Siona Shimshi | |
|---|---|
| ציונה שמשי | |
 Siona Shimshi in 1963 | |
| Born | July 14, 1939 |
| Died | October 16, 2018 (aged 79) Tel Aviv, Israel |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Education | Avni Institute, Alfred University, Greenwich House Pottery |
| Known for | Painter, sculptor, textile designer |
| Notable work | 30 years active academic career. 33 one person exhibitions Israel & abroad. Over 50 group shows'. Curator of 21 thematic exhibitions. Curator of the Israeli Internet Art Biennial 2012–2014. |
| Spouse | Jachin Hirsch (1934–2011) |
| Awards | Arie El-Hanani: Prize for Art in Architecture (1988) |
| Patron(s) | Collaborated with The Architects: Dora Gad. Aba Elchanani. Rafael Blumenfeld. Heinz Penchel. |
| Website | art-sionashimshi |
Siona Shimshi (also "Ziona"; Hebrew: ציונה שמשי; July 14, 1939 – October 16, 2018) was an Israeli painter, sculptress, ceramist, and textile designer.[1][2][3]
Shimshi was born in Tel Aviv, to Haya Rivka (Kuklanski) and Avraham Shimshi, who had immigrated to Mandate Palestine from Lithuania in 1933.[1][4][5][6] She married Jachin Hirsch, an Israeli filmmaker, in 1961.[7]
She studied at the Avni Institute in Tel Aviv from 1956 to 1959, with Avigdor Stematsky, Yehezkel Streichman, and Moshe Mokady.[4][8][9] She also studied ceramics at Alfred University in New York, from 1959 to 1962, as well as at Greenwich House Pottery in New York City.[4][5][10][11]
In 1965, she was a co-founder of a group of artists called the "10+ Group", along with artists Buky Schwartz, Raffi Lavie, and others.[12][13]
Shimshi was head of the Ceramic Design Department and taught as a professor at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, from 1979 to 1987.[4][8][14][15][16] In 1979, she designed the set for a performance of A Simple Story by Shmuel Yosef Agnon for the Habimah Theater in Tel Aviv.[4]
In 1993–94, she was the curator of an exhibition of Dora Gad, in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.[4][17]
Among her creations are a work in wood that is exhibited in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, a wall hanging at the Tel Aviv Hilton, a 1998 sculpture for Israel's 50th anniversary that is exhibited in Holon, glass walls at Kennedy Airport in New York City, and a 2004 portrait painting of Natan Alterman that appears on the facade of Tel Aviv City Hall.[4][18]
Shimshi was awarded the 1988 Arie El Hanani Prize by the Joshua Rabinowitz Foundation for Arts, for her sculpture in Goren Goldstein Park in Tel Aviv.[4]
Shimshi died in Tel Aviv on October 16, 2018, at the age of 79.[19] She was buried at Yarkon Cemetery.
