Meital Covo was born in Herzliya, Israel in 1976 and studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design before moving to the UK to earn a Master’s degree from the Royal College of Art. She works primarily with film and sound installations, but also with photography. Her pieces have been included in a number group exhibitions, including at Goldsmiths University, the British Film Institute and RCA.
Artist Meital Covo was born on 11 September 1976 in Herzliya, Israel. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem (1999-2003), before moving to England to earn a Master’s degree from the Royal College of Art (RCA), London, where she studied from 2007-2009, aided by a bursary. She also twice received the America/Israel Cultural Foundation award in 2003 and 2007, assisting young Israeli artists studying abroad.
Covo works primarily with film and sound installations, but also with photography. Describing her practice, Covo observed that ‘The motivation behind my artistic endeavour is a desire for contact, but also a fear of it. My works are imbued with a strong, sometimes even threatening sense of intimacy, an intimacy which I believe initiates in the meeting points between mind and matter’ (Royal College of Art). While still a student, Covo was selected to participate in Ben Uri's exhibition, Schmatte Couture: Art and Performance Inspired by the World of Clothing , curated by Sarah Lightman and held at the Rivington Gallery (2008). Her digital print Her from the exhibition, subsequently acquired by the Ben Uri Collection, representing a skirt onto which a realistic image of a woman's hair has been superimposed, addresses, in the artist’s own words: ‘conventions in relation to consumerism and the female body’ evoking dual physical sensations, of both repulsion and attraction (Ben Uri Gallery). Her pieces have subsequently been included in several group exhibitions in the UK, including at the RCA (2009), British Film Institute (2009) and Goldsmiths University of London (2010, 2012). Covo has also exhibited in Paris.
Returning to Israel, Covo held a major solo exhibition of her work at the Museum for Israeli Art in Ramat Gan in 2014. Covo’s work can also be found in the Israel Center for Digital Art. She currently lives and works in Jerusalem, Israel. Her work is represented in the UK public domain in the Ben Uri Collection.
Meital Covo in the Ben Uri collection
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Meital Covo]
Publications related to [Meital Covo] in the Ben Uri Library