User:Art Lover/My Sandbox/JK

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Jonathan Kis-Lev (born 1985) is an Israeli contemporary street artist and a peace activist. He is mostly known for his visual messages of peace, and the use of doves, dwarfs, and the power of languages in human communication. Kis-Lev is also the president of the Israeli League of Young Esperanto Speakers, and a co-founder of Halleluja Interfaith Center in Jerusalem.

Artist
Kis-Lev showed interest in the visual arts from an early age. He began studying painting with a private teacher at the age of five, and continued his artistic education at Aleph School of Arts Tel Aviv where he studied drawing and sculpting. At the age of 16 he was granted a scholarship to attend Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific in Canada. Though not explicitly an art school, Kis-Lev majored in visual arts under the guidance of teacher Art Brendon. He earned the International Baccalaureate Diploma with a major in visual arts.

Coming back to Israel, Kis-Lev continued developing his artistic skills while serving in the Israeli Defense Forces, the Israeli army. In 2007 he had his first exhibition in Tel Aviv entitled Beginnings: Neve Zedek and Jaffa. Visited by many, including Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, the exhibition marked his debut in the Israeli art world.

Following completion of his military service, Kis-Lev decided not to continue studying art in an art academy, but rather to develop his own style and technique by himself.

Naive Period
Following the end of his military service Kis-Lev developed several techniques that were meant to enable him to "forget" all that he was taught about proper painting from an early age, and paint "like a child again". He began drawing some paintings with his weak left hand rather than his strong right, and drew the outline of some paintings when the canvas was placed upside down, so that the sky was placed on the bottom. According to the artist, these techniques helped him gain self-confidence in his intuition and paint more freely. The style Kis-Lev developed was referred to as naïve, even though some art critics have referred to the works as pseudo-naïve due to the self-conscious approach taken by the artist. Intended to seem naive but not necessarily be naive, the artist's work was considered fresh within the naive art world, and when exhibited in the international naive art festival in Katowice, Poland, in 2012, received much acclaim.

Street Art
The artist's involvement with creating art in the public domain began in 2006, while Kis-Lev was still in the army. Creating work without signatures, these works were focused on dovish elements, and sprayed around the abandoned military base of Sarona, in Tel Aviv. The artist later focused more and more on oil on canvas creations, developing his naive style, and only rarely worked on the streets again, except for occasional outings around his Jerusalem studion in Talpiyot between the years 2009-2010. In 2013 the artist began gluing ceramic tiles of his naive paintings of Tel Aviv. In the year following Kis-Lev began dedicating more the time to the matter, and created several verbal messages that began drawing public attention to their creator.

Creating textual messages in 2013, the artist sprayed "Love thy Nighbour" around Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The text was based on a Hebrew play of words. A work by the same name was given to Israeli President Shimon Peres.

The artist frequently donates to and collaborates with non-profit organizations to raise money for social causes, such as Big Brothers Big Sisters Israel, Giborim Ktanim - Small Heroes, Esra - Volunteering Together For the Community, and others.

Solo exhibitions
2012 The Abstract With a Touch of Reality, curator: Judith Beiner, Griffin Gallery, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

2011 Of Gold, curator: Shiran Shafir Buchwald, Art and Soul Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel

2010 Naharia My Love, curator: Lee Rimon, The Edge Gallery, Naharia, Israel

2010 Portraits of an Eternal Land, curator: Judith Beiner, Griffin Gallery, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

2009 Jonathan Kis-Lev, curator: Shiran Shafir Buchwald, Shorashim Art Gallery - International Bank, Tel Aviv, Israel

2007 Beginnings: Neve Zedek and Jaffa, Trade Tower Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel

Group exhibitions
2012 The Equal Exhibition, curator: Lee Rimon, The Edge Gallery, Naharia, Israel

2012 On A Small Scale, curator: Hana Kuman, Zadik Gallery, Jaffa, Israel

2012 Naïve Kunst Aus Israel, curator: Debora Gutman, Gutman-Art Gallery, Berlin, Germany

2012 International Naïve Art, curator: Jacques Dubois, Gallery Szyb Wilson, Katowice, Poland

2012 Israeli Naïve Art, curators: Ifat Reiss and Dan Chill, GINA Gallery of International Naïve Art, Tel Aviv, Israel

2012 Secret Exhibition, curators: Esti Drori and Doron Polak, Bank Leumi, Tel Aviv, Israel

2011 Abstract Thoughts, curator: Doron Polak, ZOA Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel

2009 B-Sides, curator: Inbal Drue, Zavta Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel

2009 Home, curator: Rotem Ritov, Apart Art Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel

2009 Secret Exhibition curators: Esti Drori and Doron Polak, Bank Leumi, Tel Aviv, Israel

Encounters
Following his participation in art workshops for peace at the age of 12, in which he met Palestinian children for the first time, Kis-Lev began to advocate for peace. He then joined the Jewish-Arab youth movement Sadaka Reut, which influenced him greatly. At the age of 16 he was selected by the Israeli committee of the United World Colleges as the Israeli Young Ambassador to the Pacific College in Canada in order to live and study alongside young students from around the world, including Palestinian and Arab students, as part of the movement's mission to serve as a "force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace". In those years Kis-Lev studied alongside other future political activists such as Shauna Aminath, leader of the youth wing for the Maldivian Democratic Party.

Military service
Upon completing his studies in Canada, Kis-Lev returned to Israel to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces, and fought to be stationed at a unit that he considered as promoting peace rather than war and occupation. Following his struggle he was then stationed at the headquarters of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, where he was in charge of relations and assistance to organizations such as UNRWA and Doctors Without Borders. During his service he briefed Major General Yusef Mishleb regarding possible negative outcomes of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan on the Palestinian population.

Activities and writings
In 2011 Kis-Lev was selected as one of 25 young Israeli leaders to participate in the Tikvah Program for Political Leadership at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. Led by Prof. Peter Berkowitz and Dr. Alisa Rubin Peled, the program aimed at encouraging social and political change in Israel and the region.

In efforts to use the arts as a bridge between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and following his own experience as a youngster at art workshops for peace, Kis-Lev joined in 2011 a group of artists for peace. The project brought together 15 Israeli and 15 Palestinian artists of all disciplines, led by the Bereaved Families for Peace. The project included regular encounters between the artists, both in Israel and in the Palestinian Territories. Among other joint activities the group visited together the Palestinian depopulated village Lifta and the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. The initiative won extensive media coverage for being a unique cooperation of artists from both sides of the conflict, meeting for mutual understanding and peace.

Kis-Lev believes in the power of education and the arts in promoting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. He states that encouraging encounters designed at eliminating mutual fear between the two sides need have no relation to political stances. Kis-Lev thinks of himself as a zionist and sees no cotradiction between that and his peace activism. Beginning in 2008 Kis-Lev began writing and lecturing about the possibilities for peace in the Middle East, stressing the importance of education for peace as a solution to the conflict.

Personal life
Kis-Lev lives and works in his childhood village Mishmar Ayalon in the biblical Ajalon Valley. He is a board member of the Israeli League of Esperanto Speakers, and the president of the of Israeli League of Young Esperanto Speakers.
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Kis-Lev is an active member in Big Brothers Big Sisters of Israel, as well as in the Israeli Association of Visual Artists. He earned his Bachelor's degree summa cum laude from the Open University of Israel focusing on music and art history.

References and sources

 * Notes


 * Sources










 * Naharia My Love, catalog, The Edge Gallery Publishing, Naharia, Israel, 2010


 * Secret Exhibition, catalog, Esti Drori and Doron Polak, Bank Leumi, Israel, 2009


 * Jonathan Kis-Lev: Artist Vision, Shiran Shafir Buchwald, Shorashim Art Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2009


 * Home, catalog, Rotem Ritov, Apart Art Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2009