Hanoch Piven, Artist

September 1, 2004

About the Artist

Hanoch Piven's bright, colorful, minimalist and witty collages were immediately snatched by the American publishing world upon their first appearance in 1992. Throughout the last 10 years Piven's dimensional portraits have been published in most major American magazines and newspapers such as Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times and many more.

Ground meat, underwear, boxing gloves, bananas, chicken fat and smoked fish are a small sample of 'found objects' Piven utilizes to create likenesses. As fellow American caricaturist Steve Brodner wrote in his introduction to Piven's 2001 collection of portraits, "Faces": "His pictures fill the viewer's eye with strong graphic statements while powerful commentary, deeply ingrained in the graphics, stimulates the mind..."

Piven recently authored, The Perfect Purple Feather (Time Warner Little Brown, 2002) and What Presidents are made of (Simon & Schuster, 2004), a different look at American Presidents.

Between the years 1996 and 2001 Piven lived in Israel where his work for the daily Haaretz established him as the country's most visible illustrator. His two published books sold over 40.000 copies in Israel.

Born in Uruguay, raised in Israel, and schooled in New York City, Piven currently divides his time between Barcelona, New York and Tel Aviv.