Freed Hostage Transforms Trauma into Art in New York Studio

In a sunlit Manhattan studio near the Hudson River, Andrei Kozlov paints what words often fail to express the haunting trauma and undying hope born from 247 days as a hostage of Hamas in Gaza.

His canvases are raw and emotional ghostly streets, grim shadows, but always a sliver of light. “When you’re surrounded by something dark, there always can be light inside,” says Kozlov, who now channels his ordeal into a powerful series of acrylic paintings.

Kozlov, 28, was kidnapped during the Hamas-led massacre at the Nova music festival near Israel’s southern border on October 7, 2023. A recent immigrant from Russia, he had come to Israel to build a life and explore his talents through a Masa program. That life was violently interrupted when Hamas terrorists stormed the festival. Kozlov, working security, was captured and smuggled into Gaza.

His captivity was a horrific blend of fear, psychological abuse, and fleeting mercies. He was shuffled between eight different houses and guarded by over 20 different captors. He endured moldy mattresses, suffocating rooms, and the constant dread of being executed. Yet amid the horror, he found resilience. He learned Hebrew from fellow hostages and Arabic from his captors. He sketched in a notebook when he was finally granted a pencil.

One day, the Israeli Defense Forces stormed the Nuseirat camp, liberating him and three other hostages in a daring operation. As Kozlov stepped outside, the sun hit his face for the first time in eight months. He sipped a Coke, smoked a cigarette, and cried. “Euphoria,” he recalls.

Since then, Kozlov has turned to art not just to heal, but to share a message. His works, soon to be featured in a public exhibition, depict the darkness of captivity and the light of survival. A screaming man is reflected in a mirror framed by a bubblegum-pink wall. A stormy street glows faintly with a sliver of sky. They are testimonies to endurance and the soul’s refusal to be extinguished.

“I will be a former hostage forever,” he says. “It will forever be a part of my life.” But Kozlov is far more than his suffering. He is an artist. A dreamer. A survivor.

Through his work, he honors the hostages still in Gaza, the families in mourning, and the land he now calls home Israel.

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