Friends of Margolis:
"Hand to Hand"
Photographs by Zeva Oelbaum  
New Margolis Gallery Photo Exhibition  

Congregation Beth Israel's Friends of Margolis is proud to sponsor its latest exhibition "Hand to Hand" featuring New York-based fine art photographer and artist Zeva Oelbaum, which is being held in conjunction with Houston's FotoFest2008.  Friends of Margolis and our Margolis Gallery are proud participants and sponsors in the Twelfth International Biennial of Photography and Photo-related Art in this citywide event.   
 
The "Hand to Hand" exhibition features toned gelatin silver prints that Oelbaum photographed in 2005-06, depicting fragments of endpapers from old Hebrew books passed down through generations. Manipulating imagery from her family's books and others found throughout the Jewish community, Oelbaum creates a body of work that transforms markings written in multiple languages –– Latin, Russian, German, Polish, Aramaic, and Yiddish –– into a coherent visual story. With her camera, Oelbaum immortalizes the inherent lyricism in a word, a scribble, and even something as seemingly insignificant as an ink blot, as they dance across the page, transformed from language to pure form.

A New York-based photographer, Oelbaum was born in Kansas City and has a BA in Anthropology from Brandeis University. She is represented in numerous private and public collections, including The Museum of the City of New York, The Brooklyn Museum, The Museum of Jewish Heritage, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The National Museum of the American Indian, and The Polaroid Collection, as well as the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and The Southeast Museum of Photography, Florida. She teaches at The International Center of Photography in New York, and is the author of two books.
 
FotoFest, all Houston art museums, Margolis Gallery and 106 other spaces are celebrating photo-based art with 145 exhibits as part of FotoFest2008-China, being held through April 20, throughout Houston. The public is invited to view this special exhibition now through April 20 in Margolis Gallery, Congregation Beth Israel, 5600 North Braeswood. Gallery hours: Monday - Thursday, 9:30 a.m.- 5:30 p.m., Friday 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and Sunday 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. For more information, please call the Temple office at 713-771-6221..