The walls and disused buildings of Tel Aviv have become a medium for artistic expression by many street artists who cover them with images, ranging from simple slogans, to complex and colorful compositions. These unique works of art, mainly found to the south and center of the city, offer a variety of new and exciting form and styles, from stenciling, aerosols, acrylics and pasting - and many are clearly the work of extremely talented artists.
Some of Tel Aviv's street artists work full-time by day, turning into their spray can-shaking selves at night, while some have embarked on international artistic careers.
Know Hope, whose work focuses on a single figure depicting human vulnerability, was born in California, never went to art school and has been engaged in street art since 2005. Combining his work on Tel Aviv's streets with a career as an artist exhibiting in galleries all over the world, Know Hope has had solo shows in Tel Aviv, New York, Los Angeles, Toronto and Rome.
Moscow-born Foma studied fashion at Ramat Gan's Shenkar College but turned to street art upon her graduation in 2007 in order to better express herself. Petah Tikvan Dede began his career at age 12 when he found a half-empty spray can in the street. Although he attended art school and works full-time as a graphic designer, he still heads out onto the city streets almost every night to find the right location for his next work of art.
An exhibition entitled "
Inside Job" at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art brought these often illicit and clandestine works to the attention of the world. Celebrating street art as an intelligent form of graffiti, participating artists included Adi Sened, Broken Fingaz, Foma, Know Hope and Zero Cents.
Aside from the Florentin, Neve Tzedek and Montefiore neighborhoods in Tel Aviv, beautiful examples of street art can also be found in Tel Aviv's workshop district as well as in downtown Haifa.
Street art in downtown HaifaCopyright: S Lederhendler