Zvia Green
- Aug 11
- 4 min read
Zvia Green is a Tel Aviv-based artist who paints and weaves. She studied textile design at Shenkar College, and calls what she does "painting through textiles and weaving through painting." A drawing becomes a woven cloth; a woven cloth gets painted again. The objects come from her childhood home, plates and napkins from the family table. Green likes how they take on new meaning as they move from place to place. She grew up between Portuguese heritage and Israeli life, and is represented by Corridor Gallery. Her next show opens in New York this September.
Q: You studied textile design, and it's still at the heart of what you do. How did painting come in?
A: Painting has been part of my life since a young age, it was something I wanted to expertise in for many years and I really waited to go and study art at university. So, I did, my first semester in college started at the art department and very quickly I realized it was not at all what I had expected. I had always wanted to create art that makes people feel good and happy, but something in the way it was taught there made me feel like there was no room for this kind of approach. I decided to change my studying path to Textile Design and that was one of the greatest decisions, with time I found the right professors that would lead me to my artistic journey through painting & textiles.
Q: You call your practice painting through textiles and weaving through painting. How do the two actually pass work back and forth?
A: The methods I use to create my works engage with each other very often. For the past 3 years I've been diving through the world of Jacquard Weaving through residencies I had done at the Textiellab in Tilburg. This technique taught me a different way of looking at my works, from macro to micro and vice versa.
Besides the knowledge I gained through learning about textiles as forms but also as pieces of history, they expanded the way I view objects and create my paintings and so I find ways to incorporate one in other, for example – I will look at previous textiles I've woven and repaint them while taking a careful look at the threads that create the whole piece.
From the other angle – I must draw something that will then get programmed into the textile I weave, so it is always a crucial part of the process.
Q: Many of the objects in your work come from your childhood home. How do you choose which ones to paint or weave?
A: I believe that objects from different places get new meanings when they reach a new place. That understanding led lots of my works to give an interpretation to objects through changing the traditional technique but recreating it through a new form, which then will one day be transmitted maybe by someone else in another different form. I am fascinated by how objects can change their meaning through the stories we create around them. The objects that are seen in my works are mainly taken from the table setting at my childhood home where they first sparked my interest in the stories behind each piece.
Q: How does growing up between Portuguese heritage and Israeli life show up in the work?
A: This topic started taking place in my work during my preparation for my graduation project, when my grandmother passed away. I realized I had finally been able to talk about it and also give her the outshine I had wanted. This moment made me realize I have a different connection to these two worlds, and I started searching for connections between the landscapes of both places. The story kept evolving and I searched for more objects that would carry the story, I found embroidered napkins and tablecloths, pictures I had taken in various places in Portugal that stuck in my memory, all those began to be a base for lots of my works while I was also constantly making place for new stories to become.
Q: This spring you were at the Textile Museum in Tilburg working with their TextielLab. What came out of that time?
A: I was lucky to have been part of a residency there for the second time, focusing again on the jacquard weaving. I had anticipated that I would create one main project which was focused on creating layers and three dimensions through weaving. The work came along quite fast and so I managed to create quite a few works that connect to the idea I call "Acts of Care".
In total I wove 4 textile panels ("Trans-Tile") that show Portuguese tiles and Israeli Gluska tiles reconnects through a fish figures scales that carries their patterns. A series ("Concealed Heritage") which is created from Portuguese tiles and plates from the dining table at my childhood home that are covered in floating yarns and opened by cutting through. And recreated two large scale drawings from my final project now as large wall hangings ("Asi Es La Vida"), a diptych showing Sorina (a character I made up and keeps returning in my works) holding an ironing board and a scene of a white unknown background calling for her to search a new exploration.
Q: Where is the work heading next?
A: As I was photo shooting the new works I realized I wanted to depict the bigger idea behind, and that's how "Acts of Care" came along. Three scenes that show the housewife caring in three ways (hanging laundry, ironing and making the table set). From there I believe will becoming a new series of more works around the idea. I am seeking to find more opportunities around the world to showcase my work through galleries and museums. I shall be part of an exhibition in New York next September and hopefully will find more possibilities in the near future. I am keen to keep exposing people to my world and hope to inspire them to find deeper connections with the daily objects that surround them.
