Hostage Diaries, 21x15 cm (closed); 42x15 cm (open). Ink, sanding, and engraving on paper.\ Meydad Eliyahu

In the days following October 7, Meydad Eliyahu (b. 1983) began drawing the faces of the hostages in his sketchbook. Almost daily, he shared a new portrait on social media—an act that was simultaneously artistic, consequential, and human. By the project’s end, six sketchbooks had accumulated, documenting an ongoing search through repeated attempts and variations: a sustained effort to capture the faces of hundreds of civilians and soldiers—Israelis and foreign residents—abducted to the Gaza Strip during the Simchat Torah massacre. In the early months, uncertainty about the victims’ identities led Eliyahu to draw more portraits than the number of confirmed hostages.

These faces soon became familiar in Israeli homes and public spaces, appearing on posters at demonstrations worldwide—and, at times, torn from walls on academic campuses. Although Eliyahu typically avoids working from photographs, here he repeatedly reworked existing images, reimagining them through drawing. In doing so, he removed the smiles and accessories present in the original photographs, seeking instead to convey the hostages’ condition in captivity.

The portraits were created on site in the fields of Kibbutz Ruhama and in a barn at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, then a closed military zone, where Eliyahu arrived as part of the community-based art project — ZUMU Sha’ar HaNegev. Working from direct observation, he continued his practice as a documentary painter, recording people, landscapes, and scenes of agricultural labor—an activity closely tied to the pioneering ethos and early rebuilding of the State of Israel. Rather than depicting heroism, Eliyahu focuses on individuals striving, amid grief and uncertainty, to maintain the most basic routines of daily life.

Also displayed are works from Between Battles, a series created shortly before the ceasefire. Framed within elongated circular forms, these scenes echo familiar images of war yet are rendered in a distinct palette that introduces a restrained note of optimism. Across all three series, documentary impulses prevail, as news imagery is translated into a singular artistic language.