Fresh Paint 7, the contemporary art and design fair Tel Aviv, will be held on November 4-8, 2014 in a new and surprising venue: the new city sports center, built on the grounds of the iconic Tel Aviv drive-in. The venue was chosen by Fresh Paint CEO Sharon Tilinger and artistic director and curator Yifat Gurion for its extensive grounds, which make it ideal for exhibitions and the 35,000 visitors expected to attend the fair.

Fresh Paint was founded as a catalyst for activity of the Israeli arts community, proving a great success since its inception in 2008. The fair provides an ideal meeting point between design lovers, galleries and design institutions in Israel, as well as independent artists - who exhibit their work in the Independent Artists Greenhouse.

Since its inauguration six years ago, Fresh Paint contemporary art fair, Tel Aviv has become Israel's largest, most influential art event. The fair brings together all the significant players in the Israeli art scene, enjoys the support of leading art institutions and attracts the local and international art crowds.

While following the formula of professional art fairs around the world, Fresh Paint is unique in its role as a launch pad for the careers of promising, unrepresented artists. The “Artist's Greenhouse” at Fresh Paint, set alongside the presentations of established contemporary art galleries, showcases the works of such independent artists, all carefully selected by a professional panel, exposing them to curators, gallery owners, collectors and the public at large.

Fresh Paint prides on its professional program of special projects, commissioned works, video art program and an educational program of lectures and encounters with the Israeli art and artists. The fair's community projects and fund-raising activities benefit the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and several other non-profit organizations.

The new sports center measures 6,600 square meters, with an outdoor area measuring 10,000 square as well as extensive car parking facilities.  Fresh Paint 7 will make use of the total space area including locker and dressing rooms, gym areas, referee rooms, the press room and the VIP guest room, which will be converted into an art and design space. The comfortable location of the sports center - in proximity to major highways, train stations and the TLV Convention Center, makes it highly accessible to the public. The construction of the new sports center, which will be opened in January 2015, was funded entirely by the Tel Aviv municipality and will be managed by Sport Palaces Ltd. It. The sports center will be the new home to Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball club, serve as the practice arena for all Israeli national sports teams and host international sporting events, cultural events, music shows and conferences. The sports center was designed by GAB Architects. Its plan is based on the architectural concept of “display windows” created by Dmitry Mazo.

Theme-centered projects and exhibitions

This year, Fresh Paint will have a project-centered format in which galleries and other art and design institutions will exhibit diverse conceptualized and theme-related projects, as well as sole exhibitions and group and theme exhibitions. Fresh Paint affords well-established artists as well as up-and-coming artists the opportunity to exhibit their work to tens of thousands of visitors. The artistic content reflects the surrounding reality, and it can be seen this year to an even  greater extent. The occurrences of the last summer in Israel are expressed through the artistic interpretation in the different exhibitions and projects.

The Independent Artists Greenhouse

The Independent Artists Greenhouse is an original model conceived by Fresh Paint. It displays the works of 50 up-and-coming artists at the beginning of their professional career. These are chosen by 12 panel members comprising of curators, gallery owners, art critics and collectors from Israel and abroad. The idea is to discover promising artists and expose their artworks to the general public. The submissions are made anonymously and the composition of the panel changes yearly to ensure diversity, equality and the fair’s artistic quality.

Among the graduates of the Independent Artists Greenhouse are Know Hope, Ido Michaeli and Ella Amitay Sadovsky, who were first brought to the attention of the public in Fresh Paint, as well as Dror Daum, Liav Mizrahi‎‏, Elham Rokni, Uriel Meron, Aharon Ozeri, Ohad Matalon and Iva Kafri - all award-winning artists, who have exhibited or are currently exhibiting in museums across the country.

Fresh Design

After the phenomenal success of Fresh Design 1 in 2013, this year's Fresh Paint will again feature a design area exhibiting diverse projects and collaborations with leading design institutions. Fresh Design will offer a contemporary, updated representation of the current Israeli design landscape, and unveil diverse exhibitions by 20 young product designers and leading design labels such as Talents Design, Aqua Creations, The Magenta Workshop and Design Space.