Shai Yehezkelli (born 1979), holds a BA and an MA from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. Yehezkelli often paints on a variety of surfaces that he finds on the street. These quick paintings, intentionally “sloppy” or ragged, are rich in color and images, and are biting and humorous. Yehezkelli’s painting style draws from local painting traditions - enigmatic and conceptual. This same attitude is also evident in the names of his paintings, including “Hamsa Painting,” “Self-Portrait as Samson”, “PR Painting” and “CV Painting”. These names seriously challenge the artistic act and the field of art. They empty them of the sublime and stress the dimension of the mundane - the daily, the sisyphean and the impotent - inherent to them.

Yehezkelli’s work traces elements of the historical and Israeli national identity through motifs like palm trees, the image of the Wandering Jew, and more. The sacredness and seriousness of these motifs collapse and are exposed as empty motifs floating on the surface. These produce a rich and layered iconography, which addresses the schizophrenic possibility of the painting to be innocent, wild, enjoyable and childlike – and, at the same time, “cultural”, aware of itself, incisive and sarcastic. Shai has held solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions in Israel and around the world. His works appear in major collections.