Shai Azoulay

Azoulay was born in 1971 in Kiryat Shmona. His family moved to Arad when he was a child. After his army service, he traveled to the Far East, where he began to paint. He began his art studies at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in the mid-1990s and graduated in 2000 with a BFA degree and in 2007 with an MFA degree.[1]

Azoulay has exhibited both in Israel and worldwide including Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2011),[2] ARATANIURANO Gallery, Tokyo (2013), Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art (2018),[3] The Israel Museum Jerusalem (2019)[4] as well as group exhibitions in New York, London, Paris, Berlin and Rome. His works are included in public and private collections including The Israel Museum, The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Ashdod Museum of Art, Bank Hapoalim, Israel Discount Bank, and Bank Leumi.[5][6]

Azoulay is a faculty member of the Fine Art Department of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design (“Oman" Haredi Extension)[7]

Among the awards that he has received are Legacy Heritage Fund Prize for a Young Artist, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv (2007), The Osnat Mozes Prize for Painting for a Young Artist, The Artists House, Jerusalem (2007), Creative Encouragement Award, Ministry of Culture and Sport (2011), Ministry of Culture Award (2018) and The Israeli Lottery 'Landau Prize' for arts and science (2020)[8]

Azoulay lives and works in Jerusalem. He is married to Daniella Azoualy, a ceramic artist. Together they have six children.[9] His brother is the actor Golan Azoulay.[10]

In their recommendation to reward Azoulay with the prize for a young artist, the members of the Osnat Mozes committee commented that they "...were deeply impressed by Azoulay’s command of painterly skills, his knowledge of the history of painting, and of the contemporary critical discourse." They further noted: "In his paintings, Shai Azoulay moves along a narrow thread stretched between historical narrative and intimate-human stories. With a seemingly gentle and ironic touch he deconstructs modernist and national mythologies, while reconstructing from them refreshing pictures lacking pretension which reveal as if for the first time the possibility of creating a dynamic world.[11]

In her essay for Azoulay's exhibition "Closer to the Sun", Michal Shachani Yacobi states "The relationship between the painting and Hasidism, or between painting and tradition and faith, occupies Azoulay in his works. He uses them to reexamine concepts, rabbinical homilies, and stories borrowed from the worlds of Torah and Jewish mysticism."[12]

Azoulay's has a spanish mother and a moroccan father.[13] When Azoulay was 8 years old, the family moved from Kiryat Shmona to Arad, located in the Negev desert. He later depicted these landscapes in his works. The desert is "so active, but under the surface," he says; it is "working from the quiet."[13]

Upon completion of his requisite three-year army service, Azoulay traveled across Asia, being inspired to become an artist while in Thailand.[13] He went on to attend Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design.[13] Around the time of his graduation with an MFA in 2007, he began to become more religiously observant.[13] Being religiously observant is unusual in the Israeli art scene, of which he is a leading figure.[13]

Azoulay is a follower of the 19th century Jewish mystic, teacher, and storyteller, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov,[13] a key influencer in the development of Breslov Hasidic Judaism.[13][14]

• 2006-2007 Creativity Grant, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Tel Aviv[32]
• 2007 Legacy Heritage Fund Prize for a Young Artist, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv[32]
• 2007 The Osnat Mozes Prize for Painting for a Young Artist, The Artists House, Jerusalem[32]
• 2008-2010 The Artist Teacher Prize, Ministry of Culture and Sport[32]
• 2010 Artis Grant Recipient[33]
• 2011 Creative Encouragement Award, Ministry of Culture and Sport[33]
• 2018 Ministry of Culture Award[34]
• 2020 The Israeli Lottery 'Landau Prize' for arts and science[35]
• 2020 The Foundation for Independent Artists[36]

• The Israel Museum, Jerusalem[37]
• Tel Aviv Museum of Art[32]
• Ashdod Museum of Art
• Taguchi Art Collection, Japan[38]
• Salsali Private Museum, Dubai[39]
• Rivka Saker & Uzi Zucker Art Collection[40]
• The Dubi Shiff Art Collection[41]
• Oli Alter Private Collection[42]
• Zila & Giora Yaron Art Collection[43]
• Hagit & Ofer Shapira Collection[44]
• Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
• Matthew Bronfman Private Collection
• Bank Leumi Art Collection
• Israel Discount Bank Art Collection[45]
• Bank Hapoalim Art Collection[46]

• Official website
• The Jerusalem Artist's House
• The Israel Museum