Promise Lands is a self-portrait. This project emerges at the intersection of Roy’s journey between Tel Aviv, Israel and New York, America. Referencing cultural and visual vernaculars such as the lone American cowboy and Israeli pilot, Promise Lands explores the identities—colonial, entitled or utopian—associated with the quest for the “Promise Land” and the “New World.” Through works like the embroidering of gendered childhood memories onto plane pillowcases, the fading portraits of his mother and the ironic glorification of the Israeli soldier, the show revisits the themes of heroism, gender roles and separation. Promise Lands re-contextualizes popular cultural metaphors and offers its audience a personal relationship to them; a parallel to the artist’s process.

Roy Rub is an alumnae of the Cooper Union School of Art and a former student of Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem. He currently works as senior designer at Topos Graphics where his clients include, among others, The New York Times, The Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, Chronicle Books, Rizzoli. Topos Graphics' award-wining work was part of "Alphabet: An Exhibition of Hand-Drawn Lettering & Experimental Typography", and was included in Print Magazine’s Regional Design Annual.