Nelly Agassi

 Born 1973, Tel Aviv. Lives and works in Chicago.

Nelly Agassi’s practice is grounded in obsessive, repetitive, and Sisyphean gestures that serve as points of connection—anchoring her work to reality and to safe ground. Emerging from the feminist discourse of the 1990s, Agassi’s art marks a shift from an explicit engagement with feminism to a lived exploration of femininity. This post-feminist stance embraces the private and the intimate, not as sites of constraint, but as spaces of agency, privilege, and choice.

While her work often references traditional domestic crafts—embroidery, sewing, knitting—Agassi employs these techniques in unconventional, non-functional ways. Through this recontextualization, her materials acquire new resonance, charged with the awareness of deliberate action and self-determination.

Agassi has held numerous solo exhibitions, including at the Nahum Gutman Museum of Art (Tel Aviv), Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts (Chicago), Tel Aviv Museum of Art (Tel Aviv), and Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art (Herzliya). Her work has also been featured in group exhibitions at institutions such as Tate Modern (London), the Israel Museum (Jerusalem), Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago), Zachęta National Gallery of Art (Warsaw), and the Triennale di Milano. She is the recipient of several awards, including the Nathan Gottesdiener Foundation Prize for Israeli Art from the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2003). Agassi’s works are held in major public collections, including the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.