Using the iPad to view the embedded video in the History, Heritage and the Lower East Side series.

ART CV

Yona Verwer, a Dutch-born, New York-based multidisciplinary visual artist, is the recipient of the 2024 Fellowship Grant from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. Her artistic practice explores themes of identity, immigration, ecology, heritage, and spirituality, drawing inspiration from a diverse array of cultures. Working across a wide range of media—including painting, installations, new media, and video—Verwer's work challenges the intersection of human experience the natural world and spirituality.

Her current project, Living Waters - Ecology, delves into the relationship between nature and human impact, inviting audiences to engage with the Jewish concepts of Bal Tashchit (the prohibition against needless destruction) and Tza'ar Ba'alei Chayim (the prohibition against causing unnecessary suffering to animals). Some pieces in this project incorporate video components that reflect on Jewish texts and ecological themes.

Verwer holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. She has exhibited in over 30 museum shows and numerous galleries both in the United States and internationally, including the Jerusalem Biennale, the Andy Warhol Factory, the Heller Museum, the Reginald Lewis Museum of African-American Art, Yeshiva University Museum, the Ein Harod Museum, the Bronx Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art, the Mizel Museum, the Stanback Museum, and the Canton Museum.

Her work is featured in Matthew Baigell's Heritage: Jewish Artists in America Since 1900, Jewish Identity in American Art: A Golden Age Since the 1970s, and Ori Soltes' Tradition and Transformation: Three Millennia of Jewish Art.

Verwer has been published in multiple languages, and her work has been reviewed in prominent publications including The New York Times (by William Zimmer), The New Yorker (by Boris Fishman), Art Criticism (by Matthew Baigell), Ars Judaica, The Huffington Post, NRC Handelsblad, and Newsday.

“In 2008, Verwer founded the Jewish Art Salon, an organization she currently leads as president. The Salon now boasts over 450 members worldwide, including artists and scholars, and organizes lectures, exhibitions, and events to support the global Jewish art community. Verwer is recognized as one of the most significant contemporary figures in the history of Jewish-themed art in America, following in the footsteps of key figures who have established organizations and promoted Jewish artists for over a century.”

From Professor Emeritus Matthew Baigell’s forthcoming book, Heritage: Jewish Artists in America Since 1900, to be published by Syracuse University Press in the fall of 2025.