Israel is a dynamic, complex, and challenging country to understand. The University of Colorado Boulder’s Hillel and the Program in Jewish Studies continue their Seeing Israel series with a look at the intersection of visual art, politics and social justice. The Seeing Israel series events are free and open to the public but RSVPs are appreciated. RSVP to Nicholas.Underwood@colorado.edu or call 303.492.7143. Additional information can be found at jewishstudies.colorado.edu.

In its early days, Israeli art was largely described as utopian. Today, artists in Israel wrestle with critical social and political issues. Join us on Monday, April 16 at 7:00 pm for Critical Israel: Art by Yael Bartana and Roee Rosen on the CU Boulder Campus in University Memorial Center Room 235 for an evening with art historian, Carol Zemel who will focus on the acclaimed video installations Polish Trilogy…and Europe will be stunned by Yael Bartana, and Confessions of Roee Rosen by Roee Rosen. Her presentation will focus on questions of loss, rights of return, and conflicts of national identity raised by these two works by Israeli artists. Finally, she will also discuss the presentation of these artistic pieces and their meanings outside Israel for diasporic audiences.

Zemel is professor of Art History and Visual Culture at York University in Toronto. Her areas of research and publication include 19^th and 20^th century European art, the modern art market, feminism in the arts, Jewish visual culture and diaspora studies. She is an authority on the work of Vincent Van Gogh as well as the co-founder and co-director of Project Mosaica, a web-based exploration of Jewish cultural expression in the arts. Indiana University Press will publish her new book, “Looking Jewish: Visual Culture and Modern Diaspora” in late 2012. She is currently completing two books: Art in Dark Times, a study of images made by prisoners during the Holocaust, and “Right After: Chaos and Culture After World War II.”

These events have been made possible by generous donors to CU’s Hillel, the Program in Jewish Studies and the Legacy Heritage Jewish Studies Project, directed by the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS). Support for the Legacy Heritage Jewish Studies Project is generously provided by Legacy Heritage Fund Limited.