Painted with gouache – ink on parchment, Ksav Sephardic.
11 1/8 inches tall.
About the artist: Born in Mumbai, India, Siona Benjamin is an artist now living in the New York City area. Her work reflects her experience of growing up as a Bene Israel Jew in a predominantly Hindu and Muslim country. In her paintings she combines the imagery of her past with the role she plays in America today, making mosaics inspired by Indian miniature paintings, transcultural myth, and iconography. She earned two Masters of Fine Arts: one in painting from Southern Illinois University in 1989 and a second in theater set design from the University of Illinois in 1993. She has exhibited in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 2011 for an art project titled: Faces: Weaving Indian Jewish Narratives and a second Fulbright in 2016-17 for an art project titled: From Motherland to Fatherland: Transcultural Indian Jews in Israel. She is represented by ACA Galleries in New York.
The Esther scroll was specifically commissioned for Peter Ehrenthal a Former Judaica dealer in New York in 2009.
The book of Esther is one of the books of the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) and is read during the Jewish festival of Purim. Siona painted this Megillah using Indian/Persian miniatures as her influence along with her personal style of painting to create this unique Megillah Esther.
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