Shira Toren is an American-Israeli artist. Born in Tel-Aviv.
She moved to New York City to study fine art and design.
Toren received her BFA from the Pratt Institute and An Associate Degree in Art Therapy from
The New School. She attended classes in Painting and Printmaking at The Arts Student League NYC.
Ms.Toren is currently working in her studio in Brooklyn, NY and Alford, MA.
My work is to make unconscious emotion visceral. I implement a process-oriented
approach in my practice, which uncovers the works' themes as much as establishes them. I apply Venetian plaster, graphite powder and mineral pigments, accumulating these materials to achieve a nuanced sense of texture. Layers of material converge in abstract monochrome forms, creating a liminal
space where pigments build and collapse. The various built surfaces in my work seemingly excavate elusive memories and their very nature. The final
compositions embody this subtle conflict: a latent tension lingering between
presence and absence, the rigid and the malleable.
