My life as an artist started in 1976 when I left Kishinev (Bessarabia) for Israel. In my youth I did not have the opportunity to study an regularly, although I learned painting during some two years at the Belle-Arts Academy in Kishinev and one year in Bucarest. My youth was spent during world war 2 when Bessarabia was annexed by the Soviet Union, years of hunger and the need to work very hard to be able to survive. I worked as a retoucher of photographs in a studio. When I arrived in Israeli went to live in Jerusalem and took up painting as my only ocupation, not as in Russia where it was one of my occupations which I had to do sometimes in hiding, stealong time from my everyday jobs. Israel, its colourings, impressed me much: the blue of the sky, the turquoise of the sea, the palette of desert colours. The stones of Israel looked alive and I wished I could paint them all. In 19761 started to expose my work. Since then I participated in a number of exhibitions in groups and alone. Since 1984 I am a member of the Israeli Union of Painters and Sculptors. The last exhibition where I took part was at the Salon des Beaux-Arts in Paris together in a group of Jerusalem artists. Israel has had a Vibrant Folk Art, Naive art scene for a long time now artists like Yisrael Paldi, Nahum Guttman, Reuven Rubin and even Yefim Ladizhinsky had naive periods. The most well know if the strictu naive artists are Shalom of Safed, Irene Awret Gabriel Cohen, Natan Heber, Michael Falk Kopel Gurwin. Mania Litvak - From Paris to Jerusalem Jerusalem Artists' House, Jerusalem 24 February, 1996 - 19 March, 1996 Group Exhibitions Painting on Aluminum Painting on Aluminum Debel Gallery, Ein Kerem, Jerusalem ''Together'' - Veteran and Olim Artists ''Together'' - Veteran and Olim Artists Holiday Inn, Jerusalem 2 October, 1993 - 12 October, 1993 Artists: Litvak, Mania Ben Shalom, Jacob Lekar (Lecar), Boris Tarkay, Yitzchak Schatz, Shaul Avnieli, Mordechai Yehudayan, Shlomo Jerusalem Artists' House, Jerusalem 3 July, 1994 - 19 July, 1994 Artists: Ben Moshe, Yona Blum, Motke (Mordechai) Gilhar, Dalia Weiss, Yoav Reiner, Arona Schenkelbach, Erwin Brosh, Shlomi Remez, Varda Rakia, David Jano, Jacques Shahar, Reut Oppenheimer, Giora Eyal, Malka Gavish, Galia Shemesh, Hedvah Epstein, Chava Ergas, Yemima Peiser, Hanna Kalai, Carmela Schreckinger, Jacob Caspi, Aliza Litvak, Mania Jerusalem Artists Creat in the Refinery in Ashdod Jerusalem Artists Create in the Refinery in Ashdod. GROUP EXHIBITIONS 1979 - Immigrant artists from USSR - Jerusalem Theatre 1981 - Painters sitting in Gilo-Jerusalem 1982 - Ludmilla Gallery, Tel-Aviv 1988 - Knesset Israel - Jerusalem 1990 - Artexpo. New York, Japan 1995 - Ashdod-Museum ONE PERSON SHOWS 1980 - Beit Haomanim, Jerusalem 1981 - Sokolov House, Tel-Aviv 1982 - Miniatures, Municipal Gallry, Jerusalem 1983 - Debel Gallery, Jerusalem 1984 - The Artists House, Jerusalem 1985 - Jerusalem Artists in Salon de Beaux Arts, Grand Palais, Paris 1996 - The Artists House, Jerusalem 1989 - Debel Gallery, Jerusalem 1990 - Beit Haomanim, Jerusalem 1993 - Cite internationale des Art-Paris 1999 - Galleria Nora - Jerusalem 2000 - Galleria Gvanim