Opening: Thursday, 06.11.2025, at 20:00
AVNER KATZ
Broadcasts From Another Atmosphere
Curator: Nira Itzhaki
Opening: Thursday, 06.11.2025 at 8 p.m
Chelouche Gallery, 15 Ha’Zorfim St. Tel Aviv
Marking five years since Avner Katz passing, Chelouche Gallery is honored to announce the opening of Katz solo exhibition “Broadcasts from Another Atmosphere”, which seeks to shed new light on the figure and work of one of the most distinctive and influential voices in Israeli art and culture. For over four decades, Katz engaged in continuous and multifaceted creative work as an artist, illustrator, teacher, editorial member, and regular contributor to satirical columns – constantly blurring the boundaries between the various creative forms at his disposal.
This exhibition presents a rich selection of his works in a range of techniques: drawing, painting, woodcuts, sculpture, and more. Each work conceals a story laced with self-deprecating humor, sometimes bordering on cruel cynicism. Katz was an artist of a “double gaze”- both sensitive and skeptical. Humor, absurdity, longing, and irony are woven throughout his creations as a subtle mirror of the human soul.
The title of the exhibition is taken from a farewell letter to Katz written by his close friend Yair Garbuz. The “other atmosphere” refers to a world where imagination, critique, and humor serve as tools for a sharp and poetic observation of reality – one in which social protest, collective and sporting activities, opposition to political establishment and to militarism coexist alongside human compassion, a yearning for freedom, and a deep love for humankind with all its weaknesses – topics that make Katz more subversive and relevant than ever.
About the Artist
Avner Katz (1939–2020) was born in Kibbutz Ramat Rachel and lived and worked in Ramat Hasharon. He was an Israeli artist, illustrator, and author, and a professor in the Department of Art at the University of Haifa.
In the late 1950s, he studied at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, and later at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. He taught art for many years at Bezalel, the Avni Institute, WIZO Haifa, and the University of Haifa, where he was also head of the department.
Over the years, Katz held numerous solo exhibitions and participated in group shows at Julie M. Gallery, Bineth Gallery, the Umm al-Fahm Art Gallery, the Israel Museum, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Haifa Museum of Art, and the Ashdod Art Museum. His works are included in collections of museums and private collectors.
Katz was an editorial member and regular contributor to the satirical column “Davar Acher” in the newspaper “Davar” (1982–1992), and wrote columns for “Monitin”, “Hadashot”, and “Yedioth Ahronoth”.