(b. 1939, Kibbutz Ramat Rachel, Israel; lives and works in Ramat Hasharon)

Avner Katz is a painter, sculptor, and illustrator. In the introduction to the catalogue of his 2013 large-scale exhibition at Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Suzanne Landau discussed his personal style, which has become so identifiable, noting that "His unique style gives expression to a rebellious, independent, and extremely personal view of the life and the world that is suffused with ironic and absutd humor". His work touches upon difficult themes pertaining to bereavement, desistance, and fear of death using sophisticated and emotionally-detached illustrative language. Best known are his woodcuts and linocuts which combine an ironic gaze with a language that verges on German Expressionism, directed at everyday life. Katz's work has been exhibited in scores of exhibitions in various museums and galleries in Israel and worldwide, and he has won numerous awards, including the Josef Lada Medal for Children's Illustrations, Prague, and the Israel Ministry of Education and Culture Art and Design Prize (2003).