Immersed in Dreams – on the exhibition “Your Own Dream” by the artist Mirit Ben-Nun

On March 4, 2022, a solo exhibition by Mirit Ben-Nun, a veteran artist with an impressive amount of work, was opened in Bank Discount’s lobby space on 27 Yehuda Halevi St., in Tel-Aviv.On this date, close to the International Women’s Day, a number of participating exhibitions will be opened throughout the country, all dedicated to the woman, her place, achievements and goals.

In this scenario, Mirit Ben-Nun’s independent exhibit stands out. The 66 Contemporary Pop Art pieces displayed here, produced in just a few months, are a creative endeavor to maintain a uniform style with varied statements. The figures depicted within are complete, realized and crystallized, even relaxed, but the road to this summit was long and arduous. Mirit Ben-Nun experienced formative breakups in her life, a primary one was losing her father at the age of 6 years old to an accident

The sudden and sever loss activated her ability to deal with stressful situations, create a world for herself, and the quest to define herself in the fatherless space in which she grew up in. Under this need and struggle to define her identity and uniqueness, the conditions were created to establish her individualized development for independence.

Mirit married young and became a mother at the age of 19 1/2, she was divorced by 20. At 23 she remarried and for the next 24 years of stable family and business lives she expressed her managerial abilities. Alongside, her creative spirit was palpable, initially subtle, doodling over thousands of pages up to the age of 32. Then the change took over. It was initiated when her sister showed up with a gift of canvases and acrylic paints. From there on she thought and acted as an autodidactic artist exploring possibilities for expression. 

In the beginning, the women she painted had no faces, eyes nor appendages; the paintings didn’t have a cohesive identity though emotionally they began to form shape, depth and color and express her innate essence. Picasso’s wealth of contour and Klimt’s art stacked up with soft and erotic images influenced and gradually connected her to Pop art.

This art form which replied to an expressive style without sinking into realism is rich with figures, strong colors, and contour lines. This style is reminiscent of comic book drawings plotting to create content and a defiant human image, with an existential state. It has become an instrument of expression in the modern and digital world that chooses images that express essence in a contemporary way. The Japanese artist, Kosma’s exhibit which is currently on display in Tel-Aviv Museum, is one of these style’s testimonies.

The art pieces which Mirit Ben-Nun created have an intense ornamental effect, A density of imageries illustrate the moment providing an iconic effect, a protected embryonic state within a bunch of signals indicating as aspirations and dreams; the images are immersed in all that. The women depicted in these paintings are not shown in a heroic or idyllic pose but in their natural, relaxed state, thoughtful, surprised and seductive as well.  They are wrapped in a halo of wealth and joy, in their presentation there is an authentic unassuming effect. Mirit Ben-Nun does not give up on her humor in drawing her women, and infuses a sense of comfort in their conditions, Gender and definition. These reflect Mirit’s identity formation, one that needs no additional explaining. An absolute self-acceptance is radiating from her designed images and those are the main achievement which she externalizes on the canvas