This morning I read my daily news espresso dose on The Economist “Espresso” App and it ended with “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced” by James Baldwin.

An ideal bridge to this weeks highlighted smart-collectors artist Zigi Ben-Haim, who is a master in facing things, making you aware of how matters evolve and what happens in the world.

Zigi works and lives with his adorable wife in Soho Manhattan. He has an outstanding personal history. I had the great owner to visit him again just recently in his fascinating space in New York. Whenever I meet Zigi and his wife Tsipi it is an amazingly inspiring moment, which I want to share with you as thorough as possible.

Picture a wide lofty living and working space in which Zigi is in his Zigiland creating his magic.

A magic which he is creating since over forty years, bringing him to all different kinds of places in the world. From Israel, to Russia, to the US and as well to Europe, particularly to Germany.

His works are part of many public collection such as for example the Guggenheim Museum New York, NY.

His wide spread talent also gifted him with a great competence to be a sculptor as well. Which grants us as a society the chance to experience is outdoor public sculptures as well around the world, like just recently on New York’s Broadway where he was commissioned to place his “Treasure the Green” sculptor.

During my last visit in May we started our chat and one of Zigi’s first words where:

“AN ARTIST DOESN’T SOLVE ANY PROBLEM, AN ARTIST IS ABLE TO MAKE YOU AWARE OF THINGS.”

Zigi Ben-Haim

A quote which moved me as I am always fascinated by artists, that deeply reflect upon philosophical, societal, political or generally lager issues and find a compelling way to express their encounters in their artworks.

An even greater and even more spectacular encounter for me is a red threat through the so called ‘oevre’ of an artist.

Zigi Ben-Haim is one of this spectacular and fascinating encounters.

His deep connection to nature, his family, and hart work continues through out his works.

Look above and explore this recent piece by Zigi. He creates small tiles, which each have their on partial story and combines them into the bigger picture, as you can see in this work above. Now search for the green leave, a brick and the ant. Three center elements you find in every piece of his work. The green leave reminds you of the nature and if you once get the chance to connect with Zigi, ask hime about this particular green colour. I will leave this as a surprise for the once inspired and engaged to dig deeper. The brick stands for the human efforts to build and create and the ant is the representation of hard work beyond proportions.

Since I know about this three details, and trust my there are some more, I am diving deep into his works and Zigi makes me aware of so many larger issues, which he captures and addresses in a brilliant way.

I leave you with this for now about Zigi and wish you at least as much joy as I experience  exploring Zigi’s Zigiland.

PS: Once you find “Yori” in his work, get back to me and I will tell you about this hidden treasure.