A host of Hamas, rescued in a daring Israeli military mission after eight months of “hell” that included chains, bandaged eyes with rope, is now transforming his pain into paintings.
The Russian-Israelí Andrei Kozlov is launching his first solo art exhibition in Chelsea with a moving collection that reflects his difficult situation in physical and psychological torture that includes captivity.
The native of St. Petersburg, who is not Jewish, moved to Israel 13 months before Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 against Israel, escaped an inevitable draft in the Russian war in Ukraine.
Before that movement, Kozlov marveled, “What are the possibilities of being in a terrorist attack?”
Kozlov was working at the Nova Festival on that thick day as a disarmed security guard, and captured by a terrorist. He was transported to Gaza, a trip represented in “Highway to Hell”, a disturbing piece that remembers the horrible car trip with his companion Hosta Shlomi Ziv.
The “SO Real Surreal” exhibition as a whole to open next month in the contemporary Lux gallery, includes a dish of paints that pierce the heart, with a wink to the most influential figures of art, including the blue period of Picasso and Edvard Munch. ”
“To create something like this, it speaks to me,” Kozlov told the post. “It is another way of telling the story.”
The memory of being continuously dragged for eight months by the terrorist group is brought to light in its abstract Piece, “maybe”, which shows a dark and narrow Allyway that Kozlov moved routinely, wondering if he would ever do it alive.
Time passed in captivity finding blank sheets of paper that allowed him to get lost in drawing other worlds with which he could only dream.
“It was only for my soul and to get my mind from this prison,” said Kozlov, who was rescued along with three other duration a mission of special forces of June 2024.
The cinematographic incursion of the elite command team involved heavy shots and air attacks to free Kozlov along with ZIV, Almog Meir Jan and Noa Aragmani-Who became the public face of the massacre when she was kidnapped by a Cyle-Ridist. It was named this week as one of the 100 most influential people of the year of Time magazine.
It is one of his “three birthday,” Koslov said about his rescue and survive on October 7. “It’s the best day of my life.”
Once free, a white canvas became its way to healing.
And its history is both a story of New York and in the Middle East. It was always Kozlov’s dream to come to New York, and came true after his rescue to pursue art therapy and the artistic scene of the city, working in his collection in Spaces In Greenpoint and Chelsea.
Leonardo Muñoz
Emanuel Friedman, whose gallery is the host of The Art Show, said the collection will find a home in the museums “during the years and years.”
“By accident, I became a symbol of hope,” Koslov admitted, who lives in Midtown.
“I have a second chance. I need to use it.”
