“Because my work is my passion, I’m involved with my art every step along the way in casting. I have a passion for life and for what makes the world go round: relationships, man and woman, family; this is what my work is about, my work flows, as life flows.” ? Itzik Benshalom
Born in Hadera, Israel in 1945, Benshalom became a merchant marine at the age of fifteen. This formative experience influenced his work as he travelled the world absorbing new images. Upon completing his military service in the Israeli Navy, Benshalom knew that he wanted to work with metal -a material that had always fascinated him. In 1967, he and his brother-in-law set up a foundry specializing in the lost-wax method of casting sculpture. For 15 years Benshalom worked with other artists, helping them to realize their concepts, until one day, he started to sketch a design he had carried in his mind for over a year. Of this moment Benshalom has stated, “The day I stopped doing other people’s work and cast my first bronze, is the day my life began.”