Avraham Ofek's early works were traditional landscapes, in a distinctly hybrid style that is particular to
Middle Eastern, Jewish art. Later in his career, landscapes became undefined and receded into the background. Towards the end of Ofek's life, the landscape of Jerusalem became an important motif, reflecting loss and despair. Many of Ofek's landscapes convey a sense of alienation and solitude, as well as nostalgia for the city of his birth, Sofia. In 1957 his first solo exhibition was held at the Acre Museum. Following the exhibition, Ofek was invited to exhibit in the prestigious exhibition hall of the
Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. Most of his works in these years and until the early 1960s are made of gouache and tempera on paper. Iconographically, the paintings are characterised by the use of concrete images such as cows, agricultural machinery and landscapes of the country, painted using dark coloration that differs from earlier attempts to reflect the "light of the Land of Israel". Ofek's works included images of Arab workers and slums, which he painted during his visits to Haifa, Acre and Jaffa. During the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s he was an active member of the Leviathan Group, with the artists Shmuel Ackerman and Mikhail Grobman. The group, which was founded in 1976, combined symbolism, metaphysics, Judaism, and conceptual and environmental art. Within the framework of this group, Ofek created performances and symbolic activities into which Jewish traditional symbolism was integrated. From the 1980s onward, Ofek returned to more traditional painting, which continued to feature Jewish themes, Israeli landscapes, and views of his city, Jerusalem. In 1989, the
Jerusalem Print Workshop issued a collection of reproductions of his prints edited by Uri Katz, with text in
Hebrew and English. ==Education==