Guide to Israeli Street Art
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Art by Klone in Israel (photograph by Carlos Rodríguez Torre)
Concentrated in Tel Aviv but spreading across the country, the street art of Israel is an artistic public form for dialogue. In a place where communication can be severed across different communities, the street art is seen by everyone, and can add vibrancy to the cityscape. Here are five street artists currently practicing in Israel.
Know Hope
Know Hope mural in Tel Aviv (photograph by Carlos Rodríguez Torre)
Tel Aviv-based Know Hope captures the small struggles of the everyday with paste-up figures in striped clothes clutching hearts. These are often created on found paper and mixed with scraps of wood, as if they emerged from the refuse of the street. Know Hope also juxtaposes these with large-scale murals and scrawled messages, such as in the below image which reads: “And these stress marks on the paved pavement bear minor symphonies.”
Know Hope street art in Tel Aviv (photograph by Yaffa Phillips)
Zero Cents
Zero Cents in Tel Aviv (photograph by Yaffa Phillips)
Work by Tel Aviv-based Zero Cents is immediately recognizable with its unnerving, hand-drawn style. Jittery figures with teeth like marshmallows are sketched in murals that match the grittiness of the walls.
Ame72 & Zero Cents in Tel Aviv (photograph by Yaffa Phillips)
Klone
Mural by Klone in Tel Aviv (photograph by Yaffa Phillips)
The Ukraine-born, Israel-based Klone mostly creates his surreal animals from paint, paste-ups, and stickers. These “predators” include a repeating image of a strange fox, with fangs but gentle eyes.
Work by Klone in Tel Aviv (photograph by Majento/Flickr user)
Ame72
photograph by Nina Jean
The playful designs by Ame72 has been appearing in Tel Aviv for years, with the most common of his stencil works the Lego people. They’re often combined with messages that comment on politics, the business of life, or just add some whimsy to the city streets.
photograph by Carlos Rodríguez Torre
Foma <3
photograph by Carlos Rodríguez Torre
One of the few female street artists practicing in Israel is Foma <3. Her paste-ups are figurative representations of people with lines in black and white, and in another ongoing series she shows herself in a white mask.
Foma <3 at center with work by Know Hope & Klone (photograph by Michael Keating)
Atlas Obscura’s Israel Week is in partnership with Go Israel.com, your guide to Israel’s beautiful destinations and its many hidden wonders!
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