John Kiss (artist)
John Kiss (born Jonathan Kis-Lev, September 12, 1985) is an Israeli street artist, peace activist and author, known for his graffiti work, political artwork and community-based projects.
[8] He later earned his bachelor's degree summa cum laude from the Open University of Israel focusing on art and psychology.
His eventual work included, from left to right: Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse and the figure of the artist.
[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][excessive citations] The site had become a meeting point for tours and the wall underneath it is now filled with graffiti by multiple artists from around the world.
For this Naïve art approach - which typically has flat rendering style with a rudimentary expressions of perspective and strong primary colors - and to achieve a more "childish" result he used his left hand, despite being right-handed; furthermore, he drew some paintings when the canvas was placed upside down, so that elements such as the sky were placed on the bottom, and chose canvases with a black layer.
[47] In the Naïve Series Kiss focused on paintings of landscapes, mostly urban, of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, as well as Paris, Prague and other cities around the world which he had visited.
"[48] Other projects: In 2012, Kiss partnered with Makor Rishon magazine to produce their cover image featuring a painting of Jerusalem.
Presenting the 200-piece-mural in front of Judaism's holiest site was to encourage Jewish reflection at what Kiss called "the dark rejection" of people with special needs, and to turn the page towards a more positive, inclusive future.
The children who participated in the initiative, both boys and girls, were subsequently all aided in performing the bar mitzvah ceremony, essentially proving their adulthood according to Jewish tradition.
In 2007, his work was featured at the Beit Gibor center, the Joï Gallery in Neve Tzedek, and over a dozen paintings were acquired by Israel's Bank Leumi as part of their permanent art collection.
[61] In 2013 he showed a solo exhibition at the Griffin Gallery in Boca Raton, Florida, titled The City of Songs: Paintings of a Modern Jerusalem.
[citation needed] In 2015 he showed his paintings at "O Lovely Land", GINA Gallery of International Naïve Art, Tel Aviv.
[63] Joint encounter groups: Kiss joined hands with the German Federal Agency for Civil Education, and its president Thomas Krüger, to bring together young leaders from Israel and Palestine to Germany to promote Middle Eastern peace while simultaneously learning civic principles, conflict resolution and peace psychology.
[67] The Hallelujah Dialogue Project: In 2014, due to the rising violence during the uprising known as the Silent Intifada, Kiss joined hands with Palestinian activist Riman Barakat of the Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information and Breaking the Impasse.
To commemorate the round-number anniversaries Kiss joined other artists in creating an exhibition in Jerusalem to mark the important dates and to encourage such treaties to be reached with Syria and the Palestinians.
