Russian-Israeli artist prepares to kick off a traveling art exhibition in May in New York featuring works he’s created since being freed.
As gunshots rang out through the Nova music festival grounds on Oct. 7, 2023, Andrei Kozlov, bewildered and terrified, jumped into a car with two strangers he thought were fleeing to safety.
Ten minutes into the harrowing ride, he realized an ugly truth.
The car was headed to Gaza. He was being kidnapped. He was a hostage of Hamas.
Kozlov was one of hundreds captured and held by the Palestinian terrorist organization that attacked Israel that day. About 1,200 Israelis were killed in massacres across communities and military bases in southern Israel.
Now 28, he is free after being held for 246 days in Gaza. He was rescued by soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on June 8, 2024.
The memories remain. And now he shares them with others in artwork he’s creating.
His paintings will be on display to the public at the Elizabeth Sutton Collection art gallery in New York City for three weeks starting May 9, the day after a private debut. The plan is for the exhibit to travel to other cities after that.
The exhibition will include “Highway to Hell,” an acrylic on canvas depicting Kozlov’s terror-filled car ride from the music festival massacre into Gaza.
Other works planned for the exhibition reveal other glimpses of his time as a hostage—scenes of misery but also hope.
Kozlov is a secular Russian-Israeli. He has lived mainly in New York and became an Israeli citizen just six months before his capture.
While held in captivity by Hamas terrorists, he coped by drawing, an interest he’d had since childhood.
Now, as a free man, he has a new dream.
He wants to share his art with the world.
“I want to share my point of view,” he told The Epoch Times.
“I want people to see what I saw, and maybe it will help somebody realize what happened. Because they heard a lot of stories, but they didn’t see it.”
