Wall Art in Tel Aviv

I first started paying attention to graffiti because one of my best friends in Tel Aviv is a graffiti artist, street name of "Starfish."  She is a ceramicist who creates miniature flat-backed street scenes and characters out of clay and runs out in the middle of the night and cements them on walls.

They are imaginative,

and whimsical,

lovely,

 local and topical,

and it is her contribution to the aesthetics here in Tel Aviv.

My son Amnon often helps her put them up. They meet at 3 am and run around our neighborhood with a pot of cement and a pile of her latest creations and the next day I can walk down the street and find them tucked into corners and doorways and onto walls.  It is a street scavenger hunt. Many of them don't last more than a few days—they are damaged or removed or simply taken away by collectors. Like a mandala in the sand Starfish just releases them to the tides of humanity that walk the streets. But people have noticed, as I found several instagram streams with photos of her work, and one photograph of her work was in a book put out by the Tel Aviv museum.

Sometimes I still pass a piece that Amnon and Starfish put up several years ago, still gracing its patch of vertical concrete.

My son Amnon got into the act himself when we lived here and he was a high school student at Gymnasia Herzaliya.  Below is his "Tintin Wall," an homage to his favorite childhood graphic books throughout his childhood: 

Knowing Starfish and her work  has opened up the eyes of my whole family to interesting and intriguing graffiti, or "street art," which is something of an international phenomenon. I love that artists (of varying degrees of talent) everywhere put up their work (for no compensation) just to express themselves and be seen. I am always awed by our need as a species to decorate, adorn and express. And this phenomena is getting more and more attention. 

And by the way, my friend Starfish is starting to plan her 70th Birthday! 

Here is a book that was just reviewed in the New York Times Book Review, and an article in the Times, "Learning Hebrew on the Streets, With Walls as Assigned Reading" — a course offered on Tel Aviv street art specifically.

As Raillan Brooks writes in his review, " “The World Atlas” reminds us of the obvious: Public art is as much about local identity as it is about artistic accomplishment. ... the book shows us a medium exceptional in its grasping for an essence of place and time. Oh, and it’s beautiful, too." 

Next door to us is a dedicated graffiti art supply store here. Doesn't everyone have one in their neighborhood?

And every bride and groom must be photographed in front of their favorite graffiti, don't you think?

Below is a collection of random shots I took while wandering the streets of my neighborhood yesterday—a small sampling of what is around if one's eyes are open!

Here is a link for a much larger sampling.

Enjoy your walk through Tel Aviv's living street galleries!