Name: ZOHAR FRAIMAN. Players in paradise
Start: 2026-09-20T12:00:00+02:00
End: 2026-09-20T19:00:00+02:00
Location: Kunstsammlung Jena

Between sugar color and current diagnosis: Zohar Fraiman at the Jena Art Collection

With Players in paradise, the Jena Art Collection opens a view of a painting program that questions the present with a keen eye and seductive colorfulness. Zohar Fraiman combines classical visual quotes with pop culture, series aesthetics, and Disney fantasies to create an exhibition atmosphere where self-image, virtual existence, and female life worlds condense into a dense, disturbing narrative.

Painting as a mirror of digital identities

Fraiman's works arise from the friction between oil painting and screen culture. In the classical formats, Botticelli, Balthus, or Modigliani encounter celebrities, cartoon characters, and motifs from the visual world of social media. This exploration of works reveals not a harmless surface, but a precise analysis of that aesthetic experience in which desire, self-presentation, and constant optimization overlap.

Colors, shapes, and the restlessness of images

The exhibition unfolds its effect through a fluctuation between sweetness and discomfort. Candy-colored surfaces, surreal reflections, and fragmented spaces open a visual language that appears both cheerful and unsettling. The space of painting is disrupted by smartphones, fictions, and role models; from paradise, a questionable mirage emerges.

Art historical references and contemporary relevance

Fraiman works with art historical references as effortlessly as with the codes of the present. Her figuration evokes genre painting and surrealism without tipping into mere quotes. Instead, complex compositions arise that pose questions about identity, female self-presentation, and the mechanisms of digital image production. The artist was born in 1987 in Jerusalem, has lived in Berlin since 2009, and has been exhibited internationally; her works are part of public and private collections in several countries.

A museum experience with educational value

The Jena Art Collection showcases the exhibition in a space that makes contemporary art visible and subject to discussion. For visitors, an art experience is created that combines analytical depth with sensual presence. Those who engage with these images experience not only painting, drawing, and installation, but also an intelligent inquiry into how we see ourselves today and how we want to be seen.

Conclusion

Players in paradise promises an impressive exhibition between art historical knowledge, pop cultural visual pleasure, and critical observation of the present. Anyone wishing to experience contemporary painting with depth of field should definitely visit this exhibition in Jena live.