The relationship between space, movement and emotion
Ilya Magnes is a multi-disciplinary artist working across painting, music and photography — three practices that merge in the spaces he creates.
Ilya Magnes
Artist. Photographer. Musician. Storyteller.
Ilya Magnes
Artist. Photographer. Musician. Storyteller.
Ilya Magnes is a multi-disciplinary artist. He works out of curiosity, a connection to people, and a love of places and stories. His paintings, photographs and music carry the same search — finding the extraordinary within the everyday.
He was born in 1965. He grew up between cultures and continents, and his life has always been on the move — between Israel, Denmark, Spain and other places. That journey shaped the way he looks at the world: through people, light, space and time.
He creates, plays, photographs, teaches and hosts. He believes in the power of art and of meeting people to open doors, to connect, and to make meaning — for himself and for others.
Thank you for visiting.
“Finding the extraordinary in the almost ordinary.”
From quick, intuitive croquis to structured compositions
His paintings range from quick, intuitive croquis to more structured compositions, often capturing fleeting moments of human presence. Alongside this visual work, his music grows from improvisation and live performance, where sound becomes another form of drawing in time. Photography serves as a parallel practice — observing light, architecture, and the rhythm of everyday life.
These disciplines come together in the spaces he creates. After building a house from shipping containers as a living and creative laboratory, he has recently moved to a home in Haifa, where he is developing intimate gatherings that bring together music, food, and atmosphere — creating shared experiences around listening, presence, and connection.
THE ARTIST · FROM THE CITY SCENES AND ARCHITECTURE SERIES
Vision
Searching for the extraordinary within the ordinary.
Painting, music and photography are parallel practices: quick, intuitive croquis and more structured compositions; improvisation and live performance; and an ongoing observation of light, architecture and the rhythm of everyday life. These disciplines come together in the spaces he creates.
Along the way
The places that shaped the work
From Brooklyn to Haifa — the places where the painting, the music and the house grew.
The view that started it
Inspired by the view from his parents' home overlooking the Brooklyn shipyard — a landscape of containers stacked like a city — Ilya imagined a single house could be built from them too.
The travelling years
Years of painting and playing across Denmark, Ibiza and Israel. During his travels he collected dozens of ethnic instruments, among them wind, percussion and string instruments — Persian santur, Chinese flute, African djembe, Spanish cajón, saz, banjo, bouzouki, ocarina, rainsticks, ankle bells and more.
Built by hand
With no prior experience, he taught himself SketchUp and spent a year planning the house — then ten months building it by hand, together with Denis Feigin and a few workers. Four containers became a two-storey home above a concrete basement: a space for music, art and gathering. Every detail was crafted or restored by hand, and tens of thousands of visitors came to hear the story, with live music and a good meal.
The studio at Horev 9
Today Ilya lives and works in a house with a garden at 9 Horev Street, Haifa — the studio, and the room where the gatherings of music and food take place.
Visit the studio in Haifa
A special house with a charming garden in the heart of Haifa, yet with a peaceful, village-like atmosphere away from the city’s bustle. Groups from a handful of people up to twenty-five.