Bio


Mical Aloni, born in 1963, began embroidering at an early age in an agricultural Kibbutz in northern central Israel. In the Kibbutz girls were expected to sew and make traditional embroidery. Initially, Mical did not excel at it until she broke free from the conventional patterns and started using thread as paint.

She created her first original needlepoint at the age of fifteen, a violin cover for her talented musician boyfriend. During Mical's uncompensated mandatory two year military service she escaped the brutality of military life by embroidering. Thread and cloth were affordable and small enough to hide in her army-issued Golda purse. From the first day of service she secretly worked on a magical piece with dragons and fairies that she completed the day of her honorable discharge.

Aloni graduated from the University of Tel Aviv with degrees in art history and philosophy. At twenty five, Aloni moved to the U.S., where she earned culinary distinction at the Academe de Cuisine in Maryland. Soon after, she opened a restaurant, Franzi and Nells, located in Stony Brook on Long Island, NY. She sold it to move to Taos in 1994. Five years later, Aloni wrote and illustrated The Art of Cooking by Color.

After moving to Taos, Aloni cooked and baked to support herself while she embroidered. Her first exhibit at the Taos Fall Art Festival earned her a Best of Show, gaining the attention of The Parks Gallery, which began representing her work in 1998.

In 1999 her work was included in a prestigious exhibition, 'Realism, PhotoRealism, SuperRealism', at the Harwood Museum in Taos. That fall, Aloni was able to quit cooking and baking and support herself solely through art sales.

In June, 2000, The Parks Gallery presented her first one-person show, 'Eclipse - New Embroideries.' The success of her two one-person shows in 2001 was followed by exposure in Fiber Arts and Stitch Magazine in early 2002. In addition, The American Craft Museum in New York has acquired a recent work, the Elf Princess.

Since early 2001, Mical has been collaborating with Taos' photography artist and husband, Assaf Reznik. Their unique artwork features under the pseudonym M.A. Rezoni, and was debuted at the 'Masks and Mysteries' exhibit at Nomad Gallery in May, 2001.

Aloni was inspired to create her own individualized style and technique of embroidery. The results are virtuosic. Her miniature and photo realistic pieces (the largest is no more than eight inches in height or width) express light effects ranging from the transparency of glass and fabric to the shimmering gossamer surface of butterfly wings. Skin tones are composites of as many as twenty-five different colors. She says, "I realized that it was a good thing to have beauty in the world. We need beauty to survive."

Her most recent work, a twenty-five piece collection called The Honeymoon Album: Impressions of Baja California was inspired by her and Reznik's 2002 honeymoon. One of the pieces earned an Award of Excellence at the 2003 Annual Portraiture Show at the Millicent Rogers Museum of Taos and three more were chosen for the prestigious Contemporary Art/Taos at the Harwood Museum of Art curated by Douglas Dreishpoon, fine art author and senior curator of The Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, NY.

Her pieces are currently being displayed in the Hibberd-McGrath Gallery in Breckenridge, CO, and Thirteen Moons in Santa Fe, NM. A permanent collection resides at both the Harwood Museum in Taos, NM and The American Craft Museum in New York, NY.

In August of 2003, Aloni and husband Reznik opened a studio in Taos, NM where the couple lives and where she continues to be inspired to perfect her one-of-a-kind embroidery technique.


 

 

 

 

Bio l Resume l Reviews l Artist Statement
About Aloni l About Reznik l Aloni Gallery l Reznik Gallery l M. A. Rezoni l Press Releases & Reviews

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