The International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) is delighted to present Noa Yekutieli: No Longer — Not Yet, marking the artist’s inaugural solo exhibition in New York, curated by Jenée-Daria Strand. Delving into the intricate landscapes of her grandmother's childhood in Japan and Israel circa 1938, Yekutieli embarks on a journey to craft a horizon line. These landscapes, devoid of traditional historical narratives or apparent connections, serve as the space through which she unites seemingly disparate realms. It is her heritage that acts as the thread binding these distant locales, enabling her exploration of the liminal space of a multicultural identity. Utilizing wood, fabric, and her distinctive manual paper-cutting technique, Yekutieli creates striking renderings of both real and imagined scenes, densely populated with sprawling flora, repeating patterns, and landscapes marked by destruction. For this exhibition, the artist transforms the gallery into a series of stage-like installations that resonate with memory and the concept of belonging. These site specific installations contemplate the complexity of belonging to cycles of loss, trauma, and destruction, themes that Yekutieli has pondered since her childhood move to Israel and that hold an even more profound significance for her today. In the face of the ongoing conflict and the grim everyday realities of life in Israel and Palestine, she seeks, in her own words, “different languages and spaces of reflection to shift patterns of violence and trauma, and oppose the idea of a singular narrative.” Yekutieli’s family history stands at the forefront of her work. In her intricate collage-like pieces, she integrates formal strategies, craft traditions such as woodworking and sewing, and cultural symbolism inspired by her American-Japanese-Israeli heritage. Her approach to paper-cutting, for instance, is influenced by the Japanese concept of employing negative space as a compositional element. Drawing on rediscovered photographs of her family, Yekutieli delves into questions of loss and remnants resulting from her experiences with immigration and assimilation. She embraces a state of between-ness—engaging with the complexities of her multicultural intersectional identity. In each installation, she juxtaposes polarities of positive and negative, hope and reality, brutality and beauty, and destruction and growth. Much like deconstructed tapestries, thin lines of connection spill across the landscape’s chasms, creating a tension between fragility and strength. By stretching the paper compositions across the gallery’s walls, Yekutieli pushes the material's limits and produces—in scale and technique—some of her most ambitious works to date.

No Longer — Not Yet, 2024, the international studio curatorial program, brooklyn, new-york, feb-june 2024