Spotlight from the Adama Exhibition: Zohar Morag

Zohar Morag is a deep and gentle soul whose work often traces the threads connecting her to her roots—both familial and geographical. A printmaker, painter, teacher, and workshop facilitator based in Moshav Ohad in the Negev, Zohar was born and raised on the kibbutzim of Ashdot Yaakov and Re’im. She has spent her life creating in open, rural landscapes rich with nature, and these surroundings continue to shape the emotional and visual language of her art. With decades of experience in teaching, printmaking, and leading community arts initiatives throughout the Negev and the Gaza Envelope, she brings to her work a rare blend of personal intuition, craft, and sensitivity. In the Adama exhibition, Zohar presents three works that open windows into memory, legacy, and belonging. In “Red Stork” (2017), a bright red stork hovers above a charred black landscape, viewed from above. On the bird’s back, Zohar places the image of her childhood home. While the piece was created before this war, its stark colors and symbolic imagery seem to be almost a prophecy, echoing the plight of the hostages, and the longing for those who were evacuated to return home. It is both personal and collective—a soaring, aching prayer for restoration. “Childhood Picture” (2007) is an intricate work that also explores Zohar’s family history. A large portrait of Zohar as a child stands alongside other figures, motifs, and multiple renderings of her childhood home. The layering of images reflects the ways memory is transmitted: through stories, photographs, generations, and the inner worlds we carry. It is a meditation on lineage—how the past shapes us, and how we hold it close even as we move through life. “Mother Earth” (2025) was created especially for the Adama project, this series of four prints uses the same linoleum plate, transformed through a unique color-variation technique. The central figure—Mother Earth—is based on Zohar’s own mother. By reprinting the same form in different palettes, Zohar expands the personal into the universal. Her mother becomes the mother: a symbol of life, grounding, nurture, and the generative power of the land. Through her lyrical imagery, thoughtful symbolism, and masterful technique, Zohar Morag invites viewers into a world where memory, landscape, and identity are inseparable—where the personal becomes communal, and where art becomes a vessel for healing, remembrance, and connection.