Zvi Lachman

Zvi Lachman was born in Tel Aviv in 1950.
His parents were among the founders of Kibbutz Sde-Nahum. He has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a master’s in architecture from the Technion, Haifa. He studied sculpture with Moshe Sternschuss and Yitzhak Danziger. He served as an architect in the Israeli navy. In 1973, he moved with his family to New York, where he studied under the American Jewish sculptor Chaim Gross and artists who continued the New York School (Paul Resika, Leland Bell, Peter Agostini, Bruce Gagner). He earned a master’s degree in art at Parsons School of Design, New York, and studied two more years at the New York Studio School. In 1985 he returned to Israel with his family, and has since lived and worked in Tel Aviv.

Lachman has held numerous solo exhibitions, including Figure, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Herzliya (1990); Portrait, Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv (1991); Head, Gordon Gallery, Tel Avimv (1993); Works on Paper, Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv (1997); Poets’ Portraits, traveling exhibition (Metula Poetry Festival; Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Jerusalem; Beit Reuven Museum, Tel Aviv; Yeshiva University Museum, New York; Mizel Museum, Denver, Colorado; Rubin Frankel Gallery, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts; Wilfrid Israel Museum, Kibbutz Hazore’a) (1997, 2008–9); Ransom of the Father, Museum of Israeli Art, Ramat Gan (1999); Works from the Studio, 437 Broadway, New York (2002); Canvases Against Black, Golconda Gallery, Tel Aviv (2002); Angusses, The Open Museum, Omer Industrial Park (2003–4); Recent Works, Golconda Gallery, Tel Aviv (2007); Portrait and Self, Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv (2009); Standing Man, Sitting Woman, Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv (2011); Pillars, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Herzliya (2014); Homage to Abraham Sutzkever, Schechter Gallery, Neve Schechter Center, Tel Aviv (2019). And most recently, Face to Face,Mishkan Museum of Art, Ein Harod (2023-2024).

Lachman’s sculpture has featured in group shows at central art venues, including Five Young Artists, New School Gallery, New York (1985); Aluminum, Parsons School of Design, New York (1990); Homage to Rembrandt, Artists’ House, Tel Aviv (1992); Israeli Sculpture at Tefen, The Open Museum, Tefen (1994); Installation-Sculpture, Israel Festival, Jerusalem (1995); The Sacrifice of Isaac, Meny H Gallery, Tel Aviv (1996); Israeli Sculpture, 1948–1998: Milestones, The Open Museum, Tefen (1998); Where Did We Come From and Where Are We Heading, Petach Tikva Museum of Art, Petach Tikva (1998); Local Dialogue, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Herzliya (2000); The Moment After or The Moment Before, Umm el-Fahem Art Gallhery, Umm el-Fahem (2001); Balances: Art and Trial, Heichal Hamishpat, Tel Aviv (2001); Artists Against Occupation, Beit Uri and Rami Nehushtan Museum, Kibbutz Ashdot Ya’akov Me’uchad (2002); Portraits from Antiquity to the Present, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv (2002); Invisible Presence, Wilfrid Israel Museum, Kibbutz Hazore’a (2017); A Visit, Nahum Gutman Museum, Tel Aviv (2022). In addition, his sculptures are installed in various outdoor public spaces across the country, including the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art’s Sculpture Garden; the Sculpture Garden at the Omer Industrial Park; Reichman University’s Sculpture Garden, Herzliya; Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan; and Meir Medical Center, Kfar Saba.

Lachman’s paper-based works have been on display in various group exhibitions, including Dialogue, Sparkasse Bank, Bad Kissingen, Germany (1995); Hester Panim (Face Hiding), Petach Tikva Museum of Art, Petach Tikva (1996); In Memory of Yitzchak Rabin, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv (1996); Milk, Honey and Ink: Works on Paper of Israeli Artists, Rabinowitz Gallery, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (1998); Portraits, Bat Yam Museum of Art, Bat Yam (1998); Light and Shade: Drawing and Painting of Israeli Artists, Artists’ House, Moscow (2000); Wandering Library, Jewish Museum, Venice, Italy (Biennale satellite exhibition, 2003); Traces, Artists’ House, Jerusalem (2005); The Continuous Mark: 40 Years of the New York Studio School, New York Studio School, New York (2005); Wounds and Bandages, Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery, Umm el-Fahem (2006); Second Croatian Biennial of Illustrations,  Klovićevi Dvori Gallery, Zagreb; Portraits, Trumpeldor Gallery, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba (2014). And most recently, October Seven, Anu, Museum of Jewish People (2023-2025); Masterpieces, Mishkan Museum of Art. Ein Harod (2024-2025).

In addition to the catalogues that have accompanied his exhibitions over the years, Lachman has also published several artist books: Gilgamesh (limited edition, Even Hoshen Publishing, 1999), etchings from which were exhibited that year at Sotheby’s, Tel Aviv, and Artspace Gallery, Jerusalem; Death Fugue (Even Hoshen Publishing, 1999), etchings of which were exhibited that year at the Jerusalem Print Workshop; and Poets’ Portraits (published by Beit Reuven Museum, Tel Aviv, and Yeshiva University, New York). Lachman’s portraits of poets have been published in the poetry magazine Chadarim (1988–2012); and his works on papers are featured in Lilach Lachman’s book Yavo Gdi Zahav: An Anthology of Lullabies (Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing, 2016). And most recently,Lachman Face to Face, Mishkan Museum of Art. Ein Harod (2023).

Lachman has taught drawing, painting, and sculpture at the Avni Institute, Tel Aviv; Hamidrasha School of Art, Beit Berl; Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s workshops; and the Department of Industrial Design, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. He has served as guest teacher at the New York Studio School and at the International Center for the Arts, Monte Castello, Italy. He has also lectured at various venues: Art Forum, Bologna, Italy (2009); the international conference Trauma and Societal Resilience in Changing Environments, Tel Aviv University (2017); What Remains (a series of lectures for the general public), Makom Le’Omanut, Tel Aviv (2018–9); Memory and Work (a series of lectures for psychoanalysts), Tel Aviv University, and A Window to Psychoanalysis, Israel Psychoanalytic Society (2021).

Lachman has received various awards and grants, including the Helena Rubinstein Grant and the Dean’s Merit Scholarship, Parsons School of Design (1978–80); residency at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (1996); residency at Albers Foundation, New Haven, Connecticut (2002); and the city of Herzliya’s Life Achievement Award (2017). Pais Award for the realization of a sculpture installment (2023); A Plumas Artist Grant for Plastic Art (2024). A film documenting an encounter between Lachman and the Nazareth-based poet Taha Muhammad Ali was screened at his exhibition at the Beit Reuven Museum, Tel Aviv (2007, directed and produced by Tali Larish); One Eye Wide Open, a film following Lachman’s work from 1998 to 2008 (2008, directed and produced by Aner Preminger and Ami Drozd, in collaboration with Dutch TV Avro Broadcasting), was presented at international film festivals in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Amsterdam, Milan, and Lisbon. Lachman has also been documented painting a portrait of the poet Ida Fink, in the film The Garden that Floated Away (2005, directed by Ruth Walk; edited by Yael Perlov); and drawing a portrait of the model Anna, in the film I, Anna (2016, filmed and produced by Rachel Segev).