Roni Levavi

The story of Roni Levavi

Roni grew up in Herzliya. He lives and works in Rishpon.

He studied architecture and animation in Los Angeles. In 1996 he opened his first studio, which held a Walt Disney licence to make children's furniture.

Then came R-tip, a studio for space design, marketing products and brand identity. Since then he has designed stands, points of sale, machines, exhibitions and products for dozens of brands in Israel and abroad.

He has made art for as long as he can remember, but for years he made it for the drawer. For the house, for friends, for family. At some point he understood it was time to bring the work out. No brief, no business goal, no marketing message. Just Roni.

That is how stARTup Gallery began, in 2021. It sits in Moshav Rishpon, in the heart of the Sharon, fifteen minutes from Tel Aviv: a place where art meets a working studio, and where private, business and cultural events are hosted.

The gallery is also a working lab for design dreams. Roni develops concepts and designs to order there, turning ideas into things you can touch. The gallery shows collector's pieces and original functional art: giant sculptures, video art and works made from recycled and natural materials, all of them for sale.

Roni works in mixed media. Recycled materials beside materials from nature, sculpting in virtual reality, 3D printing and laser cutting. Flat works that turn three dimensional when you look at them from the right angle, and sometimes move.

Around his neck is a chain with an olive wood pendant. It is one link in a project he has been working on for years.