Art Exhibition WOMEN, POGROMS, LOVE by Wendy Lessick Bookatz 29 October - 8 November 2025, Randwick, Sydney.

SYLVIA HROVATIN OPENING ADDRESS

Sylvia Hrovatin, passionate lover of the arts, accomplished town planner known for her commitment to community design, honoured the exhibition with a beautiful and heartfelt opening address. Words from Sylvia Hrovatin “Good afternoon art lovers and people who love chatting to others and people who love being in a room surrounded by someone’s creativity. A warm welcome to you all. I’m Sylvia Hrovatin, and I have the pleasure of opening this powerful exhibition, “Women, Pogroms, Love”, by my dear friend, Wendy Lessick Bookatz. Wendy, thank you for asking me to do this. I am deeply honoured, and just a little overwhelmed - because I am standing in a room surrounded by 200 of your works. I know how much of your heart, your history, and your strengths fill this space.I first met Wendy at a dinner party hosted by my neighbour Monica, in 2013. We clicked immediately, as sometimes happens when you meet someone whose inner world feels familiar.I grew up with art all around me, on the walls, and sometimes on the ceilings. My father was an electrician, but he studied at the National Art School at night. So creativity was always part of the current that ran through our family life. Perhaps that is why I have always been drawn to artists, to people like Wendy, who see the world in layers of light and shadow, colour and feeling, courage and compassion. Much of what you’ll see here stems from Wendy’s time working in an NGO supporting women experiencing domestic violence, hearing stories that shocked and galvanised her. She began painting/drawing this subject matter because she had to, because once you know the scale of that suffering, you can’t unknow it.And yet, her story reaches even deeper, to her own family history. Through her son Sam’s school project in 2005, Wendy learned for the first time of her great aunt, Sarah Chaya Krikst, who, at just seventeen, was raped and murdered during a pogrom in 1918 in what is now Lithuania. Wendy carries her name, Chaya, and, in a sense, her legacy.But Wendy didn’t begin to paint these stories until recently, in 2024. Something about the timing feels right, as if it took years for the emotional soil to be ready for the seeds of this work to grow.What I see in Wendy now, perhaps more than anything, is confidence. Confidence to take up space.To fill the gallery with her truth.To invite us in, and to risk being seen.And maybe that is what love really is: the courage to be seen as you are. The confidence to let others look, and not look away.I live with Wendy’s paintings on my own walls. I see them every day, and what I love about them is her use of colour and form. Those two elements combine to create something alive, almost breathing. Even when the subject matter is dark, there is light breaking through the surface. That is Wendy’s signature. She turns pain into presence and despair into depth. For years her printing teacher bemoaned the dark subject matter of her work. Then recently her cousin told her, “Your work is too dark, too full of misery”. And she took his comments on board. And then painted love. Because love is not the opposite of darkness, it is what survives it. So this afternoon, we are not just looking at paintings. We are witnessing a life of a woman, an artist, a mother, a friend, who dares to tell stories that matter. Wendy, thank you for your honesty, your friendship, and your art.Congratulations on this remarkable exhibition.It is now my great pleasure to declare “Women, Pogroms, Love” officially open.”

From Wendy Lessick Bookatz: Thank you to everyone who visited Women, Pogroms, Love. Thank you for standing with me in my journey of memory, resilience, and love. Again, a special thank you to you Sylvia, for your warm and generous opening address.

I very much appreciate this wonderful write-up by Henry Benjamin, owner and journalist at J-Wire, WOMEN, POGROMS, LOVE https://www.jwire.com.au/women-pogroms-love/

Also a sincere thank you to Jessica Abelsohn, journalist at the Australian Jewish News, for her editorial TURNING ANCESTRAL PAIN INTO PAINTINGS OF PEACE https://www.australianjewishnews.com/turning-ancestral-pain-into-paintings-of-peace/

Henry Benjamin (J-Wire) also published a further piece, THREE PRESIDENTS AND AN MP https://www.jwire.com.au/three-presidents-and-an-mp/, spotlighting a photograph from the opening event.