Isaiah Zagar, mosaic artist behind Philadelphia's Magic Gardens, dies at 86

Isaiah Zagar, the mosaic artist whose mirrored walls became a signature of Philadelphia's South Street, died at his home in the city on Thursday 19 February 2026, aged 86. Philadelphia's Magic Gardens, the nonprofit built around his work, said he died of complications from heart failure and Parkinson's disease. The Associated Press and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency both reported the death.

Zagar was born Irwin Zagar in Philadelphia in 1939 and grew up in Brooklyn. He studied painting and graphics at the Pratt Institute. According to JTA, a period of studying Jewish religious texts in Woodstock, New York, in 1959 led him to take the name of the prophet Isaiah. In 1963 he and his wife Julia, who became his lifelong artistic partner, joined the Peace Corps and worked in Peru, where folk art traditions shaped his later style.

Back in Philadelphia, Zagar began decorating buildings in the then run-down South Street area with fragments of tile, mirror, glass bottles, bicycle wheels and pottery. Over five decades his work spread to roughly 50,000 square feet of walls, and more than 200 of his public pieces stand in Philadelphia and further afield, including in other US states, Mexico and Chile. In the 1990s he began transforming two vacant lots near his studio into an immersive maze of mosaics and sculpture. Saved from sale by community fundraising, the site opened to the public as Philadelphia's Magic Gardens, which now draws thousands of visitors each year and runs workshops and tours.

His work is held by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His son Jeremiah Zagar, a filmmaker, portrayed him in the 2008 documentary In a Dream. He is survived by Julia and their two sons.