Shirley Moneyhon

Shirley Moneyhon is GlogauAIR resident
from October 2024 to December 2024

Shirley Moneyhon is a Tel Aviv-based artist exploring family, faith, and identity in her work. Drawing from her experiences in a traditional Jewish home, she captures rituals like Shabbat dinners to highlight the tension between religious norms and her secular life. Using traditional media, her art reflects the complexities of motherhood and personal identity.

Meet the Artist

Statement

Shirley Moneyhon is an artist and lecturer in graphic design and painting, currently living and creating in Tel Aviv. In her practice, Moneyhon explores the complex interplay between the sacred and the secular, the family structure, and her identity as a woman. Her art is driven by curiosity and observation, focusing on the tensions that arise within the intersections of family and religion. Through a fresh lens on ritual elements in Judaism, she presents intimate, familiar scenes – such as Shabbat dinners and Jewish holidays – that reflect her personal journey.

Having grown up in a traditional Jewish home, Moneyhon navigates the weight of religious norms, examining the dichotomy between the imposed expectations and her own lived experiences as a secular woman. Now a mother, she draws inspiration from her family life, capturing fleeting moments of ‘chaos‘ that embody the struggles of reconciling her roles within the Jewish family framework.

Her artistic process begins with gathering references from her immediate environment, family photo albums, and everyday objects, reflecting her quest for human connection and the significance of daily rituals. Employing traditional techniques such as oil on canvas, wood, and ceramic sculpture, Moneyhon’s work vividly portrays the dissonance she experiences, inviting viewers to engage with the nuanced dynamics of identity, faith, and familial obligation.

Title

GlogauAIR Project

I live in a war-torn country that suffers from severe political issues, on the brink of civil war. I experience the wild protests on a weekly basis; the streets are filled with posters and flags. This reality has made me think a lot about rituals and customs that people perform to maintain their sanity, about small and symbolic acts happening around me due to the current situation, which wouldn’t occur without it.

In my last exhibition, I presented two large self-portraits that contained many symbols critiquing the “ritualistic” routine of being a Jewish woman in a secular family unit in Israel. These paintings generated amazing responses from visitors, and through discussions with the audience in the gallery, I discovered that many of the actions I portrayed in the paintings resonated with many women around me. This realization prompted me to dive into research on daily rituals and collective actions that people engage in to cope with difficult routines. My project in the residency will focus on these actions; I am beginning a visual journey that encompasses strange rituals born from a state of war, a frightening routine and an impossible reality.

CV Summary

Education

2024- MFA in the University of Haifa
2023-2024 Certificate studies, “Minerva” program, Atelier
2023-2024 Painting studies, Atelier, under the guidance of Shai Yehezekelli
2023 Studies in Philosophy and Art History, Israeli Art House, under the guidance of Yonatan Hirschfeld
2022-2023 Certificate studies, “Olympus” program at City School, Beit Liebling, under the guidance of Anna Wild and Maayan Moses-Plotnick
2018-2019 Painting studies, HaTachana, under the guidance of Adam Cohen
2016-2017 Painting studies, HaSulam, under the guidance of Doron Dahan
2009-2013 Bachelor’s degree in B.Design, Visual Communication Department, Shenkar
2000-2006 Painting studies under the guidance of Amir Elkayam

Upcoming Exhibitions