Open to the public: Saturday, June 6, 2026
How does one paint longing? How does one hold memory, place, or the weight of history in a single image?
Etched in Time presents work by Jerusalem-born artist Shy Abady (b. 1965), whose practice spans two decades of inquiry into landscape, memory, and belonging.
Drawing on affinities both local and distant — the sun-scorched terrain of the Judean desert and the austere, brooding landscapes of northern Europe — Abady’s work traces the lines where personal experience and collective history intersect.
Working in a technique of his own devising, Abady burns and scorches OSB panels — compressed wood-chip boards whose rough, industrial surface becomes an active material rather than a neutral ground.
Into these charred surfaces he builds images of landscapes, figures, and historical moments, adding layers of charcoal and oil.
The boards’ raw, yellowed texture merges seamlessly with the arid terrain depicted in the works, producing a sense of time arrested — seared into place.
The exhibition draws from two major series: Augusta Victoria and Boomerang in the Breathing Routes, both concerned with personal and collective memory, exile, and the way trauma inscribes itself across generations.
Figures such as Theodor Herzl and Yaakov Shabtai appear alongside anonymous presences — a woman in black, a recurring silhouette — and landscapes of Jerusalem rendered as sites of layered meaning.
Presented at the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem, Etched in Time enters into dialogue with the museum’s own deep engagement with history, excavation, and the material traces of the past.
What has been unearthed from the earth, and what continues to live above it — Abady’s work holds both in tension.
