Siona Benjamin Exhibits at Princeton Through Dec. 31

CENTRAL JERSEY.COM
By Michele Alperin

Siona Benjamin: Finding Home No. 75 (Fereshteh) “Lilith.”
30 in. x 26 in. (painting size) gouache and gold leaf on wood panel, 2005.

NEW JERSEY - Montclair artist Siona Benjamin’s intricate, brightly colored gouache and gold leaf paintings are powered by symbolism and metaphor that grows out of her own multicultural experience. “I have evolved and become a more transcultural artist who doesn’t belong anywhere but belongs everywhere,” says Ms. Benjamin. “At first I was searching for home, but now I don’t think there is one home, at least for me. Home is wherever I pitch my tent.” Ms. Benjamin is exhibiting old and new paintings at the Bernstein Gallery in Robertson Hall at the Woodrow Wilson School in a show titled “Ishq: Paintings by Siona Benjamin” that runs through Dec. 21. Ms. Benjamin calls her work “visual midrash,” which ties it to a form of biblical interpretation she studies with Professor Burt Visotzky at the Jewish Theological Seminary. [link]