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Works depicting sub-Saharan synagogues to hang in Canton

Posted 10/14/16

CANTON -- Watercolorist and architect Jay Waronker will display his depictions of synagogues in sub-Saharan Africa during an upcoming exhibit at SUNY Canton. A reception with the artist will be held …

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Works depicting sub-Saharan synagogues to hang in Canton

Posted

CANTON -- Watercolorist and architect Jay Waronker will display his depictions of synagogues in sub-Saharan Africa during an upcoming exhibit at SUNY Canton.

A reception with the artist will be held at 6 p.m., Monday, Oct. 17 in the college's Southworth Library Learning Commons.

The event is free and open to the public.

Waronker, who is a professor of architecture at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, has created a portfolio of work by documenting dozens of functioning or former synagogues in Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Namibia, Mauritius, Eritrea, Zambia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

He uses loose freehand drawing and watercolor techniques to create accurate architectural renderings of the historic locations.

"It may come as a surprise that there are countless active yet relatively unknown, or even unaccounted for, Jewish communities scattered around the globe in places away from the more commonly-associated and mainstream population centers," Waronker said.

"To people who often link Jewish life with certain identifiable places, these less familiar or even unknown enclaves may on the surface seem extraordinary and exotic, but in fact they represent places where Jews simply and freely settled and, in the diasporic tradition, organized and built synagogues."

In 1990, Waronker began the documentation and study of India's forty synagogues, which led to various publications of his work.

Waronker has also extensively exhibited his watercolors throughout the United States and abroad, including the Smithsonian's International Museum of Art and Design in Atlanta, Skirball Museum in Los Angeles and the Graham Foundation Gallery in Chicago.

A similar exhibit and talk on synagogues in India will be presented at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 16 at the Congregation Beth El in Potsdam.