DEFYING CONVENTION SEEMS TO RUN IN HENRY EL KAIM’S BLOOD.

 Born in Casablanca, he found himself in Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War. A Jew, he befriended Palestinians.

 Now, a decade-long Tucson resident, el Kaim is defying convention again. He’s opened a new art gallery in the face of an economic downturn not rivaled since the Great Depression.

 On meeting him – as I did on a recent visit to Gallery 2402 at the same address on Campbell just north of Grant – this all makes perfect sense. El Kaim is a big man – big in the sense of the spirit. His smiles, gestures, language, movements all bespeak an enthusiastic thirst for life.

Henry el Kaim with one of his pieces at Gallery 2402

“I bring people together,” he says. “I’m a unifier, not a divider.”

  (more…)