Margalit Shelly is an Israeli artist and educator whose work bridges memory, place, and cultural identity. She was born in 1951 in Gabes, Tunisia, and made aliyah to Israel at the age of six. Her family settled in the Negev, a region that would become a lifelong source of inspiration and belonging.

Shelly earned her M.A. in Spanish Culture of the Middle Ages from the University of Alcalá in Spain, focusing on the traditions of Sephardic Jewry. She studied art at the Center for Visual Arts at Kaye Academic College of Education in Be’er Sheva, where she later served as head of the department and coordinator of the academic track for visual arts. Over the course of more than three decades, she taught art in schools across Israel, led art and design programs at Ramot High School, and mentored generations of students.

She is a member of the Israeli Painters and Sculptors Association and has exhibited widely in Israel, Europe, and the United States. In 2000, her website was selected by Israel’s Ministry of Education to represent the country in the international NETDAV initiative for educational innovation.

Shelly’s artistic practice blends academic technique with poetic, expressive language. Working primarily in watercolor, oil, and acrylic, she explores themes drawn from her Tunisian childhood, Jewish heritage, and the everyday landscapes of southern Israel. Her paintings often focus on objects imbued with memory—embroidered garments, jewelry, carpets, and ritual artifacts—rendered with rhythmic repetition and layered symbolism.

Influenced by both Islamic and Western art traditions, her work is marked by a dense compositional structure and a tactile sensitivity to texture and surface. Her paintings evoke the qualities of woven fabric or embroidery—without a clear beginning or end—reflecting the cyclical, generational nature of cultural memory.

Shelly’s connection to the Negev is unmediated and deeply personal. The desert’s muted colors, resilient flora, and historical traces appear throughout her work as recurring motifs—transformed into symbols of continuity between people, land, and identity. Her art is not only a means of expression, but a lifelong act of preservation, reflection, and belonging.