Orli made aliyah in 1990, and currently resides near Jerusalem in a town within the Etzion Bloc. For Orli, painting the vistas of Jerusalem is an expression of her personal triumph over Nazism.

Orli Ziv  is a vibrant and multi-talented French artist. 

Born in 1960, she is the daughter of child survivors who had gone into hiding in France during the war. Her parents raised her with the love of israeli art, and she was lucky enough to grow up and study in Paris, both which gave her a taste and an eye for aesthetics.

Orli made aliyah in 1990, and currently resides near Jerusalem in a town within the Etzion Bloc. For Orli, painting the vistas of Jerusalem is an expression of her personal triumph over Nazism.

During her early teens Orli became enamoured with art and painting. Soon, she turned to “Roederer” the well known Parisian art school, the location of already well established painters.

Her first paintings were naïve-oriental Judaica, impressionist landscapes, and still lifes. Only later she went on to develop into an abstract artist, with the use of knife painting.

In her words: “I find abstract art very appealing because it imposes no limits, but I still often use brushes, and when I return to them there is yet another style which appears.”

Orli usually works on series of paintings. Her current line of work, a series entitled “Jerusalem Variations”, she began six years ago. Her personal sense is that a sort of door has opened within her, which has freed her from the limits of drawing, allowing her to soar.

Orli begins painting with just an empty white canvas, and no preliminary pencil sketch. She lets matter and color talk to her, and carry her as if a surfer on a wave, carried by the wind.

Orli likens painting to a Jazz improvisation (she has played the saxophone for a few years) “Each painting tells a story and moves only a limited number of people - in the same way a book or a song does”.  Orli’s paintings certainly have touched many souls in a magical way. Her deep, vibrant colors, depicting the silhouette of Jerusalem, are very special.  One can envision them decorating many walls and, in a sense. bringing the viewers to that most special city, infused with holiness and depth.