Zigi Ben-Haim was born in
Baghdad,
Iraq, to an
Iraqi Jewish family in 1945. When he was four, his family had to leave their home amid increasing danger for Jews in the country and flee to
Iran. After about one year in
Tehran, the family immigrated to the newly established state of
Israel, where Ben-Haim grew up. After completing school and serving in the
Israel Defense Forces for three years, he studied at the
Avni Institute of Art and Design in
Tel Aviv on a scholarship. With the Israeli economy in recession and not having financially well-off parents to depend on, Ben-Haim found it difficult to establish himself as an artist in Israel and decided to move abroad after receiving another scholarship. He applied to and was accepted at
Goldsmiths art school in
London, but captivated by the news from the
United States about anti-
Vietnam War protests, human rights demonstrations,
hippies, and a thriving art world, decided at the last minute to move there instead. Drawn by the hippie culture of
California, Ben-Haim decided to move to the
San Francisco Bay Area, settling in
Berkeley. He studied at
California College of the Arts and
San Francisco State University, graduating with a
Master of Fine Arts in 1974, and supported himself by working as a handyman, giving art classes, and taking a job at a warehouse in which he lived alongside other artists and musicians. He then began exhibiting his art and saving money in a safe deposit in a bank in Israel and considered whether to return to Israel or stay in the US. After his money in Israel was stolen in a bank robbery, he decided to stay in the US. He moved to
New York City in 1975 and became a US citizen in 1979. The following year, he married Tsipi, a graduate student at
New York University, and they have a son, Yori. == Current Projects ==