To get a sense of the driving force behind Rami Meiri’s creativity, a one-click navigate is all it takes. His Internet home page opens with a moving image of colorfully clad, laughing children holding hands, circling and then freezing into one of his signature murals. A slideshow of art depictions follow - people, movement, beach, radiant life. Finally, the movements rests on an illustration of a heckling middle-aged man swinging happily from a large wicker basket.
An Israeli artist in his mid-40’s, Rami Meiri has been creating larger than life colorful trompe l’oeil or illusion murals for twenty-five years.
His images of commonplace Israel are splashed on public walls, highway overpasses, beachfronts, and public buildings throughout Israel and depict beach sunbathers, children at play, seniors engaged in rounds of backgammon and pub types sidling up for a sundowner with friends.
When Meiri started out, he decided to make his talent public because he saw his home city of Tel Aviv as a project for improvement. "Tel Aviv is an ugly city but you can do something with every corner," he explains.
And sprucing is Meiri’s specialty. His images are light, evocative and fun and they’re catching on outside of Israel. He recently completed commissioned works in Beijing, Fort Lauderdale and Buenos Aires and will soon travel to Taiwan for more of the same.
"The main idea behind my work is to not make it too complicated," Meiri explains. "Try to get it done quickly and keep it simple."
Although Meiri’s mathematician father wanted him to crunch numbers, he followed his calling instead, opting for art studies in his hometown of Tel Aviv. He learned the basics - painting, sculpture and drawing - and while still a student, he began practising mural work on city walls. A unique, stylized graffiti that led to his first mural in the 80’s along the breakfront wall of a popular Tel Aviv beach. His images quickly gained notoriety.
"A lot of people see my art driving to work or walking somewhere. I want it to be light and fun for them. Playful," he says.
Particularly for children. Many of his images depict children and youth laughing, playing and enjoying life. Infectious, evocative scenes that show up on children’s theaters, schools and most recently on a youth music center in Israel’s northern town of Kiryat Shmona - the site of tremendous damage during the recent Lebanon-Israel war.
"I believe that as an artist it’s my duty to return a sense of normalcy and culture to a city like Kiryat Shmona even if everything else hasn’t yet returned to so-called normalization," he shares.
"It’s my place to share a sense of soul. I don’t, however talk about politics or deal with it. It’s not my thing and you won’t see it in my work."
Soul, for Meiri, is in the fun of life and he says his greatest influences have been post-military service travels to South America where he witnessed a broad array of colorful street drawings and graffiti. He says inspiration and influence also come from famous graffiti artist Keith Haring, originally discovered while creating now famous New York subway drawings.
He has worked on a multi-level complex building while standing on electric scaffolding hundreds of feet in the air - "the toughest one so far" - and he puts in ten to twelve hour days when painting a mural. But the real work, he says, comes in the planning stages prior to laying down color which can take from weeks to months.
The inspiration, he says, comes from "..Inside. There is so much there and it’s really impossible to explain my theory. It’s a window into my soul, definitely. But in words, I can’t explain. Look at my work. That’s the explanation. It’s all there."
Based on what’s there, Meiri’s gift is bringing the world lightness, laughter, happiness, a sense of being in the moment, fluidity and evoking memories of life’s simple pleasures: walks along the beach, board games played with friends, ice-cream cones, hopscotch, jump rope, adventure and fun. His love of life radiates through his creations.
Ultimately, it started with love and continues to be all about love.
A self described 'idealist of love,' his murals represent an affinity for his city, Tel Aviv, which he says he harbors regardless of the city’s defects or dilapidated pockets.
"It’s a city breathing with wild vitality. That’s why when I’m outside the country working on a project, I always sign it: "From Tel Aviv With Love," he proudly interjects. Somewhere in Beijing, someone may be feeling it.