Siona Shimshi

Born in Tel Aviv in 1939, Shimshi worked as a designer for Negev Ceramics, Maskit, Rikma, and Lapid.[1] Her archive at the National Library of Israel preserves sketches, drawings, photographs, textile designs, wall designs, and project materials connected with each of these organizations, as well as designs she produced for synagogues, hotels, corporate and commercial entities, and fashion companies.[1]

Her relationship with Negev Ceramics is documented in particular detail. The archive contains a resignation letter she wrote to company chief executive Ami Ronen, alongside lectures she prepared for study days attended by the company's engineers and dealers, notes on designs and tiles, and correspondence received during her employment.[2]

From the 1960s through the 1980s, Shimshi produced distinctive fabric patterns that drew inspiration from Judaica, the Pop Art movement, 1970s psychedelia, and flower-children aesthetics, appearing on tablecloths, curtains, pillows, and clothing created for the Maskit fashion house.[3] This body of textile work was later displayed at Herzliya's Museum of Contemporary Art as part of the exhibition "Textile–Art–Textile: Perspectives on Then and Now," which comprised five separate but related exhibitions.[3]

Shimshi was among the founders of the Ten Plus artists' group, established by Rafi Lavie and other artists as an alternative to the lyrical abstraction that dominated Israeli art at the time.[4] Other artists associated with the group included Buky Schwartz, Benni Efrat, Uri Lipchitz, Pinchas Eshet, Malka Rozen, and Yossi Gatnio.[5][4] The group operated from 1965 to 1970.[5]

Though Ten Plus did not create a consistent ideology, it provided a focus for artistic fermentation and served as an organizational framework.[4] A 1965 newspaper article preserved in Shimshi's archive covered her batik and ceramic works and included photographs of her, providing a contemporary record from the group's early period.[5]

Shimshi's documented exhibition history extends to 1963, when photographs recorded her preparing works in her studio for the group exhibition "Tzurah Hayom" ("Form Today") at the Bezalel Museum — then known as the Bezalel National Art Museum — in Jerusalem, curated by Yona Fischer.[6] The archive also preserves documentation of her work installed in the exhibition space itself.[6]

The 1965 exhibition "Siona Shimshi: Works in Material" at the Dugith Gallery presented her ceramic works, including pieces titled "Animal Menagerie," "Early Summer," and "Class Picture." A photograph from that period shows her with these works in the courtyard of her home in Jaffa.[7]

A 1988 listing in the Jerusalem Post Magazine identified a Shimshi presentation of sculpture under "Modern Art" at the Haifa Museum, located at 26 Shabbetai Levy Street.[8] In 1990, the Beit Uri and Rami Nehostan Museum hosted her solo exhibition "Aching Head and Hallucinations." The Jerusalem Post reported in 2022 that several of her works could be seen in the museum's garden.[9]

The archive documents Shimshi's artistic activity broadly through exhibition photographs, sculpture sketches, installation instructions, press clippings, published reviews, and filmed records of completed works and their production processes, as well as childhood and student works, texts, and records of television appearances.[1]

Alongside her practice as an artist and designer, Shimshi served as an instructor and head of the Department of Ceramics Design at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. She also taught at Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art and at the Holon Institute of Technology; her archive preserves teaching materials and documents from each of these positions.[1]

Between 1992 and 1994, Shimshi headed the Bezalel 1 program, which offered certificate studies in the historic Bezalel Academy building in Jerusalem. The program introduced participants to the arts and supported independent creative work by new immigrant artists from Russia.[10] A 1998 Bezalel bulletin and an invitation to a departmental exhibition she curated are also held in the archive.[10]

In 2016, Shimshi curated the exhibition "Circles of Life" by artist Sarah Giger-Ginor at the Old Jaffa Museum, and the archive contains a text she wrote that appears to have served as her opening remarks for the event.[11]

Shimshi's archive — held jointly with her partner, photographer and artist Jachin Hirsch — is deposited at the David and Yolanda Katz Faculty of Arts at Tel Aviv University. The digital access project that made it available to researchers involved the Israel Ministry of Heritage, the National Library of Israel, Shenkar College, and the Judaica collection at Harvard University Library.[1]

In 2026, the Genia Schreiber University Art Gallery at Tel Aviv University featured Shimshi and Hirsch as one of three artistic partnerships in the exhibition "Something to Hold On To." Curated by Roni Kochavi and Hila Cooper, the exhibition runs from June 10 through December 15, 2026.[12] Drawing on letters, photographs, sketchbooks, and personal diaries — some shown publicly for the first time — it explores exchanges of ideas, mutual influence, and intergenerational dialogue.[12] Among the materials presented is Hirsch's decades-long photographic documentation of Shimshi while she slept.[12]

Oudi Recanati, discussing his mother Dina Recanati's personal archive, said, "Siona Shimshi was her good friend."[13]