Wanda Peretz
The Author
Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, teaches that there are no coincidences.
Everything happens because it is part of God’s plan and everything we do has cosmic significance.
Author Wanda Peretz, who converted to Judaism in 1996, is a firm believer that her decade-long journey to creating the book THE CEILING, a vibrant showcase of Jewish art and faith, was no accident.
A visual storyteller and artist too, for three decades Wanda has devoted her creative practice largely to Jewish themes and her portfolio spans ceremonial textile art, from Torah mantles, challah covers and wedding canopies to lively educational murals and activity projects celebrating Jewish holidays.
For the past seven years, she has immersed herself in studying the Lost Wooden Synagogues of the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth, focusing on the masterful artwork that once adorned the prayer halls. Through Wanda’s work in THE CEILING she weaves connections between past and present, and breathing new life into this artistic heritage that almost vanished.
Boris Shapiro
The Artist
Boris Shapiro was born in the Soviet Union and studied at the Lviv National Academy of Arts, specializing in antique restoration. After immigrating to Israel in 1991, he continued his studies at the Be’er Sheva College of Art, experimenting with different mediums and styles. He eventually developed his own expression greatly inspired by the Dutch master, Peter Bruegel.
Many of Boris’s paintings show 17th century everyday shtetl life, often with a fantastical approach, focusing on family and community connections through study of Torah, playing of musical instruments, celebrations of weddings, and the observance of Shabbat along with other traditional Jewish holidays, biblical themes, and engaging characters.
Solo exhibitions of Boris Shapiro have taken place in Panama, Portugal, Israel, Nice, and Paris.
Group exhibitions in Israel, Great Britain, the United States, France, Netherlands, and Belgium.
Mr. Shapiro’s artwork in The Ceiling that is based on the painting of the Gwoździec Synagogue Ceiling and Bimah in the POLIN Museum of the History of the Polish Jews
is used with the kind permission of Handshouse Studio, Inc., Norwell, Massachusetts. The Work is Copyright © 2013 by Handshouse Studio, Inc. All rights reserved.