The phrase pedestrian defines a traffic entity, but also describes a physical and mental state of movement in an urban space. The pace of the walk - aimless wandering or a quick and purposeful walk - affects the ability to perceive the events and sights of the city. In Boaz Noy's paintings the pedestrian is the painter himself. He is not a ' fl?neur ' in the Binyamini sense *, such that his hours are in his hands and he walks without a clear goal, but neither is a city mouse obliged to accomplish anything. His pace of walking is hectic and frenetic if he is in constant search of a 'constitutive event', one that will activate the pictorial apparatus. The city is an available modeling that is constantly changing, but more importantly it is a vessel for its emotional-mental state. Like the wanderer, whose diffused gaze reveals what lies beneath the surface , Boaz seeks in his paintings to discover the hidden from the eye, to produce an image that does not represent something existing in the world. Thus, his paintings are placed on the boundary between figurative and abstract and between realism and expressionism. On the one hand, the reality around him is the inspiration and the driving force and on the other hand, he seeks to move away from it as much as possible towards the 'medium', painting and to engage in questions of color, material and composition, without allowing painting to discuss itself.

The beginnings of the paintings in a formative moment, in a daily drama, in the excitement that originates in the place and in time - a one-time experience that generates the painting and is imprinted in it as a bright and sharp memory. The urgency of the painting action stems from the need to recreate a private-inner experience before it fades away, to bring to the canvas an occurrence in full force. For example, in the painting December approaches Wadi Nisnas - the essence of the painting lies precisely in what does not look "in the frame", children returning from school at noon, cars crawling slowly in narrow alleys, tasting tours frequent the food stalls and an exciting feature of the city ahead of the holidays. The light, temperature, atmosphere and sounds, all these are turned into spots, marks, lines, erasures, and holes in the thick layers of paint. Load on the one hand, waiver and deletion on the other. Organized and condensed chaos. The rhythm and urgency are a kind of statement - the beauty is on the sidewalk, the sublime is in abundance and the picturesque gestures are the main thing - sometimes delicate and sometimes demonstrably rude.

The paintings in the exhibition are steeped in signs of local urbanity - balconies, awnings, columns, power cables, solar water heaters, ficus trees, curbs and road signs. The interest in them does not necessarily stem from their colorful-compositional meaning, but through them Boaz seeks to understand the essence of the impossible collage and the stylistic-cultural chaos in which we live. Precisely in the mixture between "luxury" and misery, he finds interest and beauty.

* The figure of the ' fl?neur' is depicted, among others, by Walter Benjamin, who writes about the passages of Paris; The Wanderer , Vol. I, A Selection of Writings, Translated by David Singer, United Kibbutz, 1992.

Boaz Noy (b. 1972) lives and works in Haifa and Tel Aviv. Graduate of the Department of Architecture, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem. Graduate of the Student Exchange Program: Ecole La-villette , Paris. Winner of the Community Artist Award, Ministry of Culture and Sports (2014-2012). Entrepreneur, founder and co-director of Sha'ar 3 Gallery, Art-Commercial-Community Project, Lower Haifa (2019-2014). His works have been exhibited in individual and group exhibitions in Israel and around the world, including: 70 Years of the Haifa Museum; Holders (double exhibition with Yoav Fish), Beta Gallery, Jerusalem; The Mediterranean Biennale. His works are included in private and public collections in Israel and around the world.