Dan Allon
Contemporary Art
Works from 2019, untitled, various sizes
Commissioned Projects - Exhibitions and Festivals
In 2014, Dan Allon confined himself to his apartment for an entire month, unable to go outside due to the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The relentless bombing kept him from working in his studio, so he responded to the news from home. Returning to a childhood digital drawing tool, Microsoft Paint, Allon began creating intensely on the computer, which became his temporary studio. Since then, these digital works have been presented in a variety of contexts, including art fairs, projections, print events, and exhibitions, forming an ongoing exploration of isolation, media, and creative adaptation.
Quel bordel! (2015) is a satellite exhibition for the Fumetto Festival, presented at St. Magdalena, a 400-year-old bar in Lucerne, Switzerland. The exhibition features a series of digital drawings by Dan Allon created with Microsoft Paint, a medium he began using during the 2014 war between Israel and Gaza while working from home. The drawings document his experiences in Lucerne during extended visits, capturing everyday scenes—from local food and landscapes to intimate moments with friends and family—through a humorous and autobiographical lens.
Curator: Jana Jakoubek
St. Magdalena, Lucerne, Switzerland
Fumetto Festival Satellite Exhibition
Those @@%%$ Foreigners (2015) is a performance and installation by Dan Allon presented in the group exhibition Stereotypes of Poland at Brain Damage Gallery, Lublin. The work combines questionnaires and drawings to examine stereotypes, xenophobia, and the historical tensions between Jewish, Polish, and German identities.
Using anonymous responses describing the “average Polish person,” Allon created caricature portraits based on the collected data. Displayed alongside the questionnaires, the drawings mimic a pseudo-scientific archive while revealing the absurdity and violence embedded in stereotypes. Through humor and provocation, the work reflects on contemporary migration debates and the persistence of prejudice.
Curator: Anna Bakiera
Brain Damage Gallery, Lublin, Poland
Imbroglio (2015) is a series of digital drawings by Dan Allon presented in the group exhibition enCOUNTERs at CCA Tel Aviv and Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt. The project reflects on Allon’s German–Israeli identity through autobiographical fragments, including travels in Germany and Switzerland, his relationship with his German partner, and his search for family roots in Leipzig.
The installation centers on an artist book designed as a visual diary of digital drawings, accompanied by ready-made letters displayed on a green wall. Blurring private and collective narratives, the work invites viewers into intimate moments while questioning belonging, memory, and migration within the broader framework of German–Israeli cultural exchange.
Website: http://performing-encounters.org
Curators / Concept: Juliane Kremberg, Matthias Naumann, Noa Elran, Amir Farjoun
Realization & Dramaturgy: Noa Elran, Matthias Naumann
Production: Jörg Thums (DE), Maayan Fuss (IL)
Thanks: Sari Golan, Marcel Klein, Netta Levavi, Oren Fischer, Julia Strebelow, Avisar Goldman
Photo of the book by: Adi Levy
5 Star Souvenirs (2015) is a live art project by Dan Allon commissioned for Tel Aviv Illustration Week. For one week, Allon operated a temporary “souvenir shop” inside the Royal Beach Hotel on the Tel Aviv beachfront. Responding to the kitsch tradition of tourist memorabilia, he produced drawings on site and printed them as improvised souvenirs. Instead of idyllic landscapes, the images depicted contemporary Israeli realities—political corruption, social tensions, violence, and the oppressive summer heat. Presented as commodities for sale, the works created friction between the luxury hotel environment and the unsettling content of the images, exposing the gap between marketed national imagery and lived experience.
Curator: Sharon Toval
Tel Aviv Illustration Week, September 2015
Initiated by: Yuval Saar
Text: Julia Strebelow
Photos: Guy Yechiely
Tech: Shimon Allon
City Mouse article about the project (HEBREW): Here
Short Text at Roni Sheffi's blog MAVEZE (HEBREW): Here
Short Text at MAKO (HEBREW): Here
PAINT! (2015) is a collaborative performance by Ayala Netzer and Dan Allon based on hundreds of Microsoft Paint drawings created separately by the two artists. During the event, the images were live-mixed and projected like VJ material. Netzer’s drawings were intimate and personal, while Allon’s addressed everyday political life in Israel. Accompanied by a one-hour sound collage of yoga music, news themes, and iconic Israeli songs, the projections formed a shifting portrait of daily life.
curator Tziky Eisenberg
Photos: Tziky Eisenberg