Artists Irit Hemmo and Hanita Ilan
Recipients of the Rappaport Prize for Art, 2026
The Bruce and Ruth Rappaport Foundation and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art have announced the recipients of the 2026 Rappaport Prize for Art.
Rappaport Prize for Art—the most prestigious and significant award in the field of art in Israel—is awarded annually to two artists living and working in Israel: an Established artist and a Promising artist. In addition, the Rappaport Foundation awards annual prizes for excellence in biomedical research, in cooperation with the Rappaport Research Institute at the Technion, as well as the Ruth Rappaport Prize for Women Generating Change, in partnership with Keshet Group.
The Prize Awards ceremony will take place on March 15, 2026, at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
Irit Hemmo is the recipient of the Rappaport Prize for an Established Artist, 2026.
Hanita Ilan is the recipient of the Rappaport Prize for a Promising Artist, 2026.
The total value of the prizes awarded to the artists amounts to USD 140,000.
The Established Artist Prize includes a grant of USD 35,000 awarded directly to the artist, as well as funding for a solo exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, accompanied by a catalogue.
The Promising Artist Prize includes a grant of USD 15,000 awarded directly to the artist, as well as funding for a solo exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, accompanied by a catalogue.
The total funding allocated for the two exhibitions will amount to USD 90,000.
Each Prize recipient will donate a work to the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Collection of Israeli Art at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
From the Judges’ Statements – Rappaport Prize for Art, 2026
Irit Hemmo, Recipient of the Rappaport Prize for an Established Artist, 2026
“For three decades, Irit Hemmo has developed an impressive body of work, moving between drawing, sculpture, collage, and installation. A defining characteristic of her practice is a principled choice to operate through mechanisms of chance, chaos, and lack of control, and to use marginal, perishable, and everyday materials that challenge notions of permanence, stability, and material hierarchy. Hemmo’s visual world draws on archaeology, key works of 20th-century art—particularly minimalism and abstract art—as well as Israeli public art of the 1950s (such as kibbutz murals), a tradition that carried a collective, ideological vision of construction, belonging, and national formation. Through these references, she conducts a critical yet affectionate examination of Israeli art that developed in the space between the local and the ancient and the aspiration to be part of the ‘modernist project.’ Particularly notable are her large-scale drawings using blue carbon paper, created in the early 2000s, at the moment when carbon paper was losing its relevance, and her series of dust drawings, in which
materials, Hemmo undermines the idea of artwork as a fixed and eternal entity and emphasizes the fragility of heroic visions."
Hanita Ilan, Recipient of the Rappaport Prize for a Promising Artist, 2026
“Hanita Ilan’s work focuses on large-scale installations in which she paints on long fabric sheets supported by sculptural wooden structures, allowing her paintings to exist as three-dimensional entities situated between sculpture and architecture. Ilan’s double-sided painted fabrics appear as a kind of scroll—a text that is read and experienced sequentially—drawing on ancient sacred manuscripts and the order of prayer in the synagogue.
Ilan stands out not only for the distinctive painterly qualities and ambition of her installations, but also for an imagery rooted in myths, archetypes, and Jewish sources. She frequently explores the movement between revelation and concealment, presence and disappearance, using erasure, smearing, and wiping. She creates layered surfaces in which images—landscapes, ritual objects, ruins, and angels—emerge and fade. These elements imbue the act of painting with metaphysical meaning and with both spiritual and artistic force.”
Members of the Jury – Rappaport Prize for Art, 2026
Tania Coen-Uzzielli, Mira Lapidot, Dalit Matatyahu, Hanan Abu-Hussein, Rivka Saker, Irith Rappaport, Adi Goldner
About the 2026 Rappaport Prize Recipients
Irit Hemmo (born 1961, Jerusalem) lives and works in Tel Aviv. She is a graduate of the Midrasha School of Art, Ramat Hasharon, and a senior lecturer in the Department of Art at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. Hemmo combines sustained and consistent artistic practice with a profound contribution to educating future generations of artists.
She held numerous solo exhibitions, including at the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art and Artists Studios, Tel Aviv, and has participated in group exhibitions in Israel and internationally, including at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Bat Yam Museum of Art; Mishkan Museum of Art, Ein Harod; Jerusalem Artists House; Haifa Museum of Art, among others. She has received numerous prizes and grants, including the Dizengoff Prize for Plastic Arts, the Minister of Culture Prize, and the Encouragement of Creativity Award. Her works are included in major collections, including the Tel Aviv Museum of Art; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; The New York Public Library collection, and others.
Hanita Ilan (born 1978, New York) lives and works in Jerusalem. She holds a BFA (2010) and an MFA (2014) from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, and a BA in Archaeology from Bar-Ilan University (2003).
Ilan has held solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions in Israel and internationally, including at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the JCC in New York, and the Wilfrid Israel Museum of Asian Art and Studies. She is a graduate of the Artists Program at the Institute for Advanced Studies, curated by Dr. Noam Gal, and completed a residency at Art Cube Artists’ Studios, Jerusalem. She has received numerous prizes and grants, including the Plumas Foundation Grant, the Encouragement of Creativity Award, a grant for independent artists from the Ministry of Culture and Sport, and a Yehoshua Rabinovich Foundation for the arts grant.
Laureates of the Rappaport Prize for Israeli Artists
2006 – Nurit David, established artist and Eli Patel, young artist.
2007 – Jan Rauchwerger, established artist and Netally Schlosser, young artist.
2008 – Avner Ben-Gal, established artist and Jossef Krispel, young artist.
2009 – Tal Matzliach, established artist and Melanie Daniel, young artist.
2010 – Sharon Poliakine, established artist and Oren Eliav, young artist.
2011 – Asaf Ben Zvi, established artist and Michael Halak, young artist.
2012 – Deganit Berest, established artist and Elad Kopler, young artist.
2013 – David Reeb, established artist and Iva Kafri, young artist.
2014 – Ido Bar-El, established artist and Alma Itzhaky, young artist.
2015 – Yair Garbuz, established artist and Shai Yehezkelli, young artist.
2016 – Zvi Goldstein, established artist and Yifat Bezalel, young artist.
2017 – Yitzhak (Itche) Golombek, established artist and Gil Yefman, young artist.
2018 – The prize was not awarded following mourning the death of the prize founder, Ruth Rappaport of blessed memory.
2019 – David Ginton, established artist and Eran Naveh, young promising artist.
2020 – Drora Dominey, established artist and Hilla Toony Navok, young promising artist.
2021 – In view of the Covid-19 crisis, the Foundation decided to change the prize format and establish a dedicated foundation under which works have been purchased from 58 artists in a total of USD 255,000.
2022- Eti Jacobi Lelior, established artist and Avi Sabah, young promising artist.
2023- Hannan Abu-Hussein established artist, Maria Salah Mahameed, young promising artist.
In 2024 the Rappaport Prize was reoriented to focus on art created during wartime. The recipients were Omri Danino, Ariel HaCohen, Sharone Lifschitz, and Naama Shohet.
2025- Nira Pereg established artist, Lali Fruheling, young promising artist.
רשימת קרדיטים לדימויי זוכות פרס רפפורט לשנת 2026 – מוזיאון תל אביב לאמנות
אירית חמו, סופה #5 (גומפל, קיבוץ עין-חרוד), 2013, אבק על אלומיניום,150X250 ס"מ, אוסף מוזיאון תל אביב לאמנות, רכישה בנדיבות קבוצת "בוחרים אמנות" לרכישת אמנות ישראלית, 2020
Irit Hemmo, Storm #5 (Gumpel, Ein Harod), 2013, dust on aluminum, 150×250 cm, Collection of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, purchased with the generosity of Voting for Art Group for Acquisition of Israeli Art, 2020
אירית חמו, בור, 2006, נייר פחם על נייר, 103×142 ס"מ, אוסף מוזיאון תל אביב לאמנות, רכישה באמצעות רעיה יגלום, חברת מועצת המנהלים, 2009
Irit Hemmo, Hole, 2006, carbon paper on paper, 103×142 cm, Collection of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, purchased through Raya Jaglom, Member of the Board of Governors, 2009
אירית חמו, ללא כותרת, 1992, פחם על נייר, 97×47 ס"מ, אוסף מוזיאון תל אביב לאמנות, רכישה מהאמנית בסיוע מפעל לרכישת אמנות ישראלית במשרד החינוך והתרבות, המועצה הציבורית לתרבות ואמנות, 1993
Irit Hemmo, Untitled, 1992, charcoal on paper, 97x47x cm, Collection of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, purchased from the artist with the assistance of the Israeli Art Acquisition Project at the Ministry of Culture and Education, the Public Council for Culture and Art
חניתה אילן, אש תמיד II, 2025, שמן ואקריליק על גליל בד במתקן פיסולי, 2.5×1 מטר, מראה הצבה מתוך התערוכה "בלה בריזל: בין מים למים", מוזיאון תל אביב לאמנות, 2025 (צילום: דניאל חנוך)
Hanita Ilan, Eternal Flame II, 2025, oil and acrylic on canvas roll in sculptural fixture, 2.5×1 m, installation view from the exhibition "Bella Brisel: Waters from Waters", Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2025 (photo: Daniel Hanoch)
חניתה אילן, אש תמיד II, 2025, שמן ואקריליק על גליל בד במתקן פיסולי, 2.5×1 מטר, באדיבות האמנית (צילום: חלי יוזביץ)
Hanita Ilan, Eternal Flame II, 2025, oil and acrylic on canvas roll in sculptural fixture, 2.5×1 m, courtesy of the artist (photo: Cheli Jusewitz)