‘Holding Light’: Art, Memory and What Remained
Holding Light began with a difficult question: what role can art play when a community is grieving?
Created in response to the Bondi Beach terror attack during a Chanukah celebration, the exhibition brought together 29 artists at Bondi Pavilion Art Gallery. Their works responded to grief, memory, resilience and hope, creating a space for people to reflect on what had happened and experience those responses together.
Over nine weeks, 14,410 people visited Holding Light.
Many meaningful outcomes continued after the exhibition. Artists sold work and received new professional opportunities. Works entered public collections. The exhibition reached audiences well beyond Bondi through extensive media coverage and is nominated for a 2026 IMAGinE Award, which will be awarded on the 26 November 2026.
What was Holding Light?
Holding Light was presented at Bondi Pavilion Art Gallery from 25 April to 28 June 2026.
Curated by Shalom Collective and supported by Waverley Council, the exhibition brought together Jewish and non-Jewish artists responding to the Bondi Beach terror attack.
Some works sat directly with grief and remembrance. Others explored resilience, Jewish identity, community, solidarity and what it means to rebuild after trauma.
The intention was to create a space where artists could respond, and where people could spend time with those responses in their own way.
Bondi Pavilion was an important part of that. It is a communal space within the everyday life of Bondi. People could come specifically for Holding Light, or encounter the exhibition simply by walking through the Pavilion.
Over nine weeks, more than 14,000 people did.
Credit Silversalt Photography
Who were the artists in Holding Light?
Shalom Collective received 106 artist submissions for the exhibition.
Twenty-nine artists were selected, presenting 28 works across painting, photography, sculpture, ceramics, installation, graphic art and digital media.
The exhibiting artists were Ariella Friend, Asher Abergel, Barak Zelig, Beck Feiner, Bibi Solimani, Camille Fox, David Asher Brook, David Solomons, D-MO, Ella Dreyfus, Gillian Hodes, Gina Debinski, Hendel Futerfas, Izette Felthun, Jenny Wiggins, Julia Meyerowitz-Katz, Leanne Berelowitz, Dr Loy Lichtman, Michael Glezerson, Michael Puterflam, Munganbana Norman Miller, Naomi Ullmann, Paul Blackmore, Rocco Rosa, Sande Bruch, Sue Saxon and Jane Becker, Wendy Lessick Bookatz and Yelena Revis.
Their responses were deeply personal and very different.
Rocco Rosa was turning 10 when he created Matilda, a pastel portrait of 10-year-old Matilda Bee.
“When I heard what happened, I kept thinking that she was just a kid like me,” Rocco wrote in his artist statement.
He reflected on Matilda’s middle name, Bee, and her father’s wish that this was how people would remember her.
“Bees are small but very important. They help the world stay alive and work together to protect each other. I think people can be like that too.”
His statement ends simply:
“I wanted this painting to be about remembering and caring. Even when something is broken, there can still be light.”
Credit Loretta Godfrey
Gillian Hodes worked in porcelain. Hendel Futerfas cast the Hebrew word Chai, meaning life, in bronze. Beck Feiner explored the flowers and stones left as acts of remembrance. Bibi Solimani drew on a symbol shared across Persian and Jewish cultures, the pomegranate. Sue Saxon and Jane Becker created an installation from 936 eggshells threaded on strands of light.
Together, the works held very different experiences of grief, memory, identity, resilience and hope.
Explore all 28 works
The full Holding Light exhibition guide brings together the artworks and the artists’ own statements about what they created and why.
How did people respond to Holding Light?
Across nine weeks, Holding Light welcomed 14,410 visitors.
Numbers only tell part of the story.
The exhibition was supported by sold-out small and large public programs, including intimate artist talks, artist- and curator-led tours, Shabbat dinners, and opening and closing functions. The exhibition was made possible by the generous support of a team of highly engaged volunteer invigilators, engaged specifically to provide context and care to visitors.
Visitors spoke about returning to the exhibition, bringing other people with them and finding something in the artworks that could be difficult to express in words.
One visitor described it as:
“A wonderful exhibition brimming with remembrance and hope.”
Another reflected:
“The exhibition was very moving and reflects the truth that art sometimes can express ideas where words fail.”
For some people, visiting the exhibition also meant returning to Bondi.
Artist Ella Dreyfus spent time in the gallery observing audiences with the works.
“I’ve spent time in the gallery observing audiences move through the space and witnessing the conversations and reflections that emerge through encounters with the works. Many visitors have shared that the exhibition has gently led them back to reflect on the events of 14 December and return to Bondi Beach after keeping their distance since the attack.”
Credit Loretta Godfrey
What did critics say about Holding Light?
Holding Light reached audiences well beyond the gallery, attracting coverage across Australian arts, mainstream and Jewish media.
It was reviewed and featured by The Australian, Art Guide Australia, Jewish Renaissance, The Jewish Independent, The Australian Jewish News, J-Wire, Sydney Arts Guide, SBS and other publications and broadcasters.
The coverage explored both the exhibition as a response to the attack and individual works within it.
Writing in Sydney Arts Guide, David Kary considered the role of art as a communal language through which people can honour loss and process trauma.
Art critic John McDonald examined several works in detail, including Michael Puterflam’s Beyond Bondi and Ella Dreyfus’s Nature Morte – Zikaron.
He singled out Dreyfus’s work for particular recognition and wrote that it should be acquired for a public collection.
Credit Loretta Godfrey
Holding Light in the media
The Australian
Artists channel grief into powerful exhibition honouring Bondi terror attack victims
Deborah Cassrels, 29 May 2026
Art Guide Australia
Illuminating Darkness
Victoria Hynes, 12 June 2026
John McDonald
Tunnelvision Song Contest
21 May 2026
Jewish Renaissance
Holding Light: an artistic response to the Bondi Beach terror attack
Nicole Waldner, 29 May 2026
The Jewish Independent
A tale of two exhibitions: fortitude at Bondi and fawning at the Biennale
John McDonald, 28 May 2026
The Australian Jewish News
Finding beauty in the aftermath of tragedy
Jessica Abelsohn, 5 May 2026
J-Wire
Bondi exhibition ‘Holding Light’ turns grief into collective response
Rob Klein, 26 April 2026
SBS
Holding Light was also explored through interviews and coverage across SBS Persian, Russian and Hebrew.
“Holding Light” exhibition – in conversation with Dr. Ella Dreyfus | SBS Hebrew
Arty. Yelena Revis and the Holding Light exhibition on Bondi | SBS Russian
“Holding Light” exhibition – in conversation with Gina Debinski | SBS Hebrew
עברית SBS | מתוך תערוכת Holding Light – שיחה עם האמן אשר אברג’ל
עברית SBS | תגובה אמנותית לפיגוע בבונדאי – תערוכת Holding Light
Arty. Елена Ревис и выставка Holding Light на Бондае | SBS Русский
What happened after Holding Light?
At least 10 artists sold work and/or secured paid opportunities connected to their participation.
Nature Morte – Zikaron by Ella Dreyfus, is nominated for the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award 2026 and went on to enter public collections at the University of New South Wales and the Sydney Jewish Museum.
Other relationships developed between artists and cultural institutions, extending the reach of work first presented at Bondi Pavilion.
The exhibition also received recognition at a sector level.
Holding Light is nominated for a 2026 IMAGinE Award, recognising achievement across museums, galleries and cultural organisations in NSW.
Read about Holding Light’s IMAGinE Award nomination.
What remains after an exhibition closes?
The artworks came down from the walls of Bondi Pavilion in June, but the conversations and connections created through Holding Light continued.
For nine weeks, artists and visitors shared a space shaped by grief, remembrance, creativity and community.
The exhibition welcomed 14,410 visitors. It gave 29 artists a platform for their work. It created professional opportunities, reached audiences through arts and mainstream media, and received recognition from the wider cultural sector.
Most importantly, it gave people somewhere to be together with what had happened.
Explore Shalom Collective’s Visual Arts program and discover how we’re creating space for Jewish artists, stories and ideas.
