When you enter the gallery, which is located in the heart of Jerusalem, you'll be surprised to discover a workshop adjacent to it, where everything is Made in Israel. Among a selection of art galleries in Jerusalem, Nadav Art stands out.
You can find a wide variety of original and exciting gifts designed by Avi Nadav, a designer and artist, who is the owner of the gallery. He is familiar to many Jerusalemites and to tourists from all over the world, who also know the story of the decades-long family history. It involves four generations of artists for whom no difficulty could cause them to abandon their love of art.
Avi has been suffering for several years from glaucoma, an eye disease. It isn't easy for an artist who needs his eyes as much as he needs his talented hands. Due to the illness has Avi lost his peripheral vision and his eyesight is steadily deteriorating, but even now, when he is officially blind, he visits the gallery every day.
Using special devices and with the help of the artists who work with him, he doesn't give up, and continues with the great love of art that he learned from his father. "I experience frustrations from the very fact that once I could see my designs and now I have difficulty seeing them," he says. Due to Avi's blindness, the family came to help with managing the gallery, and his sons Naor and Nevo, members of the fourth generation, have joined the family business.
His grandfather, who was a jeweler, paved the way for the next generations in the field of art. He immigrated to Israel from Yemen, worked as a silversmith, and his life ended tragically when he was killed by sniper fire in the 1948 War of Independence, in the building he had built in the Nahlaot neighborhood, where he also had his workshop. He did not live to see his son following in his footsteps.
Avi's father (his grandfather's son) was studying at the time in the Bezalel art school, and was one of its first graduates. Despite the family tragedy and the great difficulty involved, he decided to continue in the footsteps of his late father, and in 1951, when he completed his studies, he began to design and create jewelry and Judaica.
Avi joined the business in the 1980s and made some major changes. With his great talent and his profound love of art he added many other fields to the gallery, including modern art, and became famous in Israel and worldwide. Many people come to see the works in the gallery and to visit the adjacent workshop, and even to mend and renew silver items.
The designs and creations of Avi Nadav and the other artists who work there, graduates of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, can be seen not only in the gallery itself on Shlomzion Hamalka Street in Jerusalem, but also in galleries and museums in Israel and throughout the world.
Avi also fulfills dreams and creates individually designed jewelry and other items, meticulously crafted by hand, and as he describes it: "All our work is done here, the customers get to see local crafts and everything is made in Israel, Blue and White, I even buy the materials in Israel."
During your visit to the gallery and the workshop you will be able to purchase jewelry and silver items at factory prices, to observe the process of producing the jewelry and even to test your artistic abilities in a professional workshop. In the workshop you can reserve guided tours and to try your hand at working in silver and other materials. The activity is suitable for groups and events, such as bar and bat mitzvah tours, which include experiencing the production process up to the finished product.
"We're the only gallery in central Jerusalem where you can come in and observe the work and production process in the workshop, to see how a sheet of silver turns into a goblet, for example. A tour alone is free of charge. It's important to us to expose anyone who comes to us to the entire artistic process."
It should be noted that the relationship with the community is important to the Nadav Art Gallery. At-risk teenagers were employed in the gallery and even now the connection with the organizations responsible for them continues.
Nadav Art
18 Shlomzion Hamalka, Jerusalem
Tel: 02-6222183
Website: www.nadavart.com
Email: [email protected]
רוצים להישאר מעודכנים?
Marketing article
