Jerusalem celebrates 55 years of creativity by pioneering sculptor Israel Hadany with a major exhibition and citywide tours exploring his public art. Curated by Noa Karavan-Cohen and Smadar Teimour, The Secret of Forms runs from September to November 2025 at the municipal galleries The New Gallery-Artists’ Studios Teddy and Hutzot Hayotzer, with free admission.
Opening: September 5 at Teddy Gallery.
For more than half a century, Hadany has worked in the space between the personal and the collective, the sacred and the everyday, and the material and the spiritual, earning recognition as one of Israel’s most significant artists. His works are embedded across Jerusalem, Israel, and the world, eluding easy categorization or stylistic label. Hadany’s creations range from miniature, jewelry-like sculptures to monumental public installations, from intimate-scale works to expansive environmental pieces.
Influenced by ancient traditions and distant cultures yet deeply rooted in the fabric of Jerusalem – its tensions, memories, and evolving artistic interpretations – Hadany’s art emerges through attentive engagement with place, material, and time. Almost no material has escaped his experimentation: stone and marble, wood and metal, concrete, glass, paper, water, and earth.
Each is chosen not only for aesthetic qualities but also for its potential to convey an idea, spark an experience, or provoke conversation. In Hadany’s words, “I select a material for its capacity to best serve the sculptural idea or to create the stimulus for that idea to take shape.”
Thorough presentation of Hadany's works
The new exhibition, initiated by Jerusalem’s Department of Culture and Arts, is the most comprehensive presentation of Hadany’s work to date. Developed through in-depth research and close collaboration with the artist, it incorporates texts written by Hadany and focuses on his public-space works, particularly site-specific pieces created for the environments where they are installed.
Drawings, models, specially commissioned works, photographs, projections, and documentary footage invite visitors to follow Hadany’s path and reconsider the spaces we inhabit.
The exhibition spans two municipal galleries: Hutzot Hayotzer dedicates its space to Hadany’s Jerusalem-focused works, while the new Teddy Gallery presents his non-Jerusalem and international projects. The final section at Teddy highlights unrealized works, plans, proposals, drawings, and projects straddling fantasy and metaphysics, demonstrating that Hadany’s practice is not only aesthetic or formal but a continuous process of imagination, passion, and labor aiming to leave traces of presence even where the work is not visible.
Alongside the exhibitions, artist talks and special public tours through the urban space connecting the two galleries will take place during Sukkot, inviting audiences to experience Hadany’s art in context.
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion commented, “Jerusalem is a vibrant cultural anchor, where artists like Israel Hadany shape the urban landscape and add layers of meaning. The Secret of Forms expresses the municipality’s commitment to advancing art in general and public art in particular, honoring artists who live and work in our city.
“We are proud to present this comprehensive exhibition, which allows the public to encounter up close the works that have shaped Israel’s public space and to continue fostering the connection between art, community, and place.”
Karavan-Cohen and Teimour added, “Alongside the challenge of presenting monumental, site-specific art within gallery spaces, selecting the works for this exhibition was itself a challenge, as each of Hadany’s pieces embodies a unique dialogue with material and place. Our curatorial approach emphasizes Hadany’s creative process and the visitor experience, rather than chronological order.”