Jewish Faces: Indian Narratives of Siona Benjamin

JEWISH PRESS
By Richard McBee

Daniel Elijah Benjamin (Gadkar), 2012-2013
Photo-collages with gouache and acrylic paint on paper (35 x 35) by Siona Benjamin

NEW YORK---Siona Benjamin has mounted a remarkable exploration into the complex and multilayered identity of Indian Jews, simultaneously tracking the personal, communal and artistic strands that constitute the very fabric of her life. This ambitious show of over 30 large works, created within the last 2 years, was inspired by work she did on a Fulbright Fellowship in 2011 that allowed her to reconnect and explore the Bene Israel community of Indian Jews in her native Mumbai. In many ways Siona Benjamin’s paintings, “Faces,” ask “What now?” in an increasingly spare Indian Jewish future. Flomenhaft Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, Suite 200, NYC; Through April 26, 2014; (212) 268-4952; flomenhaftgallery.com [link]