Born in 1974, Eli Petel graduated from the Art Department of Israel’s Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. Since 2011, he has served as Head of the Art Department at Bezalel. Petel’s paintings and work sometimes often have an immediate effect, and their subjects are sometimes identified as public, or familiar and catchy, and at other times are subtle and elusive. They are realistic, vital, vivid and created through a variety of techniques, some traditional and some invented by the artist. The motifs are drawn from the media and from childhood memories and family stories, and convey simplicity and local specificity.

Petel's work tackles the stereotypical label of the common people of Middle Eastern descent by using local clichés and regarding objects with irony, humor and compassion. His work is at once autobiographical and personal and social-political, and combines vulgarity with kitsch deriving from a deep sense of empathy. What results is the depiction of a world layered in mirrors, opposing interests and contradictions.