Skip to content 
If you searched for Shani Levni, you probably found very different things depending on where you looked. Some articles describe her as a multidisciplinary artist. Others focus entirely on her relationship with Israeli actor Michael Aloni.
A few go in completely different directions. The reality is that Shani Levni is a real, working artist based in Tel Aviv, and her story is genuinely worth understanding on its own terms. This article covers everything that is actually known about her, her background, her art, her nonprofit, her relationship with Michael Aloni, and what she is doing in 2026.
Quick facts about Shani Levni
| Detail | Information |
| Full name | Shani Levni |
| Date of birth | April 15, 1990 (reported) |
| Age (2026) | Around 35-36 years old |
| Birthplace | Tel Aviv, Israel |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Ethnicity | Jewish, Middle Eastern and European heritage |
| Profession | Multidisciplinary artist, photographer, painter, activist |
| Education | BFA, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem; MFA, Berlin |
| Partner | Michael Aloni (Israeli actor) |
| Nonprofit | The Root Collective (founded 2023, Jaffa) |
| Exhibitions | Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Rosenfeld Gallery, Jerusalem Biennale |
| @shanilevni0011 | |
| admin@shanilevni.com |
Who is Shani Levni?
Shani Levni is an Israeli multidisciplinary artist born on April 15, 1990, in Tel Aviv. She works across painting, photography, mixed media, installation, and performance, often combining several of these within a single project. She is also the founder of The Root Collective, a nonprofit that uses art to support refugee and immigrant youth.
Some people first encounter her name through her relationship with Michael Aloni, the Israeli actor known globally for his role in the Netflix series Shtisel. But her work as an artist stands completely on its own. She has exhibited at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and the Jerusalem Biennale, spoken at TEDx Jaffa and UNESCO panels, and built a community program that has reached over 600 young people across five countries.
Her art deals with identity, memory, displacement, and belonging. These are not abstract themes for her. They come directly from her background, her family history, and the city she grew up in.
Early life in Tel Aviv
Shani grew up in Tel Aviv during the early 1990s, a city layered with Jewish, Middle Eastern, and European cultural influences. Her family background brought together multiple cultural threads, and dinner table conversations about literature, philosophy, identity, and history shaped the way she thought from a very early age.
Tel Aviv itself was a constant source of inspiration. The old architecture of Jaffa, the markets, the olive trees, and the stories of displacement and resilience that run through Israeli history all fed into her developing artistic sensibility. By her early teens, she was writing, drawing, and photographing constantly.
Her exposure to the multicultural texture of the city taught her something important early on: that personal experience and collective history are not separate things. They are always talking to each other. That insight became the foundation of her entire artistic practice.
Education: from Jerusalem to Berlin
Shani Levni pursued formal training at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, one of the most respected art schools in the Middle East. There she completed her BFA with a focus on abstract expressionism, learning to work with color, texture, negative space, and symbolic layering at a technical and conceptual level.
After Bezalel, she moved to Berlin to complete a Master of Fine Arts in Art Theory. That move was significant. Berlin gave her exposure to European avant-garde movements and opened up new ways of thinking about collective trauma, memory, and the relationship between personal history and public narrative.
The combination of Middle Eastern artistic roots and European theoretical training is visible in her work. Her pieces often feel simultaneously ancient and contemporary, rooted in specific cultural symbols while speaking to universal questions.
Read also: Jodean Bottom: The Half-Sister Joaquin and River Phoenix Went Looking For
Shani Levni’s artistic style
One of the most consistent things people say about Shani Levni’s art is that it does not fit neatly into one category. She uses acrylic and oil paint alongside found objects, handwritten text, gold leaf, digital elements, and physical materials like fabric and recycled items. A single piece might combine all of these.
Her color palette tends toward Mediterranean blues, earthy reds, and luminous golds. These choices are not decorative. They carry emotional and cultural weight. Gold leaf, for example, appears in her work as a reference to divinity and sacred tradition. Olive branches signal heritage and peace. Scrolls and Hebrew letters point to the weight of history and things left unsaid.
Her work is also deeply symbolic without being closed or didactic. She does not tell viewers what to think. She builds visual environments that invite personal interpretation, so two people standing in front of the same piece can come away with completely different but equally valid responses.
Three of her most discussed works give a clear sense of her range:
Whispers of the Olive Tree is a mixed-media installation at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. It uses olive branches and Hebrew letters to explore heritage, memory, and peace in a region where all three are complicated subjects.
Letters Never Sent is an interactive installation shown at the Jerusalem Biennale. Suspended scrolls carry untold stories, and visitors move through the space as participants rather than observers. The work turns individual loss into something shared.
Between Earth and Sky was a 2020 solo show at Rosenfeld Gallery exploring the tension between physical and spiritual ideas of home, using textured surfaces and warm colors to hold both stability and fragility at the same time.
The Root Collective: art as social action
In 2023, Shani Levni launched The Root Collective, a nonprofit based in Jaffa that uses structured art programs to support refugee and immigrant youth. What started as small workshop sessions in Jaffa grew quickly into something much larger.
By 2026, the program has reached over 600 young participants across five countries. Participants create murals from recycled materials, build mixed-media installations, and use art to tell their own stories, many of which involve displacement, loss, and the search for belonging. A dozen public murals created through the program now stand in community centers and public spaces, visible reminders that the people who live there have stories worth telling.
What makes The Root Collective different from many arts outreach programs is that Levni leads many of the sessions herself. She is not a figurehead. She is in the room, working alongside young people who have often had very little access to creative expression. Participants consistently report feeling more confident and more like they belong somewhere after going through the program.
The collective is a direct extension of her artistic philosophy: that art is not a luxury. It is a tool for healing, justice, and human connection.
Read also: Doujen Moe: Meaning, Origins, Culture, and Why It Matters in 2026
Shani Levni and Michael Aloni
Shani Levni is in a relationship with Michael Aloni, one of the most recognized actors in contemporary Israeli television. Aloni is best known internationally for his role as Akiva Shtisel in the Netflix drama Shtisel, which introduced Israeli drama to a global audience. He is also well known in Israel for his LGBTQ+ advocacy and his work across film and theatre.
The two have been together for a significant period, though the specific details of how they met have been kept private. Both of them maintain a deliberate boundary between their public work and their personal lives. They appear together occasionally at events but do not perform their relationship for media attention.
What is clear from public appearances and their respective social media presences is that this is a relationship between two people who are each confident in their own work and identity. Shani does not use her connection to Aloni to build her public profile, and Aloni speaks about his personal life with measured restraint.
Shani’s Instagram, @shanilevni0011, reflects this approach. It is a curated, thoughtful feed, a mix of her own artwork, glimpses of Tel Aviv, and intimate, non-promotional photography. She captures Aloni not as a celebrity but as the person she knows in private life, which gives her feed an authenticity that audiences respond to genuinely.
Recognition and what is coming in 2026
Shani Levni’s work has entered the collections of the Jewish Museum Berlin and Tel Aviv University. She has spoken at TEDx Jaffa and contributed to UNESCO panels on the role of art in conflict recovery and cultural memory.
In 2025, she launched a project exploring how AI tools can interact with traditional art methods, drawing attention from both the art world and the technology community for its thoughtful rather than gimmicky approach to the subject.
A solo exhibition in Berlin titled “The Weight of Light” is among her most anticipated upcoming projects, continuing her exploration of generational memory through heavy textures and gold accents. A documentary about The Root Collective’s impact across five countries is also in development.
Final thoughts
Shani Levni is someone who has built something real across multiple fronts at the same time. The art, the nonprofit, the community workshops, the international exhibitions, none of it happened overnight, and none of it was built on publicity. It was built on consistent, serious work rooted in a genuine set of questions about who we are, where we come from, and how we carry the past.
In 2026, she is one of the more interesting emerging voices in contemporary art not because of who she is connected to, but because of what she keeps making. If you want to follow her work, her Instagram is the most direct window into her ongoing practice.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Shani Levni?
Shani Levni is an Israeli multidisciplinary artist born on April 15, 1990, in Tel Aviv. She works across painting, photography, mixed media, and installation art. She is also the founder of The Root Collective, a nonprofit supporting refugee and immigrant youth through art, and is the partner of Israeli actor Michael Aloni.
What is Shani Levni known for?
She is known for her mixed-media and installation art that explores themes of identity, memory, displacement, and belonging. Her work has been shown at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Jerusalem Biennale, and Rosenfeld Gallery. She is also recognized for founding The Root Collective and for speaking at TEDx Jaffa and UNESCO panels.
Who is Shani Levni’s partner?
Shani Levni is in a relationship with Michael Aloni, the Israeli actor best known for his role in the Netflix series Shtisel. Both maintain a private personal life and a boundary between their public work and their relationship.
What is The Root Collective?
The Root Collective is a nonprofit organization founded by Shani Levni in 2023 in Jaffa, Israel. It uses structured art workshops to support refugee and immigrant youth, helping them tell their own stories through creative expression. As of 2026, the program has reached over 600 participants across five countries.
Where can I see Shani Levni’s art?
Her work has been exhibited at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Rosenfeld Gallery, and the Jerusalem Biennale. Her pieces are also held in the collections of the Jewish Museum Berlin and Tel Aviv University. For updates on upcoming exhibitions, her Instagram account @shanilevni0011 is the most reliable source.
Read also: Nativität: Meaning, Astrology, History, and Christian Significance (2026 Guide)
