Born: 1980 Neve Monosson, Israel
Year of Migration to the UK: 2006
Biography
Long biography — final version (full text)
Multimedia artist Yoni (Jonathan) Alter was born in Neve Monosson, a suburb of Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1980, into a family of art-lovers. His father regularly took him to exhibitions and to meet well-known Israeli artists, and as a child Alter enjoyed drawing and making collages, later recalling that he had written 'an artist' in a school exercise book in answer to the question of what he wanted to be when he grew up (Abode2, 2018). He studied visual communication at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, graduating in 2006, and immigrated to England the same year to undertake postgraduate study, completing an MA in Graphic Design at the London College of Communication, part of the University of the Arts London, in 2007 (UAL, 2021; Design Week, 2014). After his MA, Alter worked for several years as an art director in London advertising, including at J. Walter Thompson (JWT), while developing his own art practice online, until his following was established enough for him to work independently (King & McGaw, 2016).
Alter works across print, painting, sculpture, digital media, mobile applications and public installation, developing a visual language combining 'sharp silhouettes, bold colouring, and pop art iconography' (Alter, yoniishappy.com). His well-known, early body of work, the ongoing Shapes of Cities series, reduces the skylines of cities including London, New York, Vancouver, St Louis, Washington D.C. and Charlotte to their principal architectural landmarks, stacked to accurate comparative scale with a height ruler along the print's border and rendered in overlapping translucent colour built up in printed layers (Designboom, 2015). The idea came to him while looking at London's skyline from Hyde Park, noticing how the London Eye, the Shard and the BT Tower related to one another in scale (King & McGaw, 2025). Citing influences including Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Julian Opie and Josh Sperling, Alter moves fluidly between fine art and commercial design, describing his process as a form of 'play'. Alongside the print series, he has developed spray-painted works using translucent cyan, magenta and yellow paint in a halftone technique, reworking Pop cultural icons such as Mickey Mouse.
Alter's design work reached a wide public in 2014, when Kemistry Gallery, while preparing his debut solo exhibition, City (2014), recommended him to brand the launch of the Evening Standard's London Live television channel. His silhouette graphics of Boxpark, Oxford Circus and the Gherkin became five 25-second on-air idents, praised by the channel's launch director as adding 'vibrancy, colour and life' (Guardian, 2014; Campaign, 2013). A further solo show followed at Boxpark, Shoreditch, that July, and a third, at Jewish Book Week, London, in 2015. The same year, his work featured in the acclaimed group exhibition 100 Years of Graphic Design, London. In 2016 his design was chosen from thirteen finalists, by a panel including Tate director, Sir Nicholas Serota, for the trophy of the Genesis Prize. The design of pillars of increasing height forms a Star of David from above, which Alter explained as 'striving for excellency' (Rocker, Jewish Chronicle, 2016). He has also produced a bestselling Tate merchandise range, a 2018 capsule collection for Karl Lagerfeld featuring pixelated portraits of Lagerfeld and his cat Choupette, and the scarf Course Cinétique and the double-sided foulard Drive Me Crazy. His illustrated books London: Cityscape Timeline and New York: Cityscape Timeline (Prestel, 2019) extended the series into print, and MoMA Design Store has since sold his acrylic NYC Skyline Model (2022). Further presentations followed at Tokyobike, London (2017); KCAW x Chelsea Windows, Kensington and Chelsea Art Week, London (2020); City Lights, a 25-metre walk-through LED Christmas tree, at Wembley Park's Winterfest (2021); The New Shape of Coexistence, a group show at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, Jaffa, Israel (2021), while his Pointillist Bird was shown at Canary Wharf's Summer Lights (2022).
In 2024 Alter's Love Continuum, a seven-and-a-half-metre sculpture resolving into the word 'love' from the right angle, was installed at Duke of York Square, Chelsea, for Kensington and Chelsea Art Week, nodding to Robert Indiana's LOVE (Colossal, 2024); the sculpture then toured to Union Square, New York, where it was shown at University Place Plaza from February to August 2025 (Union Square Partnership, 2025). A separate, permanent edition of Love Continuum, in mirror-polished stainless steel, was installed the same year on Water Street in New York City's Financial District, Alter's largest permanent outdoor sculpture to date. Another major permanent outdoor sculpture, Continuum, is scheduled for installation in October at China Medical University, Taiwan.
Alter continues to live and work in London. His work is not held in any UK public art collection.
Michal Mel
Related books
- Yoni Alter, London: Cityscape Timeline (London: Prestel, 2019)
- Yoni Alter, New York: Cityscape Timeline (London: Prestel, 2019)
- Yoni Alter, Dot Art: Sticker Safari (Munich: Prestel, 2018)
- Yoni Alter, Dot Art: Sticker Seurat (Munich: Prestel, 2018)
- Simon Rocker, 'Trophy fit for $1 million prize', The Jewish Chronicle, 17 June 2016
- Visual Families: Graphic Storytelling in Design and Illustration (Berlin: Gestalten, 2014) pp.108-109
- Icon (London: Counter-Print, 2014), pp. 88-89
- 14th International Architecture Exhibition Catalogue (Short Guide, Research volume, Elements of Architecture) (2014) p. 48
- Design Week Staff Writer, 'Yoni Alter's bright take on London', Design Week, June 2014
- Mark Sweney, 'London Live reveals its bright lights for the big city', The Guardian, 14 January 2014
- Arif Durrani, 'London Live appoints Kemistry for brand identity of TV launch', Campaign, 17 October 2013
Related organisations
- London College of Communication (student)
Related web links
- Abode2, 'Bringing a Pop of Colour to the Landscape of the Art World'
- Campaign, 'London Live appoints Kemistry for brand identity of TV launch'
- Colossal, 'Colorful City Silhouette Prints by Yoni Alter'
- Colossal, 'In London, All You Need Is "Love Continuum" by Yoni Alter'
- Designboom, 'Shapes of Cities' by Yoni Alter Presents Signature Buildings from Iconic Metropolises'
- Design Week
- King & McGaw, 'We catch up with Yoni Alter',
- King & McGaw, 'Yoni Alter's colourful graphic designs',
- UAL, 'LCC Graduate Creates Digital Artwork for London's Largest LED Christmas Tree'
- UAL / LCC, 'Karl Lagerfeld Announces MA Graphic Media Design Grad as Ggues Aartist for Spring 2018Season'
- Yoni Alter, official website
Selected exhibitions
- Love Continuum, China Medical University, Taiwan (2026)
- Love Continuum, Water Street, Financial District, New York, USA (2025)
- Love Continuum, University Place Plaza, Union Square, New York, USA (2025)
- Love Continuum, Kensington and Chelsea Art Trail, London (2024)
- Summer Lights (Pointillist Bird), Canary Wharf, London (2022)
- City Lights, Wembley Park Winterfest, London (2021)
- The New Shape of Coexistence, Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, Jaffa, Israel (2021)
- KCAW x Chelsea Windows, Kensington and Chelsea Art Week, London (2020)
- Solo exhibition, Tokyobike, London (2017)
- 100 Years of Graphic Design, Protein Studios, London (2015)
- Jewish Book Week, Kings Place, London (2015)
- Solo exhibition, Boxpark, London (2014)
- City, Kemistry Gallery, London (2014)
