Dina Merhav (néeGross; Hebrew: דינה מרחב; March 9, 1936 – October 19, 2022) was a Yugoslav-born Israeli sculptor.
Biography
Dina Gross (later Merhav) was born in Vinkovci to a Yugoslav Jewish family of Zlatko and Steffi Gross. During World War II her father, as a Royal Yugoslav Army officer, was captured and imprisoned in a war camp in Germany. Merhav, her mother and rest of the family managed to escape to Split, from there to Switzerland through Italy. After the war they returned to Yugoslavia to be reunited with Dina's father. In 1949 the entire family made aliyah to Israel. In Israel she studied and graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem.
Merhav died on October 19, 2022, at the age of 86.[1]
Merhav created soaring sculptures of birds and angels from scrap iron.[2]
Awards and recognition
In 1998 the city of Haifa awarded Merhav the "Herman Struck Best Artist of the Year" Prize. Merhav frequently visited her birth country and exhibited in the various museums across the Croatia. In 2013 Merhav opened an exhibition "Ptice u letu" (Birds in Flight) in Zagreb. She also published the poetry book "For You With Love". Merhav worked in her sculpture studio in moshavNir Etzion and lived in the nearby Ein Hod artists' village.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]
^(in Serbian and Croatian) Most (Bilten Udruženja useljenika iz bivše Jugoslavije u Izraelu); Predstavljamo…Dina Merhav skulptor; stranica 12; broj 3, Godina 58, Maj-Juni 2010.