“Koach” by Mike Wirth at Hillel at UC Irvine captures strength through vibrant imagery. The Hebrew word koach means strength. Mike teamed up with OC Hillel director Tamy Cohen to bring this vision to life. Together, they spoke with students about the meaning of strength.
Eureka by Louis Barak in Downtown Santa Ana pays tribute to Orange County’s long Jewish history. Nathan Fainbarg established a shoe store called Eureka at 315 E. 4th Street in Santa Ana during the 1920s. The mural features Nathan and his wife Rose, and overlooks the stretch of E. 4th St. that their family helped build.
Standing at the very edge of the historic Downtown Santa Ana district, this vibrant mural greets all comers to the neighborhood with a greeting of peace and welcoming. Hillel uses his distinctive experimental lettering to spell out the word Shalom in Hebrew in bright colors that stand out among the many captivating murals in this artsy area.
Potential Revealed by Yitzchok Moully at Chabad of Newport Beach.
Learning Comes Alive by Yitzchok Moully at Chabad of Irvine.
Together at Sinai by Yitzchok Moully & Sheina Yarmush at Hebrew Academy Community Day School of Orange County.
CURATOR | Hillel Smith is an artist and designer focused re-imagining the potential of Judaica by utilizing contemporary media to create new manifestations of traditional forms. Seeing Hebrew as the visual glue that binds Jews together across time and space, he explores Jewish typographic history, using print as a lens for Jewish life and culture.
Dede Bandaid is a Tel-Aviv based, multidisciplinary urban artist, who utilizes various mediums to communicate within the public arena. Nitzan Mintz is a visual poet. She began working a decade ago in the streets of Tel Aviv, where she would create visual poetry for specific locations in the city. As partners in life and practice, they find inspiration in the vibrant pulse and constant flux of urban environments.
Yitzchok Moully is a conceptual artist whose work explores the intersection of spirituality and the material world we live in. Moully brings together the disparate colorful worlds of his hippie upbringing and Hasidic culture, resulting in a unique palette of colors and ideas.
Mike Wirth is a street artist, graphic designer, and an associate professor of art based in Charlotte, NC. His work reflects his blended Jewish upbringing and his experience of adulthood in the American South through pop art inspired Jewish iconography and typography.