AZRIEL COHEN

Azriel paints on location around world, as a way to experience, explore and express the diversity of our planet. Currently, through painting on location in both Jewish and Arabic parts of Jerusalem he is building bridges between these two worlds through his art. He began his formal art studies in Jerusalem, and began his career creating original sacred Jewish art, combining artistic calligraphy with representational art. His thesis for his Masters of Fine Arts Degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York City focused on cross-cultural communication and the relationship between music, dance, visual arts and the written word.

Azriel specializes in transcultural facilitation and holds several diplomas in mediation theory, including from the Harvard Program on Negotiation. He develops innovative approaches to build bridges between people from differing backgrounds. He has worked with Jews from different denominations, people from different faiths and Israelis and Palestinians. In 1997, he founded The Ohr Olam Project, a non-denominational Jewish educational program and interfaith program for spiritual seekers in Dharamsala, India, home-in-exile of the Dalai Lama. He is co-founder of Peace Begins With Myself, a program that brings Palestinians and Israelis to Thich Naht Hanh's Plum Village in France.

The journey of creating his installation "Café Connection" which includes paintings of cafes in the Jewish and Arabic sectors of Jerusalem facilitated uncommon encounters with aspects of everyday life in Eastern (Arabic) Jerusalem. He is currently working on a series of landscape paintings of Jerusalem for the Ambassador Hotel of East Jerusalem.