Hanoch Piven is a leading contemporary Israeli artist whose whimsical portraits tell stories with surprising depth and complexity. His work depicting prominent people, from Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs to Barack Obama and Saddam Hussein, is created using a wide array of seemingly random objects — but every object tells a story and carries meaning. It’s amazing how much you can learn about a person from the objects Piven selects for each of his portraits.
The Piven Workshop
Using the art and methodology of popular Israeli artist Hanoch Piven, we can encourage everyone to explore Israel’s culture, values, and history, their own surroundings and identities, and their personal connections to Israel.
Piven To Life
While the Piven Workshop is a natural fit for your Arts and Crafts program, we believe that Israel should “live” everywhere, and the five thematic portraits of Ben-Gurion that Piven created can have resonance in many areas around camp.
Israel Up Close
In this workshop, campers will engage with Hanoch Piven’s new series of thematic portraits based on the likeness of Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, and then create a variety of portraits using found objects that tell stories they want to share.
The Stories That Portraits Tell
In this workshop, campers will be introduced to Piven’s work and will assess the objects used to create portraits of prominent Israelis. Then they’ll have an opportunity to create their own self-portraits using Piven’s methodology.
Piven created a video, recorded in his studio in Jaffa, Israel, describing his methodology and sharing stories.
The People We Know
In this workshop, campers will have an opportunity to create portraits, using Piven’s methodology, of counselors or staff who make up the camp community as a way of getting better acquainted with them.
