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Esther Shalev-Gerz

Esther Shalev-Gerz is a contemporary artist based in Paris, known for installations, photography, video and public works built on participation and memory.

born 1948Participatory installations on memoryPublic art worksThe Shadow

Occupation: plastic artist, university teacher, conceptual artist, photographer

Esther Shalev-Gerz was born in 1948 in Vilnius

Esther Shalev-Gerz, born Gilinsky, was born in Vilnius in 1948. In 1957 she moved with her family to Jerusalem.

She studied fine arts at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design from 1975 to 1979 and earned a bachelor's degree. She then spent a year in New York City.

From 1981 she took part in group shows at the Israel Museum and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. In 1983 she made her first public work, Oil on Stone, in Tel Hai. In 1984 she moved to Paris and began working across Europe and Canada.

From 2003 to 2014 she taught master's students at Valand Academy, University of Gothenburg. Her work uses dialogue with participants to explore personal and collective memory. In 2010 she showed 10 installations at the Jeu de Paume in Paris, and in 2012 a retrospective in Lausanne presented 15.

In 2014 her team was one of 6 finalists for Canada's National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa. In 2018 she completed The Shadow, a permanent work made of 24000 concrete pavers.