Boaz Arad

Boaz Arad was born in 1956 in Tel Aviv

Boaz Arad was born on 16 March 1956. The Hebrew account places his birth in Afula and says he grew up in Holon.

He studied art at the Avni Institute in Tel Aviv from 1978 to 1982. In 1995 and 1996 he studied criticism and theory at Camera Obscura.

Arad began exhibiting in 1985. He first worked in painting, drawing and sculpture, and later mainly in photography and video, often with humor and an ironic view of identity and memory. He taught at the Thelma Yellin school, at Camera Obscura, at the Midrasha art school in Beit Berl and in the photography department at Bezalel.

From 2009 until 2018 he curated the Midrasha gallery at Hayarkon 19 in Tel Aviv. He also collected African art. His works are held in museum collections in Israel and abroad, including the Israel Museum.

On 1 February 2018, the news site Mako published a former student's account of a relationship with him; Arad said it began only after she finished school. He died by suicide at his home on 2 February 2018. In July 2018 Mako issued an apology clarifying it had not claimed any forced or non-consensual relations.