The museum is located opposite the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in the Givat Ram neighborhood. The museum is named for its principal donor, Neri Bloomfield. The ...

, Jerusalem, a new-media exhibition inspired by scientist

Allan Turing Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical com ...

* 2012 – Secondary Witness,

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York City * 2012 – Connected, An Exhibition About Girls and the Internet,

Bat Yam Bat Yam ( he, בַּת יָם or ) is a city located on Israel's Mediterranean Sea coast, on the Central Coastal Plain just south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan area and the Tel Aviv District. In 2020, it had a population ...

Promenade * 2012 – Prolonged Exposure, The Center for Contemporary Art (CCA), Tel Aviv * 2009–2010 – Co-curator, Transit project, cooperation between The Center for Contemporary Art (CCA), Tel Aviv and

MADRE Madre means mother in many Romance languages, and it may also refer to: *Madré, a commune in the Mayenne department of northwestern France *Mądre, a village in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland *Isola Madre, an Italian islan ...

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, Italy * 2009 – Co-curator, ARTLV – the 1st Tel Aviv-Yafo Biennial

Selected publications

* 2022 – InConcrete Stones, participating artists: Hannan Abu-Hussein, Nikolaus Eckhard, Avner Pinchover, Christoph Weber, Arkadi Zaides, Art Cube Artists' Studios, Jerusalem * 2021 �
M/otherland
Ruth Patir & Maayan Sheleff, OnCurating, Zurich. * 2019 �
(Un)Commoning Voices and (Non)Communal Bodies
Maayan Sheleff & Sarah Spies (Eds.), OnCurating, Zurich. * 2019 �

participating artists: Ronit Porat, Guy Konigstein, Art Cube Artists' Studios, Jerusalem. * 2018 �

participating artists:

Morehshin Allahyari Morehshin Allahyari ( fa, موره شین اللهیاری; born 1985) is an Iranian media artist, activist, and writer based in New York. She is most noted for her projects ''Material Speculation: ISIS'' (2015–2016), which is a series of 3D-pri ...

, Lior Zalmanson, Art Cube Artists' Studios, Jerusalem. * 2017 – Fear and Love in Graz: Steirischer Herbst’s Truth Is Concrete (2012), in Empty Stages, Crowded Flats – Performativity as Curatorial Strategy – Performing Urgency #4, Florian Malzacher and Janna Warsza (Eds.), Alexander Verlag, Berlin * 2017 �
"Jerusalem of Gold" vs. "The Yelllow Fleet" & "The Day When Nothing Happened"
Art Cube Artists' Studios, Jerusalem. * 2017 – 50 Years,

B'Tselem B'Tselem ( he, בצלם, , " in the image of od) is a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization whose stated goals are to document human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, combat any denial of the existence of su ...

* 2016 �
»The Infiltrators« – Crossing Borders with Participatory Art
in Geflüchtete und Kulturelle Bildung Formate und Konzepte für ein neues Praxisfeld, Maren Ziese & Caroline Gritschke (Ed.), Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld. * 2016 �
The Chosen People - A Small Guide For a Big Revolution
a conversation with

Andy Bichlbaum Jacques Servin (also known by the pseudonym Andy Bichlbaum; born 1963) is an American media artist and activist. He is one of the leading members of The Yes Men, a culture jamming activist group. Their exploits in "identity correction" are docume ...

from

The Yes Men The Yes Men are a culture jamming activist duo and network of supporters created by Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos. Through various actions, the Yes Men primarily aim to raise awareness about problematic social and political issues. To date, th ...

, Tohu online magazine * 2014 �
The Infiltrators
Artport Tel Aviv * 2012 �
Secondary Witness
International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP). * 2012 – World Order, Dana Levy, Braverman Gallery and CCA Tel Aviv.

External links

Maayan Sheleff
at the

website
Frankie the Documentation Robot
website, a project by Maayan Sheleff, Gal Eshel and Eran Hadas

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheleff, Maayan Living people Israeli artists Israeli art curators Thelma Yellin High School of Arts alumni Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Israeli women artists Israeli women curators