The nonprofit gallery’s sixth annual online auction brings together emerging voices, mid-career artists, and major Israeli art-world figures in a broad, uneven, and revealing portrait of Israeli art now.

By Bonnie K. Goodman, BA, MLIS

Maya Gallery’s sixth annual online benefit sale is not a conventional exhibition, and it should not be read as one. Open for only five days from April 30 to May 4, 2026, the online sale gathers hundreds of works by Israeli artists across a striking range of prices, from accessible pieces under ₪2,500 to works priced in the tens of thousands. Its purpose is practical — to raise funds for the nonprofit gallery’s continued operation — but its interest goes beyond fundraising. The sale functions as a compressed snapshot of Israeli contemporary art: intergenerational, generous, market-conscious, uneven, and revealing.

Founded in 2018 by artists Michael Kovner and Avner Levinson, Maya Gallery is a nonprofit art space located in Kiryat Hamelacha, Tel Aviv. Its stated mission is to support contemporary Israeli art, emerging artists, intergenerational dialogue, and cultural programming beyond the traditional commercial gallery model. This year’s benefit sale extends that mission online, transforming the gallery’s community into a digital field of artists, collectors, supporters, and viewers.

In response to questions for this article, Neta Nachtomy (Gallery manager) and Nir Namir (Project Manager) of Maya Gallery described the benefit sale as “both a cultural anchor and an active, living platform within the Israeli contemporary art scene.” While the gallery’s regular work takes place in its physical space in Kiryat Hamelacha, they explained, the online sale allows that activity to expand into “a broader, more accessible sphere.”

Their most important point may be that the sale is not only about selling art. “The benefit sale is not just a fundraising event; it is a collective gesture,” they wrote. “It communicates that art here is built through relationships — between artists, audiences, and institutions that choose to operate as commitment rather than profit.”

That is a beautiful idea, but it is also a useful way to understand the sale itself. This is not a tightly curated museum exhibition. It is not a single-artist show, nor a gallery booth designed around one clean commercial argument. It is, instead, a dense online gathering: works by artists at very different stages of their careers, in different media, at very different price levels, brought together by a nonprofit institution asking the public to participate in sustaining Israeli art.

As with many benefit sales, the selection is uneven. Some works feel fully resolved; others read more like studies, fragments, small-format pieces, or generous studio offerings. But that unevenness is part of the point. A benefit auction is a meeting ground between artists, patrons, collectors, viewers, and an institution trying to survive while supporting culture. Its strength is not consistency, but range.

A sale built as an ecosystem

Maya Gallery confirmed that the artist selection this year emerged through a combination of direct outreach and artist initiative. The gallery approached artists it had worked with over the years, while other artists came forward out of a desire to participate and support the institution.

“The selection process is guided less by a single curatorial theme and more by a shared sense of trust and community,” Neta Nachtomy and Nir Namir explained. “The works were not chosen to illustrate a concept, but rather to reflect the breadth and vitality of the field itself. In that sense, the sale becomes a kind of portrait of an ecosystem — built collaboratively.”

That phrase — “portrait of an ecosystem” — is the key to the sale. It explains why the auction feels so broad. It includes long-established figures, younger artists, mid-career painters, photographers, sculptors, draftsmen, conceptual artists, and works that move between traditional genres and contemporary practice. It also explains why the price range is so wide. Maya Gallery emphasized that accessibility is central to the sale, not as a lowering of standards, but as a widening of participation.

“Bringing together established artists alongside younger voices creates a more dynamic and honest picture of the contemporary moment,” they wrote. “Offering a wide range of price points is essential. It allows new collectors to engage for the first time, while also inviting more experienced collectors to discover artists they may not yet know. Accessibility, for us, is not about lowering standards — it is about widening the circle.”

That widening circle is visible throughout the sale.

From affordable entry points to art-historical anchors

The lowest price bracket, up to ₪2,500, is not simply a bargain section. It includes accessible........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)