Auction 30 Israeli Contemporary Art - Young promising artists for investment
By KooKoo
Mar 12, 2022
Ramat Gan, Israel

New year opens with KooKoo, Israel's promising young artists -


For this sale, we combined two opposites: a selection of realistic works by the best artists alongside pop art works: everything is Israeli - everything is contemporary!


Gala Gilan, Roni Yoffe, Avia Halabi and Shani Shemesh lead the sale with fine works of realism - pay attention to the sculpture with the scent of Italy that brought Shani Shemesh to Israel first time with KooKoo


Lena Revanko with six beautiful works that returned to Israel after an exhibition in France,


KOT-ART, which has already been sold in the gallery for thousands of dollars to create with four large and cool pop art works at KooKoo's prices,


Eran Weber with three pulsating drawings!


Julie Filipenko with a beautiful original work for collectors


Isaac Jacobs with particularly large and significant works,


In this sale, we will introduce you for the first time to Shay Katz - a young and interesting artist, Smadar Kilchensky - an Israeli actress and painter, Kobi Zarfati - a realist painter, a graduate of the station, Eyelet Rosenberg and Lior Ron


And also - Bazooka Joe, Orit Akta, Vered Aharonovitch, Naomi Shalev, Mor Rimmer, Yariv Amitai, Michal Worka, Israel Dror Hemed, Diana Kogan, Doron Wolf and many more


KooKoo takes care of you for the best, contact us 0558859447 (Lisa)

Enjoy and good luck :) (As always - prices include VAT and no VAT added)

More details
The auction has ended

LOT 47:

Bazooka Joe
The Jewish bird and the Pharaoh, 2020

Sold for: $340 (₪1,105)
₪1,105
Start price:
$ 300
Estimated price :
$800 - $1,000
Buyer's Premium: 15%
VAT: 18% On commission only
Users from foreign countries may be exempted from tax payments, according to the relevant tax regulations
Auction took place on Mar 12, 2022 at KooKoo

The Jewish bird and the Pharaoh, 2020
A special work by the famous artist Bazooka Joe: The Jewish bird is an important motif in his works and the artist even created a number of wooden sculptures of the bird. Beside her, the figure of the pharaonic double-faced fisherman with his prey on the fishing hook, the bird aiming to land on the prey. The figures stand under the artist's illuminated flashlight.

Acrylic and ink on framed paper
30/21 cm
signed

A rare opportunity to purchase an original work on wood by the artist Bazooka Joe - not available from his works, everything is pre-sold to several collectors

The esteemed artist Bazooka Joe, a painter and sculptor whose works sell for tens of thousands of dollars and adorn the walls of the people of the upper echelons in Israel.

Adi Mendel (55) grew up in Bat Yam, the only son of a real estate and car dealer father and a housewife mother. It was a wealthy family that lacked almost nothing - except what a child really needs. Says and does not specify. "My mother would draw. Not for a living, because she did not have to work, but as a hobby. I, perhaps in response to my mother's attitude, could not stand paintings. I hated colors. I did not touch the brush. At the end it is probably in the DNA.
When he became a drug addict, his family members, including his brother from his father’s late marriage, turned their backs on him. "I had no one to ask for help from, " he says, "so I started breaking the law, mostly on property offenses, to fund the drugs. I did it reluctantly, with great sorrow. 'Forced crime, ' I call it."

The drug addiction and crime brought him to a total of six years behind bars, with all this time a tremendous talent hidden deep within him and not knowing how to break out. "I saw death with my own eyes, " says Bazooka Joe, mentioning, once again, how long the distance is between someone who was so close to ending his life in a tiny cell, alone, and someone who is gaining fame today.
His talent stood out from the canvas in the eyes of anyone who witnessed his paintings. He asked his stage name from the character on the gum covers. "Bazooka Joe was a sniper in the United States Army and I was a sniper with a paintbrush, " he explains. "Plus, I connect to the naivety of the bright colors."

His works also began to make waves among those interested in the field of art. He left the gallery three years ago, after his works were priced at well over a thousand dollars. Among the buyers of Bazooka Joe's art are businessman, controlling shareholder and CEO Castro Gabi Rotter, publicist Rani Rahav and the Wertheimer industrialist family. They are now joined by another satisfied customer - the prison service. Today, Bazooka Joe focuses on art. Addiction to creation has replaced drug addiction, "but it's a good addiction, " he says.

To close a circle with his rough past, the artist painted with the approval of the Tel Aviv Municipality on the walls of the Abu Kabir Prison (photo attached)