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Described as a "multidisciplinary who can convert anything
to art, design, documentary or other creative gold" Elyasaf
Kowner's art works and ridiculous span of curiosity are an
exploration into an authentic stream of thoughts.
Born in Haifa, Israel (1970), his father, Leon Kowner, gave
him a biblical name that contained two other names in it.
The two people are Leon's father, Ilia
Kowner, who was killed in the holocaust and Ilia's older
brother, Josef Kowner,
who was an artist that survived the second world war.
His graffiti work appeared in the weekly Village Voice (1994)
and in the book Stencil Graffiti (Thames & Hudson, 2002).
In 1999 he won the Sandberg award for After My Death
project at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem. In 2002 he won
the First Portrait prize, receiving a full year grant
from the Israel National Lottery.
Kowner's works have been shown worldwide, starting with the
New York graffiti project E.K. Paris (1994). Since then he
exhibited in Art in General, New York (2002), the Tel Aviv
museum (2003), World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam (2004),
WRO Fesitval, Wroclaw, Poland (2005), Herzliya museum (2006),
Israel museum (2007) and a one man show in Haifa museum (2005).
Kowner participated in international DVD releases such as
Bizz Circuits play Intifada Offspring, Mille Plateaux (Germany,
2004), ffwd_mag, Invernomuto (Italy, 2005). He published two
photography books, Car Portraits (2002) and Facing the Wishes
(2007).
Since 2006 started performing as singer song writer. Playing
guitar and singing in both Hebrew and English. He performed
several times in Tel Aviv's Mersand Café, Tungsten
Club, and in Israel Museum's Ticho House in Jerusalem as well
as on the street. He was interviewed to the Guy Pinnes TV
show, singing the Big Brother protest song.
In 2008, he won the Creativity Encouragement Prize for the
Visual Arts by the Israeli Ministry of Culture. That same
year moved into Afiqua studio, a space for collaborative work
and creative thought.
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