Biographical Notes עברית
Avshalom Levi
Photographer, multidisciplinary creator, and Israeli artist. Works in photography, painting, and video art.
Graduate of Hadassah College / Department of Photography, Video and Film. Guest lecturer at colleges and higher education institutions for photography.
His work engages with the “transparent” people of society and with the construction of Israeli social consciousness.
In 2015, he published the artist’s book No Man’s Land, which brings together six series of a distinctly social nature, including the Black Panthers, prostitutes, drug-addicted and homeless women, as well as a series of portraits and memories of Holocaust survivors.
In his portrait photography, through morphological study and analysis, Avshalom raises questions and reflections concerning the hidden motives that shape the inner worlds of those he photographs, and examines the connection between these motives and phenomena such as social failure or manipulation, exclusion, deprivation, feelings of superiority, victimhood, or other concealed psychological drives.
In the Transparent series, on the one hand, the question arises: what has led a normative woman to sell her body and become addicted to drugs?
On the other hand, in the Black Panthers series, the question posed is: what factors drove a young man to rebel against conventions to the point of losing his personal freedom?
In his large portrait series titled Encoded, photographed during the lockdowns and quarantines imposed worldwide throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Avshalom raises questions and reflections about time and truth.
These contemplations led him to a deep inquiry into the meaning of truth itself: is the motive and catalyst for a given event in the life of a person or a society truly the pursuit of truth?
Does absolute truth exist, or is it rather an objective occurrence in time, subject to interpretation through subjective eyes?
And can one even arrive at any truth through objective reality? Or are we, time and again, forced by social constructs and constraints to reach it only through experiences and cultural mediation?
His works have been, and continue to be, exhibited in galleries and museums in Israel and abroad, as well as in art collections.
In recent years, in addition to photography, he has been creating documentary films and painting.
Biographical Notes
Born in Jerusalem, 1959.
Lives in Tel Aviv
1987 -1989 - Hadassah College, School of Photography, Jerusalem.
1991 -1992 - video and cinema, Hadassah College, School of Photography, Jerusalem
1989 -1990 - lived and worked in London, England.
1992 -1997 - lived and worked in Paris, France.
1998 - today lives and works in Tel Aviv
Exhibitions
1989 The founding generation of Musrara / Hadassah College
1993 The street of Belleville / Paris Port Ouvert Events
1994 Portraits / Paris Port Ouvert Events
1995 Graffiti / Belleville / Paris Port Ouvert Events
1996 The Shadows of Belleville / City Hall 20th quarter / Paris
2009 Tel Aviv by Night / 100 years to the city of Tel Aviv
2013 Merhav Bazman - portraits of the Israeli black Panthers Movement
founders / Merhav Gallery-Jaffa Curation: Adi Branda
2014 ‘A Forgone Conclusion’ p8 gallery Curation: Ora Reuven
2015 ' No Man's Land' - Winter 71 / Solo exhibition, in conjunction with the launch of the
artist's book 'The No Man's Land' The Musrara Social Gallery. Curation: Avi Sabag,
Eyal Ben Dov.
2015 Local Testimony Portraits of Childhood Heros / Erets Israel Museum -Tel-Aviv
2016 "Everyone has a south" The Musrara Social Gallery Curation: Eyal Ben Dov.
2016 Sliding Doors Soho Photo Gallery New York Curation: Larry Davis
2019 'Hshuma' group exhibition' Mact museum Switzerland Curation: Sharon Tuval
2022 ‘Longing for Jerusalem’ Migdal David Museum I.F.O Worldwide Exhibition.
Curation DR. Shimon Lev
2023 20 Years to Local Testimony / MUSA / The Book Exhibition and book gala Curation
Dana Wollfiler Lalkin, Vardi Kahana, Ami Stenitz
Special projects
2013 Founding the audio blog ‘Mivhakim’ / Curators, Artists and Creators talking about art.
2016 - "On bare concrete" Ameera Ziyan. Exhibition in my curation.
2022 ‘Carlos in Wonderland’, directed and filmed in collaboration with playwright Hadar Galron, features the short film One Day from the Point of View of a Blind Man. This film was showcased at the Akko (Acre) Theater Festival in 2022.
Awards Books Grants
Hazel Greenwald award , the founding generation of Musrara
Mifal HaPayis grant, No man's land / winter 71
3rd place best series / Local Testimony / wpo
Rabinovich Foundation grant for creative artists during the Corona pandemic.
WORK IN PROGRESS
A series that integrates painting, mixed media, photography, a dedicated website, and scientific research on the COVID-19 pandemic. This series raises numerous questions, but the central inquiry is: Have we, as a society, been reduced to mere numbers and lines in a gigantic corporate profit scheme?
FILMS IN PROGRESS
2019- today - The Last Panther
Reuven Abergel, a co-founder of the ‘Black Panthers’ protest movement, presents poignant and powerful original texts. project of 6 short films.
2023- today - Survivors (documentary)
Boys deemed at risk enroll in the toughest and most demanding preparatory school in the Israel. The project involves a journey through the desert and concentration camps in Poland.
2023 – today - The last captain from cojimar (documentary)
Machito (Louis Abat Senti) a 93-year-old Cuban fisherman who worked as Hemingway's errand boy. The film was shot during November 2023 in Cuba