CUNY Presidential Professor of Art Archie Rand from the School of Visual, Media and Performing Arts will debut his new series, “The Seventeen: Iron Flock” at the Jerusalem Biennale opening in March. Rand was selected as the sole American representative at the highly selective spring edition of the biennale—officially titled “Iron Flock”—where venues will host 30 exhibitions with the participation of more than 200 renowned artists and curators from all over the world. Rand’s series is the only solo exhibition in the event and encapsulates the spirit of the exhibition’s focus that honors the contributions of women in art and history. His work features impressions drawn from events and myths in the lives of Biblical heroines. Archie Rand – “Eliezer Gets Rebecca” Archie Rand – “Tob Refuses Ruth” The exhibition is a continuation of Rand’s 50-year artistic enterprise, exploring the Bible and Jewish texts in serialized paintings conceptually informed by 20th-century culture. His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and Bibliothèque Nationale de France, among many others. The spring biennale is an opportunity to mark more than a decade of creativity and collaboration and to acknowledge the devoted patrons and partners that have helped position the Jerusalem Biennale as the largest platform in the world for contemporary Jewish art. In 2019, Rand was named a Farash Fellow, which offered a summer residency at the University of Rochester and an unrestricted award of $100,000. The residency coincided with the museum-wide exhibition of Rand’s 1,800-square-foot painting The 613 at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, New York. The images were published in the best-selling book The 613, which was published in 2015.
