Professor Michal Na'aman was named the laureate of the 2014 Israel Prize for the plastic arts, Education Minister Shay Piron announced Tuesday, in a statement congratulating the Tel Aviv-based painter. A statement by the Israel Prize Committee said, "Professor Na'aman is a revolutionary artist in the field of painting post conceptual art, which has been affected by her insights. Na'aman built an intellectual and passionate world that clashes and unites language and imagery, logic and mysticism. She shaped many students and influenced the development of art in Israel." The panel selecting the plastic arts laureate was headed by painter and mixed-media artist Professor Pinchas Cohen Gan, and included art historian Professor Sarah Breitberg-Semel and Professor Ruth Lorand. Born in the kibbutz Kvutzat Kinneret in northern Israel, Na'aman holds degrees from Tel Aviv University and the Art Teachers' Training College in Ramat Hasharon. She began exhibiting her works in the 1970s in Tel Aviv and later in New York, where she also attended the Manhattan-based School of Visual Arts. In 1982, she presented at the Venice Biennale. Na'aman currently teaches at Hamidrasha School of Art at Beit Berl College.
