March 27, 2019, Updated March 31

Think of the icons of modern Israeli art, and maybe Menashe Kadishman’s simple sheep paintings or Yaacov Agam’s colorful kinetic sculptures will come to mind.

But there are many other contemporary Israeli artists making their mark internationally. Here are just a few Israeli artists, new and veteran, to watch on the world canvas.

10 Israeli artists you should know about

Yosef “Jojo” Ohayon
Ken Goldman
Hilla Ben Ari
Broken Fingaz
Andi Arnovitz
Fatma Shanan Dery
Ariela Wertheimer
Pierre Kleinhouse
David Gerstein
Sylvia Feinstein

1. Yosef “Jojo” Ohayon

A bright bedroom with a large window offering an ocean view. The room features a white bed with a blue throw, colorful abstract artwork, and a wall display of metal umbrellas. A light chair is near the window, complementing the serene ambiance.

Jojo Ohayon wall sculpture and painting in a bedroom. Photo: courtesy

Born in Casablanca in 1958, Jojo Ohayon became a farmer in Israel while pursuing art as a hobby. Eventually he began incorporating farming equipment and techniques into his artwork, leading to unusual artistic methods including water pressure to manipulate metal into artwork and furniture.

In his paintings, Jojo uses bottles with a tiny hole cut from the end to distribute the colors in uniform patterns across large canvases, creating signature pieces that portray women, flowers and other forms of nature.

Artist Jojo Ohayon squats beside a colorful abstract painting on the floor, with vibrant figures and swirling lines. He holds a bottle and is surrounded by similar bottles in various colors. He wears a light green shirt and dark shorts.

Jojo Ohayon using a bottle technique to create an abstract painting. Photo: courtesy

Jojo’s oeuvre includes murals, abstract paintings, metal chairs and wall sculptures, vases and mosaic sculptures. His pieces are exhibited in galleries and owned by buyers in Israel, the United States, Europe, Australia and China.

A red metal armchair with a glossy finish is shown from two angles. The chair has a geometric design with sharp edges and a high backrest, featuring a unique water pressure process and powder painting. Text on the image reads JOJO Yong Armchair.

Jojo Ohayon’s furniture. Photo: courtesy

Jojo opened his first gallery 10 years ago in Tel Aviv, followed by a New York City gallery and a website that sells his works with free worldwide shipping. He also has a studio and showroom at the Dead Sea.

2. Ken Goldman

Three plush toy creatures lie on a surface. The toys are uniquely shaped and colored: one is orange, another green, and the last is blue. They have exaggerated features and playful designs, each featuring stitched eyes and playful expressions.

Ken Goldman’s Kabbalah Dolls, 2007. Photo: courtesy

Book cover of Image, Action, and Idea in Contemporary Jewish Art by Ben Schachter. Features a person with a short hairstyle, viewed from the back, against a yellow background with red diagonal text.

“With Without” by Ken Goldman on the cover of Ben Schachter’s Image, Action, and Idea in Contemporary Jewish Art. Photo: courtesy

In September 2006, kibbutz-based conceptual artist-sculptor Ken Goldman’s soft, colorful Kabbala dolls were an instant hit at the annual toy audition at FAO Schwarz in New York City. Since then, Goldman’s clever, provocative and eclectic works of Judaica have been exhibited, installed and sold widely.

“Goldman’s work is an exuberant, idiosyncratic celebration of Jewish practice,” wrote Ben Schachter in his 2017 book, Image, Action, and Idea in Contemporary Jewish Art, which devotes a chapter to Goldman and features “With Without” on its cover, an image of Goldman himself “wearing” a kippah of his own hair.

Colorful, Hamsa-shaped stuffed toys hang in a row inside a building with arched windows and stone walls. Each Hamsa features a single large eye design in red, blue, and pink tones. The patterned windows let in soft, diffused light.

Huggable Hamsas by Ken Goldman at Jerusalem’s Museum of Islamic Art. Photo: courtesy

A graduate of New York’s Pratt Institute, Goldman works in multiple media including performance art. His creations have been shown at institutions such as the Museum of Islamic Art, in an exhibition where Jews and Arabs reimagined the Hamsa, as well as the Israel Museum, Ein Harod Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art and the Vienna Jewish Museum.

In the fall of 2018, Goldman was one of five international artists – the others were Andi Arnovitz (see below), Lynne Avadenka, Meydad Eliyahu and Leora Wise — chosen for a three-week Venice art residency on climate change through a Jewish lens. Goldman now is finishing a three-stage sculpture installation in an old Jewish cemetery in Kaluszyn, Poland.

3. Hilla Ben Ari

A woman in a red outfit performs a bridge pose on a wooden cart pulled by a white horse. The cart has a wooden structure and is on a barren ground with a beige wall in the background.

“The Mute,” still from a short video by Hilla Ben Ari, 2014. Photo by Asaf Saban

This kibbutz-raised visual artist with a degree from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem uses video, sculpture and other media to depict the female form as a medium to explore identity, sexuality, and the relationship between men and women.

Hila Ben Ari’s work has been displayed in Barcelona, Beijing, Berlin, Bonn, Brussels, Bucharest, Bulgaria, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, Vancouver and other global cities and at many Israeli museums and galleries. She has received awards at arts festivals in Madrid and Tokyo.

Two people are lying on separate metal scaffolding structures. The person on top is wearing a blue shirt and gray pants, and the one below is wearing an orange shirt and blue shorts, with legs bent and arms crossed over the chest.

“Naama,” a 2015 work by Hilla Ben Ari. Photo by Asaf Saban

Through the Visiting Israeli Artists Program, Ben Ari is teaching at the University of Florida Gainesville during the 2019 spring semester. A special exhibition of her work debuted at the university’s Gary R. Libby Gallery in the Fine Arts on March 25.

4. Broken Fingaz

A man wearing a cowboy hat and red shirt sits on a stool in front of a colorful mural. The mural features various elements, including a can, palm tree, portrait of a man in a hat, and abstract figures on a textured wall.

One of the street murals done by Broken Fingaz in Mexico, 2019. Photo: courtesy

Israel’s most successful street-art crew – four men who don’t reveal their real names – Broken Fingaz got started in Haifa and branched out across the globe with commissions ranging from pop-art murals to 3D installations to album covers and U2 music videos.

Paris, London, Bratislava, Las Vegas, Bremen, Chengdu, Los Angeles, Milan, Berlin, Krakow, Rio de Janeiro, Seattle, Portland, Dusseldorf, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Mexico City… there’s hardly a major city (and some remote ones, like Phu Quoc Island in Vietnam) these four guys haven’t livened up with their splashy graphics.

A colorful art exhibit with visitors walking around. The gallery features vibrant, surreal artwork, including a large, colorful sculpture of a mythical creature with a headdress, sitting atop a decorated plinth. The room is bustling with people.

Broken Fingaz exhibition at Crazy Eye Hotel, London. Photo: courtesy

5. Andi Arnovitz

A cloak-like textile artwork adorned with an intricate collage of black and white patterns. A cascade of threads hangs down the center. The piece is bordered with red fabric, adding a vibrant contrast to the monochrome design.

“UnWearable Art” by Andi Arnovitz (2018) made of Japanese paper, etching, aquatint and threads. It’s a tapestry of all the prints she made in the last five years. Photo: courtesy

Jerusalem-based Israeli artist Andi Arnovitz uses installations, prints, artist books and sculpture to explore issues of infertility, divorce, domestic violence, gender, politics and religion, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Her conceptual work has been exhibited across the world (including France, Spain, England, Poland, Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Lithuania and the United States) and is in public and private collections including the US Library of Congress, The Smithsonian, the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life in California, and Yale University in Connecticut.

Small house models wrapped in white mesh fabric and tied with string, surrounded by thin, light-colored straw-like materials. The arrangement creates a textured and layered appearance.

“Exile” by Andi Arnovitz (2015) made of silk, porcelain and linen threads. Photo: courtesy

“My goal is to seduce the viewer visually, to lure them into a closer examination of the work and then to confront them with a problem or issue, and cause them to re-examine their views, engage with a specific subject and increase their awareness of a problem,” Arnovitz tells ISRAEL21c.

This spring, her works are showing in the Sichuan Museum of Fine Art in China, the Jewish Museum of Berlin, Susquehanna Art Museum in Pennsylvania, and Yale. In the summer and fall of 2019, Arnovitz will exhibit at the HUC Museum in Manhattan and Stadhaus Museum in Germany as well as Israeli locations.

6. Fatma Shanan Dery

Tel Aviv-based Israeli artist Fatma Shanan Dery’s large-scale oil paintings suggest fluid definitions of gender, national and ethnic identities through scenes of people (including herself) from circles of her life — especially from Julis, the Israeli Druze village where she was born and raised. Traditional Druze rugs placed in unexpected locations figure prominently in her work.

Painting of a person standing on a red patterned rug in a golden field under a clear blue sky, facing away. The person is wearing a scarf, white shirt, and jeans, with wind turbines visible in the distant background.

Fatma Shanan Dery’s oil-on-canvas paintings depict rugs on roofs, in fields, and on the road, eliminating spiritual or religious value and representing tradition in a new context. Photo: courtesy

Winner of a 2016 prize for figurative-realist art given by the Tel Aviv Museum, Shanan Dery has done artist residencies in New York, California and at the Artport program in Tel Aviv. Her works are included in the collections of the Israel Museum and Ilana Goor Museum in Israel and in private collections in Israel and abroad.

Shanan Dery’s 2019 calendar includes a solo exhibition in Berlin, and group exhibitions in New York, Cyprus, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Painting of a person in jeans and barefoot standing on a surface covered with thousands of tiny empty shells of watermelon seeds scattered and piled around. The perspective of the painting is from behind, with one hand visible. The shadow of their hand is cast on the ground, adding a textural element.

“Stepping on Watermelon Seeds” (2017) by Fatma Shanan Dery. Photo: courtesy

7. Ariela Wertheimer

Ariela Wertheimer, an Israeli philanthropist listed in Forbes’ 2018 “The World’s Richest People,” has been painting professionally since 1997.

In 2017 and 2018, Wertheimer displayed at the annual Art Biennale in Venice with Tel Aviv’s Farkash Gallery, and in November 2018 opened her own studio in Jaffa.

A well-lit gallery displays a dark wooden table in the center, surrounded by vibrant abstract paintings with vivid colors displayed in light boxes on the walls. The artworks have expressive faces and shapes, creating a lively and artistic ambiance.

Ariela Wertheimer’s “Lightboxes,” 2016. Photo: courtesy

Wertheimer made her US debut in 2018 at Scope Miami Beach and her Asian debut at Singapore Art Week in January 2019. She will be featured at the 2019 Artexpo in New York City, April 4-7, and then Art Biennale in Venice this May.

A gallery showcases vibrant abstract paintings and an art installation of a small, weathered boat titled The Odyssey, surrounded by fishing nets and ropes. Visitors are seen in the background viewing the exhibits.

Ariela Wertheimer’s “Ropes and Ties” was shown at Scope Miami in 2018. Photo: courtesy

At Scope, she exhibited the Jaffa Port-inspired “Ropes and Ties: The Freedom to Let Go,” which symbolizes the physical and conscious/emotional ropes that are intertwined in the world.

“The strings made from plant fibers which have created a twine into a rope … have accompanied humankind from the beginning. The ropes allow, the ropes restrict, the ropes connect with other ropes and a continuity is created,” she explains.

8. Pierre Kleinhouse

Artist Pierre Kleinhouse, with a beard and tattoos, stands next to artwork featuring a stylized black and white tiger holding a large pencil in its mouth. The word SUPERFLUOUS is written vertically on the artwork. The artist is wearing a black t-shirt.

Pierre Kleinhouse with a work titled “Superfluous.” Photo: courtesy

Award-winning illustrator and designer Pierre Kleinhouse has a Tel Aviv studio, where he does artworks for exhibitions and commercial clients. He also gives talks and illustration workshops around the world.

A bold illustration, depicted in orange and yellow with a black background, of a woman holding an axe on her shoulder, surrounded by vibrant foliage. Above her, a stylized, fierce animal head with exaggerated eyes and sharp teeth looms, creating a sense of strength and determination.

Pierre Kleinhouse’s “Bear & Welder” was done for the Museum of Communism in Czech Republic. Photo: courtesy

The Bezalel Academy of Art and Design graduate has built up an impressive clientele including Stella Artois, UPS, BBC Focus, HarperCollins, Rolling Stone magazine, Harvard Business Review, Museum of Communism in Czech Republic, Moog Audio, Virgin Mobile, Krispy Kreme and Oxford University Press.

9. David Gerstein

A vibrant wall clock with a green face and white hour markers. Surrounding it are colorful, stylized birds perched on golden branches, each bird painted in different bright colors, creating a lively, artistic design.

“Nature Time Clock” (2019) by David Gerstein. Photo: courtesy

David Gerstein’s paintings and sculptures speak in a universal language embodying playfulness, humor and optimism. True to his “art for everyone” motto, his works range in price from $100 to $1.5 million, and are sold in his Tel Aviv gallery, in design shops and online.

Gerstein’s pop-art inspired cows and flowers, butterflies and birds, cyclists and fish, pedestrians and dancers are installed in permanent and temporary spaces and sold through dealers in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Japan, Korea, Russian Federation, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, England and the United States.

David Gerstein stands in green pants and a red plaid shirt, smiling on green grass in front of a colorful sculpture made of bicycles arranged in an arch. Trees and a modern building are in the background under a clear blue sky.

David Gerstein in front of his “Peloton Wave” installed outside an athletic stadium in South Korea. Photo by Virginia Hui-Ting Chen

In January 2016, Gerstein presented Pope Francis with a wall sculpture depicting in bright colors the phrase from Psalms, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,” in Hebrew and Spanish.

A vibrant outdoor sculpture features two green running figures with colorful, abstract flowers flowing behind them. The background includes a path, greenery, and cloudy skies.

David Gerstein installation in Guizhou National Park, China. Photo: courtesy

This year, Gerstein did a special exhibition in Sydney, Australia for the benefit of Make A Wish Israel, and inaugurated a new sculpture at the entrance of a new museum of contemporary art in Taiwan. In April he’ll have a solo show in Vienna.

10. Sylvia Feinstein

Abstract tapestry featuring bold patches of blue, green, black, and cream. Various shapes and textures interweave, creating a vibrant, dynamic composition that resembles fluid movement and organic forms.

“Garden of Eden” tapestry by Sylvia Feinstein. Photo: courtesy

Buenos Aires native Sylvia Feinstein makes tapestries at her gallery in Modi’in based on biblical themes, using an ancient technique to convey the drama of the scene and its characters in a contemporary abstract artwork.

Her series of tapestries on Leviticus, on doves and on women in the Bible, among others, have been displayed in private and public spaces worldwide including Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Houston, Toronto and Antwerp; and many places in Jerusalem including the Bible Lands Museum, Yad Vashem and the Jerusalem International Convention Center.

Silvia Feinstein, with short dark hair, stands in front of a colorful abstract tapestry with a mix of blue, pink, and orange hues. The tapestry features abstract forms and text at the top. She wears a black floral-patterned blouse.

Sylvia Feinstein creates biblical tapestries. Photo by Carmela Lev-Ari

Feinstein is part of the “Save the Reef” international fiber art project that will tour internationally for five years starting in September 2019 to raise global awareness of dangers facing coral-reef ecosystems.

The works she is creating for this project will hang at the Center for the Arts in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the gateway to the Grand Teton National Park, and at the Jackson Lake Lodge at the entrance to Yellowstone National Park, for a month leading up to the Jackson Hole WILD Film Festival and Conservation Summit in September.