Michal Rovner: Esther Scrolls
Michal Rovner: Esther Scrolls presents a contemporary response to the 2,500-year-old story of Esther and the handwritten Hebrew scrolls, or megillahs, traditionally unrolled during its reading. Israeli American multimedia artist Michal Rovner studied historic megillahs and created two new vertical scrolls that reinterpret Esther’s bravery and consider what the story reveals about human experience across time. The exhibition combines video projection and print.
Rovner has worked across video, projection, printmaking, drawing, sculpture, and installation for more than three decades. Her poetic, meditative practice examines nature, identity, collective memory, and the vulnerability of human existence. Her work often obscures the visual markers of time and place, layering and abstracting images to connect the past and present.
When: August 6, 2026–January 18, 2027
Venue: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Fenway Gallery, 25 Evans Way, Boston, MA 02115
Tickets: Price not available
Featured works: Two contemporary vertical scrolls created by Michal Rovner in response to the Esther story, including *Esther Scroll: The Kingdom* (2026), a video-projection work
Artist: Michal Rovner
Artist background: Rovner has been the subject of more than 70 solo exhibitions, including a 2002 mid-career retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and a three-part 2011 exhibition at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. Her site-specific commissions include projects for the Municipio Metro Station in Naples, Canary Wharf Crossrail Underground Station in London, Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem, and the Shinsegae Heritage Chanel flagship store in Seoul.
Collections: Rovner’s work is held by institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York; the British Museum in London; and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
Artist education and location: Rovner studied cinema, television, and philosophy at Tel Aviv University and the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. She lives and works between New York City and a farm in Kfar Shmuel, Israel.
Directions and parking: Directions and parking information are available through the museum.
Support: The exhibition is supported by Barbara and Amos Hostetter, the Richard C. von Hess Foundation, an anonymous donor, the Mark and Donna Leventhal Family, the Ford Foundation, Amy and David Abrams, Wagner Foundation, CANVAS, the Getty Foundation, the Beker Foundation, Lisbeth Tarlow and Stephen Kay, the David Berg Foundation, Dutch Culture USA, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Diamond Charity Foundation, the Miriam Fund, Indian Point Foundation, Caron and Kevin Tabb, Artis, and the Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation.