be associated with feminist artists from the 1980s such as Barbara Krueger, Cindy Sherman and Sherry Levine, who rather than striving to master the act of painting itself have aimed to question how women could enter the male-dominated world of painting. Hence the act of ironing touches upon both personal memories - the smell of ironing in Cabessa's childhood home - and a much wider feminist aspiration: to break through social and gender limitations. Before her departure to New York, Cabessa exhibited at Dvir Gallery a painting series of imaginary urban landscapes of New York City. She moved to Manhattan in October 1999 and joined the ISCP studio residency program a year later. In 2001 she started working with Stefan Stux Gallery, leading her work to gain a wider exposure on the New York art scene. In 2002, she participated in a group exhibition curated by John Yao at the Maryland Institute College of Art. This led Yao and Cabessa to initiate a close dialogue on Cabessa's work; its mode of action, its pictorial language and its bodily presence. Yao uncovered the femininity in Cabessa's work and the ingenuity with which it evades masculine motion; some aspects of the artist's practice which only grew stronger and sharper over the years. Cabessa began to think of her work in terms of language: she wanted to formulate a unique language of painting movements by tapping into a much wider context. At this stage, personal and spiritual investigations had become more prevalent in her life and work. She became associated with various spiritual groups operating in New York and beyond ("Circle Paintings", a solo exhibition at Alon Segev Gallery in Tel Aviv, 2003). Her work became particularly influenced by Sufi whirling: the loss of orientation and sense of ecstasy that this practice generates allows for a change in consciousness which guided the artist in her painting. Cabessa would walk around the canvas for long hours, retracing a neverending circular motion. In 2004, Cabessa's painting process was filmed for the first time in a series of five video works, each lasting a few minutes, documenting her painting action from start to finish. Between 2005 and 2009, Cabessa participated in group exhibitions in the United States and in Europe. In 2008, she exhibited at Slate Gallery a series of 30 paintings entitled "79" and entirely made with oil and gold dust. 79 is the atomic