Israeli duo takes street art to museums
Street artists Nitzan Mintz and Dede, partners in life and art, have taken their artworks from the street to museums and galleries.
Nitzan Mintz and Dede are walking a fine line, on many fronts. These include their private lives as a couple and their artistic and professional collaboration; street art and museum exhibitions; Nitzan’s verbal creation and Dede’s visual art; and commercial gallery sales and free street displays, some of which have been erased or even stolen.
Mintz started writing poetry during her mandatory military service, where she penned dozens of poems inspired by the frustration, pressure and depression she experienced. She graduated from the Department of Fine Arts and the Department of Creative Writing at Minshar School of Art, Tel Aviv, and from the Helicon Poetry School. During her studies, she started writing her poems on the walls in Tel Aviv, signing them with her own name.
Unlike Mintz, Dede protects his anonymity and is known only as Dede. What we know about him is that at the age of 13 he painted the sky on a wall at his school, and when he was doing his military service and was ordered to paint a sign saying “smoking prohibited,” he only wrote “prohibited.” He went on to study art and design at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, and after graduating took classes for a year at an arts school in Geneva. He told Al-Monitor that he learned the most from working in the streets and from the public feedback he received.
Mintz discovered his artwork in the streets and tracked him down in 2012; they met and got involved romantically and professionally.
