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Guy Ben Ner, an Israeli video artist, was born in 1969, in Ramat Gan.
In 1997 he completed his BA studies in Art at the Beit Berl College. In 2001, Ben Ner moved to New York with his family and studied for his Master's degree at Columbia University. During his stay in New York he had a solo exhibition at the gallery Postmasters and participated in group exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and in the Art Focus project in Israel.
Since the early 1990s, Guy Ben-Ner has filmed a series of short videos starring himself and his family, often using the intimate spaces of their home as ad-hoc set, studio, and fantastical playroom. His works are often exhibited with the simple sets and props created for the videos.
Wild Boy (2004), an adaptation of François Truffaut’s film L’enfant sauvage (The Wild Child) (1970), can be shown in two forms: alone, or incorporated into an installation that re-creates a woodland set that the artist built in his kitchen, complete with a tree and a carpeted hill on which visitors may sit to watch the video. In Stealing Beauty (2007), the artist's family staged guerrilla theater in Ikea showrooms: moving among the displays, they conduct a reasonable facsimile of family life; dishes are done, discipline imposed, discussions held (private property is a topic), and everyone tucks in for the night — in numerous beds — as Ikea’s other customers wander through.
Lives and works in Tel Aviv, Berlin and New York.

Education

1994-97 Hamidrash Art College, Ramat Hasharon, Israel, B.Ed.
2001-03 Columbia University, New York, M.F.A.

Awards And Prizes

1994 Ingeborg Bachman Scholarship, established by Anselm Kiefer, Wolf Foundation
2001 The Shmuel Givon Prize, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv
2001 Prize, Ministry of Education and Culture
2008 Sandberg Prize for Israeli Art, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
2001 The Dean's Fellowship, Columbia University, New York
2002 The Dean's Fellowship, Columbia University, New York
2002 Caroline Newhouse Sculpture Fellowship, New York
2003 The Rema Hort Mann Foundation Art Grant