Exhibition Writing & Media

Odessa / Оде́сса: Babel, Ladyzhensky and the Soul of a City

Yeshiva University Museum

Goal | Illustrate the critical role of artists and writers in interpreting and remembering the effects of political revolution and radical ideology on daily life.

This exhibition presented two artists' interpretations of Odessa of the early 1900s: an El Dorado on the Black Sea, swarming with gangsters, fortune hunters and pleasure seekers. Pairing texts by the writer Isaac Babel with paintings by artist Yefim Ladyzhensky, and highlighted by contemporary film and period music, Odessa / Оде́сса explored the city's bustling commercial street life, colorful underworld, and its political landscape of radicalism and violent revolutionary conflict. I curated this exhibition of nearly 60 paintings and drawings paired with text from Babel's writings, wrote the script, fundraising and marketing materials, and produced the complementing media, which included five films and two musical pieces, all installed in a roughly 4,000 square foot gallery.  

Learn more on Yeshiva University Museum's exhibition website.

Watch the exhibition video that I narrated, produced by Mark Kelner