MEET THE ARTISTS BEHIND TOTE-LLY FENTSTER

A HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL THE ARTISTS WHO PARTICIPATED & WHO HAVE BEEN A PART OF THE FENTSTER COMMUNITY SINCE 2016

Alisha Kaplan

Alisha Kaplan is a poet, educator, and practitioner of narrative medicine. Using the arts, she works with health professionals and patients to reinvigorate medicine with care and humanity. Her debut collection of poems, Qorbanot, a collaboration with artist Tobi Kahn, won the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award from the League of Canadian Poets.

Aya Rosen

I'm an artist and illustrator living and working in Brooklyn, NY. I had a wonderful show at FENTSTER right as the pandemic was starting to pause. Working with Evelyn and Yaara (my exhibition partner) got me to try new things in my art and re-examine my place in the world as a Jewish person and a Diasporan Israeli. Ever since I've been following FENTSTER and think it has a very meaningful place in defining and expressing the many different ways people experience their heritage, traditions and faith. 

Bernice Eisenstein

Bernice is a Toronto artist. Author of the graphic memoir "I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors," she works with image and word. Her work has been internationally exhibited. "Nothing and All," her site-specific installation for FENTSTER (2017) was, as she expressed, "a deeply satisfying creative experience."

Benny Ferdman

My paintings, sculptures and installations are animated by a mix of folkloric and natural forms, ancient text, and the “wild” places where I live. Both my work and I have come to embody my own East European Jewish culture, whose deep roots interlace with other cultures, and the forms, qualities and spirit of the natural world. For more visit: bennyferdman.com, creativeways.org & campwildcraft.com

Evan Tapper

Evan Tapper is an artist and educator currently based in Los Angeles. Evan's installation, Grine Kuzine was shown at FENTSTER in 2016. Evan is honoured to also serve on FENTSTER's Advisory Committee. 

Evelyn Tauben

Evelyn is the founder and curator of FENTSTER. She is increasingly committed in her work and life to finding creative solutions to waste reduction and sustainability. TOTE-lly FENTSTER unites her love for FENTSTER with her love for creative reuse.

Gil Segev

Gil Segev (he/him) is an Israeli-Canadian queer Jewish activist, artist, and attorney in training. He is known for his drag persona Gila Münster, Toronto's cross-dressing and cross-stitching Jewish American Princess. Gil is a friend of FENTSTER as a lover of using arts as a platform for community.

Ida Ferdman

I am a former English teacher, currently working on a writing career. Also a former Los Angeleno who now lives in Ashland, Oregon. I was introduced to the wonderful FENTSTER gallery through Evelyn, my niece; I appreciate how this venue gives artists an outlet to express themselves and share their art with others. 

Lynne Heller

Lynne Heller is a post-disciplinary artist, designer, educator and academic. Her interests encompass both material and virtual culture, textiles, performance, graphic novels and sculptural installation. In 2018 she had the honour of exhibiting at FENTSTER.

Jessica Thalmann

Jessica Thalmann is an artist and educator currently based in Toronto and New York City. She received an MFA in Advanced Photographic Studies from ICP-Bard College and a BFA in Visual Arts from York University. Thalmann has been an artist in residence at the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity, Alberta, Canada, and at the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles. Her work has been shown in group exhibitions at Aperture Foundation, International Centre for Photography, Camera Club of New York Baxter St, and Humble Arts Foundation (New York), VIVO Media Arts Centre (Vancouver), Museum of Contemporary Art, Harbourfront Centre, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Varley Art Gallery of Markham, Angell Gallery, Gallery TPW, Art Spin, and Gales Gallery at York University (Toronto).

Meichen Waxer

Meichen Waxer is a queer visual artist, curator and arts worker living in Toronto. She holds a Masters of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, as well as a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Ontario College of Art and Design University. Meichen explores themes of femme queer and mixed cultural Jewish identity through her work. As well, Meichen will have an exhibition at FENTSTER this May!

Mariel Zinman

I'm an emerging multidisciplinary artist from Toronto. I am a graduate of the Drawing and Painting department at OCAD University with an emphasis on public installation and performance. My work speaks on topics of cultural identity, diaspora, and freedom of expression. I've known FENTSTER since the beginning, and it has always been a warm, welcoming space for artists from all backgrounds, faiths, and cultures. It has been a small but powerful and very necessary beacon of light for Jewish artists in the city, a rare gem for Toronto!

Robert Davidovitz

Robert Davidovitz is a multi-disciplinary Toronto-based artist. His work has been exhibited in private and public galleries and museums, including Durham Art Gallery, Thames Art Gallery, Museum London, and most recently at FENTSTER. Davidovitz's exhibition, "What Will Remain" at FENTSTER in 2020 provided him the opportunity to develop his first public artwork and site-specific installation.

Rob Shostak

Rob Shostak (@Robonto) is a trained architect, multidisciplinary artist from Montreal and based in Toronto, Canada. His artwork navigates the intersection of place, memory, and time, often with a whimsical touch and minimalist expression. His installation “Parchment” at FENTSTER featured community-collected parchment papers exploring the mark made by baking challah bread for Shabbat. His own baking of over 100 challahs for the piece reignited a profound love for and initiated an artistic journey in the culinary world.

Rochelle Rubinstein

Rochelle Rubinstein is a Toronto-based printmaker, painter, fabric, and book artist, and community art facilitator. For seven years, she curated monthly exhibitions in Mon Ton Window, which was the predecessor to FENTSTER.

Sam Mogelonsky

Sam Mogelonsky is a Toronto-based artist, curator, and cultural professional. She received a BFA from Queen’s University, Kingston, and an MA from Central Saint Martins College of Art in London, UK. When not adorning tote bags, she is the Director of Arts, Culture and Heritage at UJA Federation of Greater Toronto where she works with FENTSTER through the Kultura Collective, a network of Jewish arts and heritage organizations that celebrate and amplify Jewish culture. She has exhibited in Canada and internationally, as well as curated projects for public institutions.

Sara Tauben

Sara Tauben has trained as a fashion and interior designer. She was in the first graduating class of fashion design students at Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art in Tel Aviv. Yes, she's FENTSTER curator's mother! Sara has also focused considerable energy on Jewish arts and culture as a long time lay leader in Montreal. Her book, Traces of the Past: Montreal's Early Synagogues was published by Vehicule Press in 2011.

Yaara Eshet

I am an artist and illustrator, living and working in Toronto, Two years ago, I had the pleasure of presenting an exhibition (in collaboration with Aya Rosen) at FENTSTER, which made me understand the power and strength that the gallery has to introduce art to street life.

Sarah Katz

Sarah Katz is a Toronto-based fibre artist, occasional comic, MSW student and is working in social services. Sarah has previously participated in a 2017 FENTSTER group show, "Blood, Milk & Tears," and as a fellow Yiddishist, can only say good things about FENTSTER. Ich hob a gantse lieb far Fentster.

Zack Rosen

Former music-journalist and Toronto transplant from the U.S., Zack Rosen is an artist as well as a dog trainer, fish keeper, reptile enthusiast and cat-dad-in-mourning. (Miss you Beaker!) Gay, Jewish, gluten-sensitive.