Gallery
Upside-down portrait of David Ben-Gurion
(L. to r.) Rabbi Shlomo ben David Lakein, Naomi Shemer, and local storeowner
Local storeowners
Tribute to Operation Magic Carpet
Arab portrait
Imaginative portrait
Solomon Souza | |
|---|---|
| Born | Solomon Souza-Kohn 1993 (age 29–30) London |
| Nationality | British, Israeli |
| Known for | Spray-painted murals in Mahane Yehuda Market, Jerusalem |
| Style | Street art |
| Spouse | Ayelet Finkelstein (m. 2021) |
Solomon Souza (born 1993) [1] [2] is a British-Israeli street artist. He is best known for spray painting portraits of contemporary and historical figures on the metal shutters of the Mahane Yehuda Market ("The Shuk") in Jerusalem, turning them into an after-hours attraction. [1]
Solomon Souza was born in London, and grew up in the neighbourhood of Hackney. [1] [3] His mother, British-Israeli painter Karen (Keren) Souza-Kohn, [4] is one of the three daughters of the Goan artist F. N. Souza, [5] and Czech Jewish actress Liselotte Kristian (née Kohn). [6] [7] [8] (His grandfather F. N. Souza's bestselling 1955 painting Birth depicts his grandmother Liselotte posing while pregnant with his mother Keren. [7] [9] )
His younger sister Miriam is a filmmaker. [3] [10] He has been married to Ayelet Finkelstein [11] [12] since February 2021. [3] [10]
Largely self-taught, Solomon Souza has worked on murals since he was 14 years old. [3] [13]
As of July 2018, Souza had painted more than 250 of the 360 shutters in the market. [1] [2] Each painting takes two to four hours to complete. [13] Souza usually completes three murals per night. [13]
Subjects include contemporary and historical figures, including Yossi Banai, Roseanne Barr, Menachem Begin, David Ben-Gurion (painted upside-down), [14] Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Meyer Lansky, Emma Lazarus, Bob Marley, Matisyahu, Golda Meir, Moses Montefiore, Dona Gracia Nasi, Daniel Pearl, Jonathan Pollard, Naomi Shemer, Steven Spielberg, Hannah Szenes, Henrietta Szold, and Bracha Zefira. [1] [15] [14] [16] There are nearly one dozen rabbinical portraits, including Mordechai Eliyahu, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Yitzhak Kaduri, Maimonides, Shneur Zalman of Liadi, and Ovadia Yosef. [1] [13] [17] Arab personalities are also represented, including Lucy Aharish, Sheikh Fari al-Jabari of Hebron, Si Ali Sakkat, and the Queen of Sheba. [1] [18] Biblical paintings include Moses, Solomon, and panels depicting the seven days of creation. [15] [14] [13] Some of the early paintings are of the stall owners themselves, or their grandfathers, by personal request. [14] [13]
The murals have become an after-hours and Saturday attraction, when stalls are closed and the shutters and metal doors are visible. [1] [13]
Solomon Souza was invited in 2019 by Vivek Menezes, the special projects curator for the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa, India to do a similar art project there. [19] Souza created murals of various prominent Goans, past and present. [20]
In January 2020, Chelsea FC unveiled a mural by Solomon Souza on an outside wall of the West Stand at Stamford Bridge stadium. The mural is part of Chelsea's 'Say No to Antisemitism' campaign funded by club owner Roman Abramovich. Included on the mural are depictions of footballers Julius Hirsch and Árpád Weisz, who were killed at Auschwitz concentration camp, and Ron Jones, a British prisoner of war known as the 'Goalkeeper of Auschwitz'. [21]
In July 2021, Zionist activist Rudy Rochman and two other Israelis presented a Torah scroll, with its cover designed by Solomon Souza, to an Igbo Jewish community in Nigeria just before the three Israelis were arrested by the Nigerian police. [22]
"Jerusalem of Gold" is an Israeli song written by Naomi Shemer. Often contrasted with the official anthem Hatikva, the original song described the Jewish people's 2,000-year longing to return to Jerusalem. Shemer added a final verse after the Six-Day War to celebrate Jerusalem's re-unification.
Yosef "Yossi" Banai was an Israeli performer, singer, actor, and dramatist.
OSGEMEOS are identical twin street artists Otavio Pandolfo and Gustavo Pandolfo. They started painting graffiti in 1987 and their work appears on streets and in galleries across the world.
Francis Newton Souza was an Indian-American British Asian artist. He was a founding member of the Progressive Artists' Group of Bombay. Souza's style exhibited both decadence and primitivism.
Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies, is a school in Jerusalem for Jewish students aged 16–29. Classes include instruction in Jewish Mysticism, Philosophy, Talmud, Torah, Chassidut, and the Hebrew Language. The Mayanot Men's Program was founded in 1996, the Women's Program started in 2008, the Post High School program started in 2016, and the Zal Program started in 2022.
Jaffa Road is one of the longest and oldest major streets in Jerusalem. It crosses the city from east to west, from the Old City walls to downtown Jerusalem, the western portal of Jerusalem and the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. It is lined with shops, businesses, and restaurants. It joins with Ben Yehuda Street and King George Street to form the Downtown Triangle central business district. Major landmarks along Jaffa Road are Tzahal Square, Safra Square, Zion Square, Davidka Square, the triple intersection (Hameshulash) at King George V Street and Straus Street, the Ben Yehuda Street pedestrian mall, the Mahane Yehuda market, and the Jerusalem Central Bus Station. Jaffa Road has been redeveloped as a car-free pedestrian mall served by the Jerusalem Light Rail, as well as by the Jerusalem–Yitzhak Navon railway station directly adjacent to the Central Bus Station.
Mahane Yehuda Market, often referred to as "The Shuk", is a marketplace in Jerusalem. Popular with locals and tourists alike, the market's more than 250 vendors sell fresh fruits and vegetables; baked goods; fish, meat and cheeses; nuts, seeds, and spices; wines and liquors; clothing and shoes; and housewares, textiles, and Judaica.
Nachlaot is a cluster of 23 courtyard neighborhoods in central Jerusalem surrounding the Mahane Yehuda Market. It is known for its narrow, winding lanes, old-style housing, hidden courtyards and many small synagogues.
Florentin is a neighborhood in the southern part of Tel Aviv, Israel, named for Solomon Florentin, a Greek Jew who purchased the land in the late 1920s. Development of the area was spurred by its proximity to the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway.
Carmel Market is an outdoor marketplace in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Árpád Weisz was a Hungarian Olympic football player and manager. Weisz was Jewish, and was murdered with his wife and children by the Nazis during the Holocaust in World War II at Auschwitz.
Yehuda Bacon is an Israeli artist who survived the Holocaust.
Liselotte Grschebina was an Israeli photographer.
Clal Center, also known as Clal Building, is a 15-story office tower and indoor shopping mall on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem. Completed in 1972, it was the first upscale, indoor shopping mall in Jerusalem. Built as part of a plan to revitalize Jaffa Road, it enjoyed a brief period of high occupancy until many tenants relocated to malls and office buildings in new suburbs in the 1990s. It is widely viewed as a commercial and architectural failure.
Ayelet Carmi, is an Israeli painter and installation artist.
Zikhron Tuvya, also spelled Zichron Tuvia, is a former courtyard neighborhood in Jerusalem. Founded in 1890, it was the twenty-third Jewish neighborhood to be established outside the Old City walls. The neighborhood consisted of parallel row-houses facing each other across a wide street, today named Zikhron Tuvya Street. Initially populated by tradesmen and workshops, it became a residential neighborhood after the 1920s. It is now part of the larger Nachlaot neighborhood.
Mahane Yehuda is a historic neighborhood in Jerusalem. Established on the north side of Jaffa Road in 1887, it was planned and managed by the consortium of Swiss-Christian banker Johannes Frutiger and his Jewish partners, Joseph Navon and Shalom Konstrum. By the end of the 19th century, it encompassed 162 homes. Originally occupied by upper middle-class residents, it became a working-class neighborhood beginning in the late 1920s. Today the neighborhood is part of Nachlaot. The Mahane Yehuda Market located across the street was named after the neighborhood.
The Audubon Mural Project is a public art project with the goal of painting the birds depicted by John James Audubon in his early 19th century folio The Birds of America on blank walls and roll-down corrugated metal shop shutters of the Hamilton Heights and Washington Heights neighborhoods of upper Manhattan where Audubon once lived.
Tova Berlinski was a Polish-born Israeli painter who was considered to be a doyenne of the painting community in Jerusalem.
Israeli street art and graffiti refer to the various forms of visual art found on public walls, buildings, and other surfaces throughout Israel. Sparked in the 1990s following the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli street art has evolved into a diverse and vibrant expression of urban culture, with a variety of styles and themes reflecting the country's unique cultural, historical, and political landscape. Street art in Israel often addresses social and political issues, as well as Israeli identity and cultural heritage. In addition to contemporary street art, Israel is also home to ancient graffiti, such as inscriptions and drawings found in archaeological sites throughout the country, which provide a fascinating insight into the everyday lives of ancient civilizations. From Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Israeli street art has gained recognition both locally and internationally for its creativity, impact, and contribution to the urban art scene. There is also a substantial amount of street art made by Palestinians to criticize the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, most prominently on the Israeli West Bank barrier. Notable Israeli street artists include Dede, Addam Yekutieli, Pilpeled, and Solomon Souza.
Her other daughter Karen is lesbian. She has had many stormy and violent relationships. She finally has been settled for six years in stable relationship. She also took art training and has been successful.
Francis continued with the violence and threats, he tried to deprive her first of home, then of the three girls. He turned off her water supply. She tried to adopt her three girls (she never married Francis) to keep them safe with her. Camden Council prevented her; Anya was in care of the Mental Health Act because of Down's Syndrome. Francis refused his permission for her to adopt.
