“My work is a reflection of the world I grew up in. As a child I was entrenched in the study of oil painting through my father’s influence, and while being the child and descendant of both Iraqi Jewish immigrants and Holocaust survivors, I often depict themes of both worlds. If ever I have the chance to leave a mark in this life, for when I am gone, it is my hope to share scenes from a hidden world and culture, seemingly forgotten about in a haze of 20th and pre 20th century expulsion, and ethnic cleansing. My voice is nothing without the pride, courage, and true sacrifice, of those that have handed in their lives throughout our history, to preserve a truly unique, spiritual, and simply beautiful way of life and thought. My voice is nothing without Hashem.”

Rav Mordechai Eliyahu, oil on canvas.

Portrait of My Father, Jonathan Harkham, oil on canvas.

Rav Yitzhak Kaduri, oil on canvas.

Eliyahu Harkham is an Mizrachi American artist based in Los Angeles. He studied under his father, oil painter Jonathan Harkham, and as a fine art student in Rome, Italy. Largely influenced by renaissance and pre renaissance, to impressionist and modernist painters such as Tiziano to Giacometti to Cezanne; Harkham incorporates Jewish themes for a majority of his recent works. His current series is titled “A Sense of Urgency.” For inquires: Instagram @eliyahuharkham ; Email: eliyahuhark@gmail.com.