Hi, I’m David (Duchi) Cohen, and welcome to my website.

I am an artist and researcher, born in Ma'alot-Tarshiha, currently living and working in Jerusalem. My work emerges from the intersection of visual art, history, and local and sectarian culture, seeking to decipher the complex mechanisms that shape our identity here.

In my practice, I examine visual elements from Israeli commemoration culture, deconstructing and reassembling them. While I work with various materials—stone, wood, concrete, paper, and more—the core of my work lies in the world of textiles. For me, fabrics, threads, and carpets represent a soft and inviting language that conducts a long-standing dialogue with traditional Jewish art. Alongside these, I utilize "readymades" and objects charged with meaning: from personal clothing items like T-shirts, "Shoresh" sandals, and Australian boots, to books and objects scavenged from the street, as well as Zionist memorabilia, military pins, and victory albums. Through these materials, which carry a weight of collective, national, and religious-national values, I reflect on the individual within the "togetherness," the inherent tension between the group and its members, and the interplay between Judaism and Israeliness, the sacred and the profane.

My path combines visual creation with historical academic research. I graduated with honors from the "Pardes" School of Art, and hold a B.A. in History from the Open University and an M.A. in Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology from Bar-Ilan University. My master's thesis focused on the "Great Leaders of the Nation" plot at Mount Herzl—a theme that continues to resonate in my artistic work. I am a graduate of the Mandel Program for Leadership in Jewish Culture, and since 2022, I have been part of the long-term artist residency program at the Jerusalem Artists' Studios. In 2021, I co-founded "Tapuz Gallery" at Beit Alliance, where I served as co-chief curator until the gallery's closure in 2023. Over the years, I have presented my work in several solo exhibitions and numerous group exhibitions; a detailed list is available in my CV, which can be downloaded here on the side. In 2023, I was awarded the Plums Art Foundation creation grant.

In addition to my studio practice, I place great importance on curating exhibitions as well as art writing and editing. I publish art reviews and surveys of art spaces in Erev Rav magazine. Previously, I edited the visual arts section of Bar journal (dedicated to yeshiva students and alumni) and wrote art criticism for the Shabbat supplement of the Makor Rishon newspaper.