Yona Verwer

NYC Dutch-born multidisciplinary visual artist & director @jewishartsalon My work explores identity, ecology, heritage, and transformation.

[Yona Verwer @YVerwer]

https://t.co/E3DrC8zGSk

[Yona Verwer @YVerwer]

Exhibition “Women in the Heights: Shade”
NoMAA Gallery 4140 Broadway (176 St)
RSVP for the OPENING RECEPTION: Wednesday February 25, 2026 – 6-8pm at https://t.co/yHDS6NKN5B

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS from Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood. Curated by Andrea Arroyo.

In my painting “Hebban Olla Vogala” eyes stare out from shadows. A small submarine floats below in dark water. The title comes from the oldest surviving line of Dutch poetry, a short, unfinished love song that echoes my own feeling of being caught between home and not-home; as a Dutch immigrant in New York.
The darkness hides the figure, it’s a safe place for a self that feels out of place. At the same time, the eyes push through.

The submarine is a modern stand-in for the whale in the biblical story of Jonah (Yona in Hebrew, the same as my name). In the Bible, Jonah flees God's call, gets thrown into the sea, and is swallowed by a great fish (often called a whale). Inside its belly for three days, he faces darkness, prays, repents, and is spit out onto dry land, reborn and ready to fulfill his mission.

This "belly of the whale" becomes a metaphor for my own journey: the submarine represents the long ocean crossing of immigration, and the hidden depths of cultural displacement, Like Jonah's time in the dark, enclosed space, it's a period of isolation, reflection, and transformation; emerging changed, with a new identity and purpose.
Video edited by Chaya Clarke

#immigrants

[Yona Verwer @YVerwer]

Excited about this exhibition, Noah! I and the 2 other artists, created 8 paintings based on the ecological aspects of the flood story. Currently at the Dadian Gallery at the ⁦@WesleySeminary⁩ in Washington, D.C.

[Yona Verwer @YVerwer]

Yesterday's pop-up exhibit "NOAH-A Future Hope" at the Global Faith Forum in Washington, DC; discussing my "New Beginnings".

[Yona Verwer @YVerwer]

I'm excited to share that 8 of my paintings are featured in NOAH: A Future Hope at the Dadian Gallery at @wesleyseminary, Washington, DC.
This exhibition brings together three contemporary artists, Yona Verwer (Judaism), Brian Whelan (Christianity), and Hady Boraey (Islam), to explore humanity’s responsibility to care for the earth, inspired by the shared Noah and flood story. It reflects on environmental stewardship, moral responsibility, and collective survival through diverse Abrahamic perspectives.
On view: February 5 – April 1, 2026 Location: Dadian Gallery, 4500 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC 20016

Key events – Thursday, February 5, 2026:
Lunch Conversation at 12:00 PM (open to public; first look + artist discussion) RSVP: https://t.co/YvUXHqb4om
Evening Opening Reception at 7:00 PM (program ~7:30 PM with artists & curator) RSVP: https://t.co/wPnRxDuNWN

More info: https://t.co/OhmDFLPjN7

Bonus: On February 3, 2026, some works (including mine) appear in a pop-up at the Global Faith Forum @multifaithforum (Hilton, DC), where Brian Whelan and I will be interviewed on stage.

If you're in DC, come see the show and join the conversation!

[Yona Verwer @YVerwer]

Thrilled to have my 2 paintings at the Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art. Now that the last Israeli hostage has finally been retrieved, my 'Amulets' are a snapshot of a past moment; not a current crisis. Relief and hope today. #hamashostages

[Yona Verwer @YVerwer]

Excited!
#artexhibitions #nycartist

[Yona Verwer @YVerwer]

Second article about my "Immersion 8" painting at the Heller Museum, NYC:
Jean Bloch Rosensaft in "Reform Judaism"
...."Verwer explains that “Immersion VIII” portrays her “mikvah experience: the joy of weightlessness, the reference to the marriage ritual (before which one also goes to the mikvah), and the feeling of being spiritually elevated.” Verwer is from the Netherlands and includes her interpretations of Dutch artist Hieronymous Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights.”....

Read article here: https://t.co/z9VlQukaiC

[Yona Verwer @YVerwer]

My art in the exhibition "Children of Ruth" at the Heller Museum in NYC was featured in two publications.
Simi Horwitz in The Forward:
- Excerpt: "In artist Yona Verwer’s “Immersion VIII,” a nude woman in a fetal position floats in a swirl of water. The image is at once ethereal and surreal, not unlike Verwer’s first mikveh experience, a purification ritual, and central to conversion, the transition from non-Jew to Jew.

“It is the joy of weightlessness and the feeling of being spiritually elevated,” said Verwer, the co-founder of the Jewish Art Salon, who was born Catholic in the Netherlands and converted to Judaism in 1995."
Article:
https://t.co/NGtfh3iv6B

[Yona Verwer @YVerwer]

"FALLOUT: October 7th and the New Antisemitism" at the Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art, which I co-curated w/ @JewishArtSalon
615 N. Broad Street; entrance Green Street.
On view until March 12, 2026
By appointment; email [email protected] or [email protected]
#antisemitism

[Yona Verwer @YVerwer]

Deeply honored with this in-depth, 18-page article by art historian Matthew Baigell in Images Magazine. He writes about my immersion / mikva painting series, as well as my role as founding director of the Jewish Art Salon.
A paywall prevents me from sharing the article, so here are just two short quotes:
“The importance of Verwer’s mikvah paintings is twofold for the history of Jewish-themed art in America. First, both series reflect the still largely unrecognized devotion to their religion of artists who explore Jewish themes. And second, Verwer has developed an entirely new iconography of mikvah experiences as a base for other artists to explore further.”
And the last paragraph: “This series is therefore central to the history of Jewish-themed art at a time when ethnic, racial, and religious identity has been an uppermost consideration
in contemporary mainstream American art. But what gives these works special resonance, and which –I want to emphasize – has been an unstated strength of Jewish-themed art in the United States, is that Verwer, and others, however deep their faith, are able to express both their pleasure and displeasure with aspects of their religious experiences through their art because there are no longer any restrictions on doing so. Personal expression is primary.”
Matthew Baigell is professor emeritus of art history at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. He has written many books and articles on Jewish American and mainstream American art since the late 1960s.
Many thanks to editors Margaret Olin and David Sperber !
One of the paintings in this series, and one of my favorites (slide 2), is currently on view at the Heller Museum’s exhibit “Children of Ruth”, up until February 26th, 2026.
1 West 4th Street (& Broadway), NYC; Mon-Thurs 9-6:30.
Curated by Nancy Mantell and Susan Picker.
Also mentioned in the article are artists Helene Aylon, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Ruth Weisberg, Ellen Holtzblatt, authors Leah Lax and Rivka Slonim, and Jewish Art Salon
Link to purchase the article: https://t.co/ydhRpt6lzy
#contemporaryjewishart #mikvah

[Yona Verwer @YVerwer]

Looking back at the Vienna Jewish Museum, which showed my sculpted painting From Something to Nothing at the G*D exhibition. The exhibit ended October 5th.
Inspired by the discourse of Jewish Mysticism my artwork explores the boundaries of form, faith, and formlessness.
From Something To Nothing explores the Kabbalistic concept of yesh me-ayin—creation from something (yesh) to Divine nothingness (ayin).

Ayin is the ultimate reality underlying all things; nothing possesses a separate, independent existence. In the painting, the rough, earthy surface—symbolizing the material world —splits open to reveal another image beneath. At the center of this hidden layer is the divine nothingness.
More: https://t.co/bL602hAFVB

#kabbalah #jewishmysticism #jewishart

[Yona Verwer @YVerwer]

The Margolies Gallery, Houston, of NOAH: A Future Hope. 3 Faiths, 3 artists, 1 story. Each artist painted 8 works related to the biblical flood seen through an ecological lens.

#jewishart #biblicalart

[Yona Verwer @YVerwer]

My exhibit "NOAH: A Future of Hope" at the Margolis Gallery in Houston is up until December 5, 2025.
It features works by three premier contemporary artists from the faith traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, who use the story of Noah's ark as inspiration to explore themes of caretaking the earth.
More info: https://t.co/hpBNUOu2Nb