Jewish Folktales Retold: Artist as Maggid

Fourteen diverse contemporary artists act as modern maggids—interpreting traditional Jewish folktales and characters and delivering new insights into the rich Jewish tradition of stories that incorporate religion, horror, and superstition.

The Hebrew concept of maggid has multiple meanings and layers, with the most basic definition that of a religious teacher and teller of stories. Contrasted with the more formally trained rabbis, the lay maggids acted as repositories and transmitters of cultural knowledge, folklore, and social norms and mores.

The exhibition explores concepts such as transformation and metamorphosis, good and evil, moral education, political and class metaphors, the role of women, and storytelling in contemporary art. It features new commissioned works including the signature large-scale creatures of Northern California artist Elizabeth Higgins O’Connor, as well as works by Michale Arcega, Dina Goldstein, Vera Iliatova, Tracey Snelling, Chris Sollars, Louise Stanley, Youngsuk Suh, and more.

Exhibition overview from museum website