Naomi Salfati was born in Paris where she spent her childhood painting in her mother’s art studio or on her father’s famed movie sets. It is there, surrounded by the city’s immeasurable beauty and steeped in a traditional Jewish upbringing that she developed her unique art form inspired by the letters of the Alef-Bet. Salfati studied fine arts at the École des Artistes Juifs Nouveaux in Paris and Jewish mysticism at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, before relocating to New York where she currently lives and works. Through the use of oil paint, acrylic, markers, brush pens and stencils, Salfati’s striking visual letterings suggest a disposition of a passive struggle and of muted joy. The Hebrew letters written at random in varied typographies, freely occupying entire large-scale canvases are reminiscent of the kabbalistic permutations of the Divine names and the susurrus of esoteric incantations continuously chanted  by Salfati's maternal grandfather, a Tunisian refugee and scholarly mystic. Emerging from the duality evoked by experienced energies such as exaltation and restriction, freedom and constriction, escape and refuge, Salfati’s works are deeply informed by the desire to channel active presence through the eye of the lived female experience in rituals and traditions, history and legacy. 

 

Select solo and group exhibitions include MyMa Gallerie, Paris, France (2018); (2015) Shlomtzion Umanut, Jerusalem, (2009), (2011); A. & AS Art Fair, London, UK (2007); Chateau-Landon Arts, Paris, France (2007); Orchard Art Gallery Singapore, Singapore, (2006); Maison d’Israel, Sainte Agathe des Monts, Quebec, Canada (2004); Synagogue de la Place des Vosges, Paris (2001); (2002). Her works are in private collections around the world. Upcoming exhibitions include a solo exhibition at Galerie Ferdinand Duval in Paris in 2023 and a collaborative show at Pomona Center in New York in 2023.