My name is Ruth Cohen Ephraim, a visual artist working in painting, primarily using acrylic and oil on canvas, and occasionally on PVC sheets.
My artistic journey began with studies under the painter Jan Rauchwerger, where I specialized in figurative painting and portraiture. Over time, I underwent an artistic transformation that led me toward an abstract -expressionist visual language, where material, color, and movement serve as tools for inner exploration.
About the Work
At the center of my work lies the image of the animal -primarily lions, leopards, and cheetahs -as symbols of emotion, identity, gaze, and power. The paintings are large-scale (ranging from 100x150 cm to 150x200 cm), and are created through the exploration of layered color, raw textures, and dynamic forms.
Artist Statement:
For me, painting is a process of listening and revealing. I strive to create a space where animal imagery becomes an inner language -charged with emotion, memory, and existential questions. The viewer is invited to meet the image head-on, and through it, encounter themselves.
Exhibition Background:
My work has been exhibited in numerous exhibitions both in Israel and abroad, in group and solo shows alike -including solo exhibitions at the Artists’ House in Tel Aviv, the Jerusalem Theatre, and various other galleries.
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This exhibition explores the primal dialogue between human identity and the untamed spirit of the animal world. Ruth Cohen Ephraim’s large-scale paintings—rich in layered color, raw textures, and visceral movement—transform the image of lions, leopards, and cheetahs into mirrors of inner states: power, vulnerability, memory, and longing.
The works do not depict animals as subjects of observation, but rather as living metaphors—charged symbols that bridge the external and the internal, the seen and the felt. They invite viewers to stand face-to-face with the painted gaze, confronting not only the animal, but also themselves.
Conceptual Framework
The Gaze as Encounter: The animal’s eyes reflect questions of identity, emotion, and existence. They challenge the viewer’s own gaze, breaking the boundary between painting and spectator.
Material and Transformation: Acrylic, oil, and mixed techniques on canvas, PVC, leather, and paper create shifting surfaces where matter itself becomes an extension of emotion. The diversity of media echoes the multiplicity of human experience.
Power and Fragility: The lion’s roar, the leopard’s stealth, and the cheetah’s speed are reimagined as internal landscapes—moments where strength and fragility coexist.
Emotional Journey for Visitors
The exhibition unfolds as an immersive environment where color, texture, and scale overwhelm and embrace the senses. Each painting is not a static object but a threshold: a passage into the layered depths of human consciousness. Visitors are invited to move beyond passive viewing into an introspective encounter—an act of listening to their own wildness.
Why Now?
In an era where the natural world is under threat and human existence is marked by disconnection, these works call for reconnection—between self and nature, body and spirit, power and empathy. The animal becomes both a reminder and a guide, urging us toward authenticity and presence.
This framing positions the exhibition as emotional, professional, and deeply meaningful, aligning with your artistic voice while offering curators and viewers a clear conceptual entry point.
