Esther Knobel, born in Poland in 1949, emigrated to Israel in 1951. Now lives and works in Jerusalem, Israel. She holds a BFA from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and MFA from the Royal College of Art, London. From 1985 to 1991 and 1999 to 2004 she was a teacher at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. From 1997 to 2005 she taught at the Design & Art Program at the Holon Institute of Technology. Esther Knobel is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Israel Ministry Prize in Art and Design and Andy (Andrea M. Bronfman) Prize for Contemporary Craft, Israel, and Françoise van den Bosch Prize from the Netherlands.

 

Esther Knobel is a highly original thinker, investigator, and maker, strongly motivated by, and attached to, such themes as family and nationality. She is especially sensitive to the power and importance of making, craftsmanship, and artisanal skills -- the interaction between head and hand, the skilled worker and society, topics she addresses in her book, The Mind in the Hand (2007). Knobel works with multiple materials in numerous processes, including assemblage, enamels, electroforming, and textile techniques -- such as knitting and embroidery with metal wire -- and object re-purposing.

 

Her work can be seen in museum collections worldwide, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh; Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Newark Museum, New Jersey; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Museum fur Angewandte Kunst, Vienna; and Craft Board of the Australia Council, Sydney.

 

(from gallery Loupe, Montclair, NJ, USA）