Noma Bar: Look Again
Every day, an illustration by Noma Bar is published somewhere in the world. For the past twenty-five years, his works have been featured on the covers of leading newspapers and magazines, including The New Yorker, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Economist, and Time Out. His illustrations have also appeared on the covers of bestselling novels by Margaret Atwood and Haruki Murakami, and anchored major campaigns for cultural institutions and global brands such as Apple, Coca-Cola, Mercedes-Benz, the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), and Netflix.
Born Avinoam Bernstein in Afula, Israel, in 1973, Bar studied Visual Communication at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. It was there that his studies in typography—the art of shaping letters and the spaces between them—laid the foundation for his understanding of negative space and its narrative potential. At the same time, working as a graphic designer at Israel’s Channel 2 News desk taught him to think quickly, distill ideas, and make decisions without hesitation. Upon graduating in 2000, he moved to London with his wife and creative partner, Dana, where they have lived and worked ever since. As an artist whose practice is based entirely on language and letterforms, Bar’s struggle to find his place in a foreign country became the catalyst for a new, distinctive visual language: minimalist yet playful, shifting effortlessly between positive and negative space, and marked by bold, flat color.
The exhibition is organized in four chapters, presenting a wide range of works in two and three dimensions, spanning print, animation, sculpture, and installation. The opening chapter introduces the defining principles of Bar’s practice through some of his most iconic works. The second, conceived as a playground, celebrates the wit and playfulness that run throughout his oeuvre. The third is devoted to series, focusing on long-term collaborations with clients and revealing how his visual language continues to evolve beyond the one-off solution. The concluding chapter offers a glimpse into Bar’s work process through his sketchbooks and childhood drawings, alongside a more intimate portrait of the artist through the two environments that shape his life in London: the wood and the studio.
When Bar looks at the world, he sees not only the object itself but also the space around it. He employs the perceptual shift between figure and ground as a tool to articulate ideas and messages—images that invariably hold at least two aspects at once: a sheep whose snout is also a wolf; a shark whose open mouth forms the silhouette of a human leg; or a duck whose bill becomes a pair of scissors. Whether created for a multinational corporation or as part of a personal project, Bar’s instantly recognizable images continue to surprise. They invite viewers to pause and linger, turning contemplation into wonder.
Noma Bar, Tel Aviv Summer, 2026
CNC-routed wood, 3D printing, industrial paint
The work sponsored by Tambour
Photo: Daniel Hanoch
The exhibition was made possible by the Exhibition Circle of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art: Doron and Marianne Livnat, The Herta and Paul Amir Foundation, The Kirsh Foundation, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies
Additional support was provided by The Friends of Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and The Young Friends of Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel
The exhibition is sponsored by “Coca-Cola Israel”
The work “Social Mirror” (2026) was sponsored by “smart”, marketed by “Colmobil”
The work “Tel Aviv Summer” (2026) sponsored by “Tambour”
