Gideon Ofrat

Gideon Ofrat was born in 1945 in Tel Aviv

Ofrat was born in Tel Aviv in 1945 under the name Gideon Fridlander. He was married to the photographer Aliza Auerbach until her death in 2015.

He earned a bachelor's degree in 1968 and a master's degree in 1970 at Tel Aviv University, with a year at Brown University. In 1974 he finished a doctorate in philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His dissertation, The Definition of Art, later came out as a book from HaKibbutz Hameuchad.

From 1970 to 1981 he taught modern drama at the Hebrew University's theater department. He was also a senior lecturer in philosophy at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. Later he taught at the University of Haifa, the Open University and Yeshiva University in New York.

In 1976 and 1979 he curated the first performance festivals in Israel at the Artists' House in Tel Aviv. From 1980 to 1996 he curated more than 20 historical exhibitions on Israeli art in Israel and the United States. His 1990 exhibition on portraits of leaders was moved from Independence Hall and shown at the Ein Harod art center.

From 2002 to 2005 he was artistic director and chief curator of Time for Art in Tel Aviv. He has written many articles and more than 100 catalogs on Israeli artists. He lives in Jerusalem.