She graduated with a BA from the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London (2017) and postgraduated with a DNSEP (Diplôme National Supérieur d’Expression Plastique) from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Paris Cergy, Paris (2021).
Alma Feldhandler's work explores Jewish history and cultural heritage. Nourished by archival images and texts, her paintings attempt to capture the atmosphere of daily life in the shtetls or in the camps. The characters all demonstrate a sense of common honor, contrasting with the harshness and violence of the context. Somewhere between the figure of the wandering Jew and that of the cowboy, these lonely men evolve in ethereal desert landscapes, sometimes following a horizon line that emerges like a mirage. We meet them in an uncertain situation, a tipping point whose outcome remains unknown. The very thin layers of oil stretched on the canvas make strange figures appear in a colored mist, with blurred outlines like a faded memory. Behind the harshness and frugality, the sense of reality gradually disintegrates, as if the men and their surroundings had become clumped together. Alma Feldhandler shares with some writers as Max Blecher or Joseph Roth a fascination for cursed places and figures, as harsh as they are intense. She thus likes to see her paintings as vestiges. Discarded images whose depth of color digs into bottomless compositions, and sucks us in.
Her recent exhibitions include: ‘‘Mantel Mann’’ (solo), Galerie Derouillon, Paris (2023); NADA New York, Galerie Derouillon, 2023; “The Rings of Saturn”, Galerie Derouillon, Paris (2023); “Mités” (solo), Galerie Derouillon, Paris (2022); "Settle for Nothing less", Art licks weekend 2019, Penarth Centre, London (2019); "Photography Kind of", degree show, London College of Communication, London (2017); "Pre-Degree Show...Show", Bussey Building, London (2017).
Public collections: Fondation Lafayette Anticipations (FR)
