BERLIN.- The Israeli-born artist Amnon David Ar presents a comprehensive solo exhibition at Kirche am Hohenzollernplatz in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. Light Years brings together works created since his move to Berlin in 2013 and coincides with the publication of his art monograph of the same title. An interdisciplinary program of concerts and artist talks accompanies the exhibition.
Curated by Martin Kiefer, long-time curator for contemporary art at the Louvre, the exhibition offers profound insight into Amnon David Ar’s painterly oeuvre, presenting works created in Berlin. The large-format paintings depict everyday still lifes, overlooked objects as well as portraits. Although his work maintains a dialogue with art history, it remains deeply personal.
While his style, characterized by technical precision, points toward hyperrealism, Figures, objects, and symbols are brought together in unexpected constellations in which the familiar becomes strange and quietly enigmatic. In his paintings, for example, an old sterilizer appears next to an inflatable pig, a broken egg beside a golden Chinese lucky cat, and a bust of Lenin alongside a fresh banana.
At the center of the exhibition at Kirche am Hohenzollernplatz is The Cycle of Life, a
monumental ongoing series begun in 2016 that revolves around six phases of human existence: birth, childhood, youth, adulthood, old age, and death. In this large-scale series, we find reflections on beauty, fear, hope, and fantasy.
The exhibition title Light Years refers to the vast distances and time light travels to reach the earth. This spiritual dimension is echoed in the choice of exhibition space, where the paintings unfold a particular resonance: while the presentation is distinctly shaped by the church interior, the setting also engages with the themes of religion and knowledge that are intrinsic to Amnon David Ar’s work.
Childhood is the theme of the follow-up exhibition at the Kurt Mühlenhaupt Museum in Berlin-Kreuzberg, which will open during Berlin Art Week 2026. Ar’s series on toys reflects tensions between fantasy and reality, mass production and individualism, as well as social indoctrination and gender roles. One work from the Childhood series, for example, depicts a mass-produced dinosaur toy bearing the inscription “Unique Piñata.”
THE ARTIST: Amnon David Ar was born in 1973 in Israel and began his professional career at the age of 17 as an illustrator and caricaturist for various newspapers in Israel. After only one year at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem, he pursued his own independent artistic path. Ar has received numerous awards, including first prize in the See Me competition in New York, the Haim Shiff Prize of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and
third prize at the Australian Boynes Artist Award in Melbourne. He has exhibited internationally in museums and galleries, including the Museu Europeu d’Art Modern in Barcelona, the Tel Aviv Museum, The Armory Show and Forum Gallery in New York, as well as NordArt in Büdelsdorf. His works have been featured in publications by renowned publishers such as Thames & Hudson and Hirmer Verlag, and are represented in important collections including the collection of Len Blavatnik, the Tel Aviv Museum, the Stiftung St. Matthäus, and others.
A long-standing peace activist, Ar and his partner, concert pianist Yehuda Inbar, along with other artists and scholars, co-founded Responses Culture Society e.V., a Berlin-based non-profit organization dedicated to promoting interdisciplinary art and the values of democracy, social equality, and peace. Through concerts and cultural events, the organization has raised funds for Israeli and Palestinian humanitarian and peace organizations.
