Amit Kanfi (b.1995) Kanfi began painting following military operation “Protective Edge" in July 2014, which left him with emotional scars and deep trauma. The machoistic environment which characterizes the combat units, did not allow him to share the mental difficulties he was facing with those around him. The notebook and pencil served him as a safe space in which he could shout his authentic voice and release the burden of dealing alone with what the world presented to him. During his teenage years, Kanfi moved from country to country, following his father's job. He adapted to the society that surrounded him in each of his family's journeys, examined the aesthetics and characteristics of those who surrounded him and became a short-time local in each place he landed. During his late adolescence, he was living in Amsterdam, where he discovered punk culture. Kanfi adapted the style, musical taste, and cultural mimics of the scene. When he returned to Israel, after graduating high school, he had to adapt to the society that surrounded him once again. As serving in the Israeli army is mandatory, Amit joined at 18yo and served in an elite combat unit.
Today, Kanfi is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Tel Aviv. He has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions and created personal art projects in Israel and around the world. Kanfi works in mediums such as painting, graffiti, sculpture, animation, video, and installation. Amit Kanfi is an expressive artist with an outspoken voice, a refreshing artistic style and a unique quality that resonates with people from all walks of life. He creates a new type of art that expresses complex ideas in simple language through the symbolic images of his generation. His works are blatant, naive and sarcastic and convey a “wrong” social sensitivity that is expressed through the vulgar and dark sentences that he writes. His technique is intuitive and fast, he uses paint straight from the tube, in some parts with gentle brush strokes, and in others he draws with his limbs. Kanfi creates works that give a sneak peek of his worldview, which is expressed in the description of reality in his
style, imagination and temperament. One can say that Kanfi’s work is a not-so-gentle critique of the politics of contemporary identity that he stretches while dealing with relevant cases in today’s world. Kanfi acts against bourgeoisie conceptions, indifferent to academic formalism and strives to break the rules with uncompromising sincerity.
