The Artist

RAMI ALON

Rami Alon, born 1943 in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, is a third-generation Jerusalemite. After his military service he worked in construction, specialising in chiselling Jerusalem stone — a skill that still carries his work today. In 2010, at sixty-seven, he began working in mosaic, showing his pieces on the exterior wall of his building on Yeshayahu Street in Tel Aviv, a wall that became a stop on guided tours of the city for some eleven years. He has since made around three hundred works: homages to classical painters, mosaic floors uncovered in Israel, Jewish symbols and landscapes. He combines broken vessels and ceramic with natural stone, shells and river pebbles.

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Rami Alon speaks

In the exhibition hall, in front of the works: why mosaic, how one starts at 67, what Klimt does to him, what he saw once the works were on the walls — and what he wants the viewer to feel.

His first mosaic was a table for his mother, made from broken plates and stones when he was twelve. He made the second fifty-five years later, from materials he gathered and broken cups the neighbours brought. In the days this was filmed he was at work on his ninth homage to Klimt — The Woman in Gold.

Doron Polak on Rami Alon · opening night

Thirteen seconds from the opening speech, and the applause that followed.

Doron Polak has curated in Israel and in Italy, including the first mosaic biennial held in Israel, in Netanya, with the mosaic museum in Ravenna. He said this in the hall, in front of the audience.