The Generational Effect of Hate: Inherited Memories at Castelli Gallery

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The artists in this exhibition, Shula Singer Arbel, Dwora Fried and Malka Nedivi, have “inherited memories” from parents who lived through the Holocaust. 

"More to the point," says Peter Frank, "the mothers of these three women went through the ordeal, profoundly impacting their daughters and the art they make. The work of Arbel, Fried, and Nedivi, however, manifests more than a simple acknowledgment of the tribulations their mothers underwent before giving birth to them: it embodies sensations experienced one way by the elder women themselves and another by their offspring. It is in this experiential slippage that the art finds its eloquence; and it is in the three artists’ diverse stylistic and discursive approaches that the exhibition finds its resonance."

The work of each artist tacitly denotes a different temporal relationship to the devastating event. Fried’s assemblages reflect on the normal life led by her mother’s family in prewar Krakow and the “post-normal” life her own family led in postwar Vienna – what was lost. Arbel’s small paintings are based on photographs from the Bavarian DP camp where her parents met after the war – what was gained back. And Nedivi’s sculpted figures and objects muse upon the dysphoria her mother experienced in a painful present – what could be survived but not tolerated.  

On Sunday, May 26 from 3-5 pm, there will be an Artists' Talk at the gallery moderated by Peter Frank.