Visual Artist

Efrat Baler-Moses

NEW YORK, USA

Efrat (Effi) Baler is a New York–based multidisciplinary artist working primarily in painting, mixed media, and constructed surfaces. She earned a BFA in Sculpture and Painting from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and was awarded the Helena Rubinstein Grant from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.

In 1990, she was recognized by Philip Leider, critic and founding editor of ARTFORUM, as one of the ten most promising Bezalel artists of the previous decade in the publication Promise – Ten Bezalel Artists of the Last Decade. Her work has been exhibited internationally in museums, galleries, and public institutions across the United States, Israel, and Europe, including the Israel Museum Youth Wing, the Whitney Museum of American Art (Occupy Museums / DEBTFAIR Biennial), Hebrew Union College’s Heller Museum, and the Alternative Museum.

She has participated in over 100 group exhibitions and more than 10 solo exhibitions, receiving multiple Critics’ Awards, Honorable Mentions, and peer-selected recognitions. Her work is held in private collections in the United States, Europe, and Israel.

Effi has delivered lectures and artist talks on Israeli art history and her own practice through the Scholar in Residence Series at the San Francisco Public Library, as well as at West Coast universities, New York libraries, and cultural institutions. Alongside her studio practice, she has held administrative and educational roles, including serving as Administrator of the Tate Americas Foundation and teaching in public and private schools, community centers, and nonprofit organizations in New York City, Brooklyn, and Jerusalem.

She currently works full-time from her studio in Long Beach, New York.

What are you making right now?

My current work explores the meeting point between childhood and adulthood. I am revisiting childhood memories, toys, dreams, and familiar imagery through the perspective of lived experience. I am interested in how innocence changes over time, how memories are reconstructed, and how objects carry different meanings as we grow older. At the same time, I continue to investigate the hidden sides of materials and narratives by exposing what is usually concealed, allowing the structure of the work itself to become part of the story. These new pieces continue my interest in combining painting with constructed surfaces and found objects. My work is currently included in THE BACK PAGE AND HEZY LEKLY at Minus One Gallery and The Lobby Art Space in Tel Aviv. I was also selected for LIPAF 250: The Liberty Trail, a juried public art installation in Heckscher Park in Huntington, New York, where I am creating a work from my Alphabet of Freedom series. Alongside these exhibitions, I am developing a new body of mixed media works exploring the intersection of childhood and adulthood through memory, personal history, and changing narratives.

What medium do you work in and what drew you to it?

Making art has been part of my life since I was five years old. I never chose it as much as it chose me. Painting alone eventually was not enough. I wanted to move beyond the flat surface by cutting, constructing, exposing the reverse of the canvas, and incorporating found objects that carry their own histories. Working this way allows ideas to develop through both image and physical form. The process itself is where I think, solve problems, and make discoveries. It completely absorbs me and gives me a way to express ideas that words cannot fully communicate.

If you could spend an hour with anyone you admire, living or dead, who would it be and what would you ask them?

I would choose Leonardo da Vinci. I would love to show him the world we live in today, from airplanes and spacecraft to artificial intelligence and medical technology, and see how he reacts to ideas that once existed only in his notebooks. I would ask him about the connection between art and science, how he approached observation, and whether he ever imagined his work would still be studied five centuries later. I would also love to hear his thoughts on artists such as Michelangelo and Titian, and whether there were women artists of his time whose talents went unrecognized. Finally, I would ask him whether there is any truth to the stories about his mother's origins, including the speculation that she may have had Jewish roots.

What do you need in your workspace to spark creativity?

I need room to experiment. My studio is filled with canvases, paper, paint, tools, wood, and found objects waiting to become part of a piece. I also keep books, photographs, sketches, and collected objects that trigger memories or unexpected connections. Music often plays in the background, but just as important is uninterrupted time. Creativity rarely begins with a finished idea. It comes from handling materials, making discoveries, solving visual problems, and allowing one thought to lead to another. The studio is where those conversations happen.

What would you like people to understand about your work?

I am drawn to what is hidden, overlooked, or exists on the other side of what we first see. My work often combines painting, sculpture, and found objects to reveal multiple viewpoints and invite closer observation. Many of the images, symbols, and narratives come from my upbringing in Israel and my life in both Israel and the United States. While those experiences shape the work, the questions it raises about memory, identity, conflict, communication, transformation, and human nature reach beyond any one culture. I hope viewers find their own connections and discover meanings that continue to unfold with time.

Has your identity, culture, heritage, or community influenced your creative practice?

Absolutely. My life has been shaped by growing up in Israel, immigrating to the United States, and always feeling that I belonged to more than one place while never completely belonging to either. Childhood memories of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, living through periods of war, terror attacks, and uncertainty, and later building a life in America all became part of how I see the world. Jewish history, traditions, symbols, and values appear throughout my work, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly. My years working with synagogues and Jewish institutions in the United States also deepened my connection to my heritage. These experiences influence the imagery, materials, and questions I explore, but they are never intended to exclude others. They are personal starting points that speak to broader themes of memory, resilience, displacement, identity, and the search for connection.

What does success look like to you as a creative?

Success means continuing to make meaningful work while reaching a broad audience. I hope to exhibit in major museums and respected galleries, have my work included in important collections, and know that it resonates with people long after they leave the exhibition. Just as important, I want to earn a sustainable living through my art so I can continue creating without compromise. Recognition is gratifying, but the greatest success is making work that has a lasting impact and continues to be discovered over time.