Dafna Moriya believes that art has the power to create a connection between the
conscious and the unconscious; and to that end she explores consciousness with
patients, students and trainees, to fathom the depths of the soul and experience.
In her artwork, she examines the nonverbal force of creativity and encourages
the viewer to remain within the metaphorical level without translating images
into words. Her allowing the elements of an artwork to occur, as if inidependently of their own will, generates interplay between her painting activity
and the developments unfolding on the canvas. During the work process on
planned patterns, unplanned new elements suddenly burst forth, conquering areas
in the painting and embellishing the canvas with colorful aesthetic beauty, an
expanse of time and a window into the mind.
In the process of creating her
paintings, Moriya enters the intermediate realm between imagination and reality,
and between the conscious and the unconscious. Although her paintings are very
concrete, the values at the heart of her study are the shapes and colors, and the
relationships between them. Moriya opens forms up with daringly impressive graphic
movements, creating artworks that are abstract and free. The paintings are
executed in spectacular colors on large-size canvases expressing the colorful personal
language the artist has developed over the past few years, with all its
telltale traits and remarkable presence.
In this absolutely abstract but well-formed
language, the paintings are constructed of layers of paint, with brushstrokes shaping
the compositions. Moriya says that her artworks come from sailing into the
depths, each one of them the product of a voyage to another world. The
monumental base of her paintings is adapted to the length and depth of the
journey, and every new element portrayed in the painting aspires to multiply, spread
out, and take over other areas at its own characteristic pace and movement.
However, since any such attempted growth obviously encounters other elements already
existing on the canvas, it has to engage in negotiations with them to determine
if it will conquer and obscure them, or else create a kind of symbiotic coexistence
with them.
Moriya´s paintings thus come into
existence through a process of accumulating factors taken from a wide range of
fields, and their development through the natural selection of creative
evolution. The artworks do not seek to imitate reality, but rather express the
dance taking place on the border line between the conscious and the
unconscious, and between reality and its acquired interpretations. Shapes and
colors draw viewers into a slow deciphering process and repetitive
contemplation, each time discovering a fresh aspect of shape, color, path, or
insight. Further observation reveals the painting´s diverse layers, the
interaction between them or its absence, their various directions of movement
and rhythms. The process of unraveling the painting´s enigmas sets spectators off
on a journey into their own inner spaces.
Daniella Talmor, September 2017
Moriya has a B.Sc. in Information Systems Engineering from the Computer Science Department at the Technion Institute in Haifa, Israel; supplementary studies in Psychology from Haifa University; an MPS in Art Therapy and Creativity Development from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York; and a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies, majoring in Ethical and Creative Leadership from Union Institute and University in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Her past experience includes working in information systems engineering; providing art therapy in various private and public schools, a treatment center and private practice in the U.S. and Israel; and teaching art therapy at Beit Berl College, Israel.
Exhibitions
September 2018
"Depth"
The Artists' House, Tel Aviv
December 2017
"100 dreams 100 places one home"The Museum Of Goa, India
Hutheesing Visual art Centre, Ahmedabad, India
September 2017
"Namaste", Solo Show, The artists house named
after Chagall, Haifa, Israel
May 2017
"Vanishing lands", Group show, Design hotel
ca-pisani, Venice.
April 2016
"Tower of Babel". Group show, Schema gallery,
New York.
March 2016
"The woman with the iron wings", guest artist at
Dina Merhav´s show, Ein Hod Gallery, Israel.
November 2015
"Stopover", Solo show, ZOA gallery. Tel Aviv,
Israel.
Curator: Daniela Talmor.
September 2015
"Another time", Solo show, Shorashim gallery,
Haifa, Israel.
April 2015
"Art for Peace", Group show, Terezin Memeorial
Museum, Terezin, The Czech Republic.
February 2015
"Transition", Solo show, Ein Hod Gallery,
Israel.
Curator: Daniela Talmor.
December 2014
"Time table on the table", Group show, ZOA
gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Curator: Margalit Berier.
October 2014
"Black & White, almost", Solo show,
Jerusalem Cinematheque, Israel.
Curator: Daniela Talmor.
January 2014
"Secrete art", Group show, Beit Many, Tel Aviv,
Israel.
November 2013
"Unity flags - a dialogue between cultures",
Group show, The Arab-Hebrew theater, Jaffa, Israel.
Currator: Margalit Berier.
October 2013
"Time and space", Solo show, Merchav Leomanut,
Jaffa, Israel.
September 2013
"Transitional Space #2", Solo show. Memior de
l´Avenir. Paris.
February 2013
Artist messengers of peace, Group show, Czech Centre
Prague.
December 2012
"Les Hivernales", Group show, Palais des
Congres, Paris, France.
November 2012
"At my table", Group show, Haifa, Israel.
Curator: Margalit Berriet
November 2012
Salon D´Automn, Group show, Jafa, Israel.
October 2012
"Transitionl Space #2" : Solo Show. The Artists
House, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Curator: Arie Berkovitz
September 2012
"Transitional Space #1": Solo Show. The new
gallery in Beit Aba Hushi, Haifa, Israel.
Curator: Daniela Talmor.
August 2011
"Medias": Group show: Association Memoire de
l´Avenir. Paris, France.
September 2010
"Darkness": Group show: FusionArts Museum, New
York, NY .
June 2009
"Culture Kiosk": Markers VII - Group show:
Venice Bienalle, Italy.
July 2008
"Paint Sounds", The gallery of the art school in
Kankaanpaa, Finland
June 2007
"Divine in Tent": Markers VI - The artist´s
museum, Group show: Art-life Gallery, Venice, Italy; Kassel, Germany.
March 2007
"Containers of Soul", Group show in Mexico: The
Maya culture Museum, Chatomel; The Museum of Kossomal; The congress center,
Cancun; Emilia Cohen Gallery, Mexico City.
February 2006
"Pre-view for Transitional space #1", Ramat
Hasharon, Israel. One-woman show - 20 paintings.
February 2004
"Art in the Industry street" Group show in Tel
Aviv, curator: Irit Zomer.
November 2000
"Guf" Group
show in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
August 2000
Group show at The New School University, NY.
August 1999
Group show at The Artists Association, Tel Aviv, Israel.
October 1999
"Internal View-External View," Ramat Hasharon,
Israel. One-woman show - 24 paintings.
1997
"Artists Messengers of
Peace",
Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel. Group show is now traveling to
different places in the world.
October 1991
Pardess Hanna, Israel. One-woman show - 26 paintings.