Arik of All Trades
Crossposted from Haaretz
“Who the f—k is Arik?” That’s what designer Arik Levy says his exhibition opening at the Alon Segev gallery in Tel Aviv this week could have been called, as the world-famous designer forays into the art world.
“Everyone in Israel knows Arik the designer, but they don’t know Arik the artist at all,” Levy says over the phone from his studio in Paris. “In the end I understood that it may be a title for an article, but not the name of an exhibition, and therefore I decided to call it ‘Natural Disorder,’ because the exhibition is not about an artist but about an artist’s work. That’s the point, and there is often confusion. My art, or design, or that of anyone else, although they originate with me, they stand on their own.”
Levy, one of the most famous and successful commercial designers in the world, moves back and forth between fields, between artistic creation and commercial exhibitions, between personal projects and mass produced items. He doesn’t seem to be overly preoccupied with the question of “who the f—k is Arik.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30