Rona Yefman
Rona Yefman is an Israeli artist based in New York City working in Photography, Video and Installation. Her work explores issues of identity - mainly gender identity - focusing and collaborating with individuals who have undergone radical persona changes and construction. This body of work, reflecting a cultural development in western individualism and self-identity issues, has both documented and worked in itself as an act of rebellion.
Rona Yefman
Yair Talmor · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Born
- 1972 · Haifa.
- Nationality
- Israel
- Occupation
- photographer · artist
- Fields
- painting
- Honours
- Gérard Lévy Prize
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Documentary summary
Rona Yefman is an Israeli artist based in New York City working in Photography, Video and Installation. Her work explores issues of identity - mainly gender identity - focusing and collaborating with individuals who have undergone radical persona changes and construction. This body of work, reflecting a cultural development in western individualism and self-identity issues, has both documented and worked in itself as an act of rebellion.
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q19758711 · wikipedia · Rona Yefman
In this article
Solo exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
Yefman's exploration are a political - anarchic - statement seeking to overthrow the boundaries and cultural norms that oppress the individual's freedom for self-definition - "Her subjects embody the possibility of freedom, and her work as a whole is concerned with the gap between who we are, and who we want to be". A big part of Yefman's work revolve around her brother Gil, their relationship, and his 14 years gender transformation process from male undergoing treatments toward becoming a female and then going back to male again. Another long-term project is Yefman's "Martha-A-Bouke" project focusing on an 80 year old transgender Holocaust survivor performing for her videos anonymously. Yefman has had multiple solo exhibitions in the USA and Europe, and has participated in many group exhibitions all across the world.
• 2015, Time Kills 2, S.I.C Gallery in collaboration with Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum, Helsinki • 2012, Tuff Enuf, Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv • 2011-2012, Marth A Bouke, project #4, Derek Eller Gallery, New York • 2011, Short Stories, SculptureCenter, Long Island City • 2010-2011, Let It Bleed, Participant Inc., New York • 2006, 2 Flags, Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv • 2000, Bebe - A Family Album, Shapiro Gallery, Jerusalem • 1999, Bunny On The Roof, Borochov Gallery, Tel-Aviv
Yefman's brother Gil and the "Let It Bleed" project
Yefman's brother Gil and the "Let It Bleed" project
"In the mid-90s her youngest brother Gil became her muse as she embarked on an intimate documentation of his unique adolescence, during a period of struggle and recovery for both of them. Isolating themselves from the conflict zone in which they were raised, the siblings created a private dream-world, fuelled by dress-up and psychological games. As they rejected societal and familial norms, their lives became a real-life version of Jean Cocteau’s infamous tale of sibling love and poison, Les Enfants Terribles. Yefman’s project spans 14 years, and includes an intimate look at Gil’s sexual transformation into life as a female, and his eventual re-transformation back to life as a biological male." "Uncanny, maybe. Troublemakers for sure. Between reality and fiction, Rona Yefman’s brings us the flawless collaboration between photographer and actor, in this case, the artist and her sibling Gil. The protagonist, Gil: Surferess? Rollerbladeress? Transgressoress? She Adam, he Eve? Gender fluidity abounds."
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1972
Rona Yefman born at Haifa.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Rona Yefman”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q19758711: Rona Yefman
General reference · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Rona Yefman. www.fountainheadresidency.com.
- 2.Rona Yefman Artspace. Artspace.
- 3.Rona Yefman - Reviews - Art in America. www.artinamericamagazine.com.
- 4.sommergallery.
- 5.Dazed. The growing pains of a boy who dreamed of being a girl. 2015-08-25.
- 6.BOMB Magazine — Rona Yefman by Michel Auder. bombmagazine.org.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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