Reception featuring artist talk & book launch, October 23, 6-8pm

The Art Galleries at TCU are delighted to present Beyond the Forest, an exhibition of works from the new book by Fort Worth photographer, Loli Kantor,
Moudy Gallery, October 20 – 25, 2014

For over a decade Loli Kantor has documented Jewish life and culture in a range of urban and rural communities in Poland and Ukraine. What started as a personal project to research her own family history developed in scope to a broader engagement with the daily life of Jews in Eastern Europe in the early 21st century. By repeatedly returning to some of the same locations and meeting people over an extended period of time, Kantor developed a deeper understanding of Jewish life in these places.

In the exhibition Beyond the Forest, Kantor presents a selection more than 40 color and black and white photographs that collectively combine personal biography and subjective documentary. The works keenly reflect Kantor’s desire to examine the impact of the Holocaust from a personal perspective as a daughter of Holocaust survivors. But she also goes beyond this private meditation to consider the wider effects of the Soviet regime on Jewish identity, traditions and communal daily life.

Kantor’s new book of photographs, Beyond the Forest. Jewish Presence in Eastern Europe 2004-2012, is published by the University of Texas Press http://www.utpress.utexas.edu/ and will be available in November 2014. The book is part of the series Exploring Jewish Arts and Culture, edited by Robert H. Abzug, Director, Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies, University of Texas at Austin. Including nearly 100 color and black and white photographs, Kantor’s book also features an introduction by esteemed Polish art critic and curator Anda Rottenberg, and afterward by award-winning novelist Joseph Skibell, Emory University, Atlanta, who celebrates Kantor’s “brave vision, unblinking and unafraid.”

Photographer Loli Kantor was born in Paris, France, and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel. Her work has been exhibited widely in the United States and internationally, and is included in significant public and private collections worldwide, such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Lviv National Museum, Ukraine; Lishui Museum of Photography, China; and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Loli lives and works in Fort Worth, Texas.

Moudy Gallery is located in the Moudy North building on the TCU Campus, 2805 S. University Drive, Fort Worth, TX 76129. Gallery Hours are Monday – Friday, 11 am – 4 pm, Saturday, 1 – 4 pm. Admission is free.