I am Ilya Gefter, an Israeli artist, art educator and founder of the Visual Art Center, an art school in Tel Aviv. As I follow the news and firsthand testimonies of the war in Ukraine, staying passive has become unbearable to me. I am offering a large selection of my paintings and drawings for sale to raise funds for charities, the Ukrainian army and individual civilians in dire circumstances. I am convinced that collective actions to help Ukrainians are dwarfed by the horror of the events and the long term dangers they present. For me, doing something is a moral and psychological necessity.
The paintings offered for sale are can be seen and selected on my website: https://www.ilyagefter.com/works-on-sale
Purchase requests can be made via the website. Whoever makes a purchase would be asked to transfer the funds to well trusted accounts in Ukraine.
I was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. Russian language and cultural heritage are major parts of who I am. But my identity is far less important than the people and values I identify with. Over the last five years I've been in Ukraine over 10 times and developed admiration for the country and its kind people. I married a Ukrainian woman whose entire family is living near the capital Kyiv. Her grandmother is 98 and her niece is 1 years old. They are not hiding in the shelter at the moment because they do not have one.
When the war broke out I was in a state of immobilizing shock. I still cannot deal with the horror but I can at least deal with my own helplessness by doing whatever I can, as an artist and a person. On the first day of the sale, I raised 7,000 shekels, and I hope that it is just a start. I understand that as an individual I cannot gather nearly as much funds as well-organized and well-staffed charities could. But I can commit that every shekel contributed will be forwarded to those in need. There is no operational cost. I can also commit that whoever contributes, will get a beautiful work of art in return.
