Mikedem Gallery Safed

{{Infobox
|title = Mikedem Gallery
|image        = [[File:Space holder.jpg|215px|alt=Mikedem Gallery.]]
|header1 = Hebrew:
|data2  = גלריה מיקדם
|header3 = Spelling:
|data4  = Mekedem
|header5 = Other Names:
|data6   = Mikedem Fine Art, Bezalel Shemesh Gallery, Ehud Yotam Gallery
|header7 = Description:
|data8   = Fine art gallery of sculpture and paintings located in Safed, Israel.}}

The MiKedem Gallery, located on [[Art Gallery Street Safed|Alkabetz Street]] in the [[Old City Safed|Old Jewish Quarter]] is one of the newest galleries in [[Safed|Tzfat]]. The gallery, owned and managed by Bezalel Shemesh and Ehud Yotam, exhibits the artwork of some of Israel’s best-known sculptors and painters including Leonid Balaklav, Ruth Bloch, Zvi Lachman and Nadav Bloch.

=== Ruth Bloch ===
Ruth Bloch grew up on Kibbutz Alonim which afforded her many opportunities to develop her artwork. She studed at the Avni Art Institute in Tel Aviv and established herself as a sculptor whose work is sharp and sturdy and displays moral integrity and resolve. Ruth studied psychology and her sculptures represent the process of searching for ways to perpetuate good through feelings, actions and deeds. Ruth sculpts masculine and feminine forms. She works in bronze and glass and carefully avoids any type of “statements” in her artwork. Her sculptures reflect her optimism and display visions of nature, life and humankind.  

=== Leonid Balaklav ===
Leonid Balaklav was born and raised in Moldavia. He studied at the Kiev School of Arts and at the Odessa Art Institute. He settled in Jerusalem upon his 1990 immigration. The blacks and browns of Balaklav’s Russian paintings gave way to a palate of light pastels and colorful hues upon his arrival in Israel. These colors, as well as the lighter subject matter of his Israeli paintings, express Balaklav’s delight with the feeling of lightness that he experiences in Israel. Balaklav paints portraits and landscapes of Jerusalem’s alleyways, doorways and other local scenery. His self-portraits are often found within his paintings.  

=== Zvi Lachman ===
Zvi Lachman was born and raised in Tel Aviv. He studied sculpture with some of Israel’s greatest sculptors including Ashkenazi, Sternschuss and Danziger. In addition to his sculpture, which he studied at the Parsons School of Design in New York, he studied painting with Paul Resika and Leland Bell. Lachman’s busts incorporate the formation of the head’s tissues which emphasizes the piece’s creation -- the layers, small indentations, notches and combinations.

=== Nadav Bloch ===
Nadav Bloch is an artist-in-residence at the Artists Village of Ein Hod. His work focuses on Hebrew, Arabic and Latin letters as representatives of the three monotheistic faiths. He builds transparent layers of letters in earthy tones which express different periods in the development of man. The ongoing process of construction and extinction is seen as new layers are added to his works and old layers disappear. For Bloch this represents extinction, confusion and a lack of understanding that language barriers create. Bloch aims to create a dialogue of compromising and understanding between the three monotheistic languages.

=== Other Artists ===
Mikedem represents a number of other artists as well including Ya’akov Agam, Ziona Tagger, Mark Tochilkin, Ilan Baruch, Motta Brim and Tolla Inbar.

[[Category:Safed]]
[[Category:Jewish Art]]