Tomorrow – Local Berkeley Artist’s Environmental Exhibition

Hagit Cohen is a local artist here in Berkeley (for disclosure, she is also a good friend).  She will exhibit her Acid Rain exhibition at the East Bay Open Studios on June 4th and 5th. Hagit is “a mixed media artist who works primarily with digital image manipulation, constructing layers of photographs with paintings, and sculptural objects.”

Acid Rain Exhibit - Hagit Cohen

Hagit: “Acid Rain” is the main body of work I would like you to consider showing, since it talks about the environment in general, and about human impact on Bay Area creeks in particular. The ritual of prayer for the creeks is a personal and emotional plea for the environment; yet, the act of a prayer ritual brings some hope for the future, rather than just another bleak perspective on the subject.

Below are some reviews of Hagit’s work:

“Cohen’s photos of flower garlands floating in creeks may suggest Pre-Raphaelite paintings of the water nymph Ophelia, but there’s an ecological message beneath their somber poetry”. – Anneli Rufus, East Bay Express.

“ Using light digital articulation and rich giclee-ink printing on cotton paper, Hagit’s builds up a patina with a dark foreboding, and almost gothic tone, hoping to bring awareness to our impact on nature, these photographs open a discourse about the relationship between contemporary civilization and the natural world”. – Danielle Fox, Slate Art & Design Gallery.

In addition, Hagit has also been recognized  for her work out of 500 artists and invited to share her art at  the ‘Bay Area Artists Envision the Future’ Summer Exhibit at the David Brower Center from June 16th through the summer (entrance free).  Not that I know anything about the Brower Center, but when I checked their website, I saw that their criteria is  the need to inspire a happy social activist.

So let’s conclude with David Brower’s words: “Have a good time saving the world. Otherwise, you’re just going to depress yourself.”

Very true, Mr. Brower, and I hope readers will join me at one of Hagit’s upcoming exhibits.

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Alon Shalev is the author of The Accidental Activist (now available on Kindle) and A Gardener’s Tale. He is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Hillel Foundation, a non-profit that provides spiritual and social justice opportunities to Jewish students in the Bay Area. More on Alon Shalev at http://www.alonshalev.com/and on Twitter (#alonshalevsf).