Dorit Cypis was born in 1951, in Tel Aviv, Israel, immigrated to Montreal, Canada in 1958 and moved to the USA in 1975. She currently lives in Los Angeles, California.

Her work has explored relationships between the psychophysical, socio-political and conceptual dimensions of identity since the 1980’s through performance, social sculpture and photographic media. At the heart of her work are philosophical questions of uncertainty, dislocation and thresholds between the individual and the social group. She holds a BFA and BA-Education, 1975, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and an MFA, 1977, California Institute for the Arts.

Dorit's work has been presented at international venues including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Musee d’Art Contemporaire, Banff Center for the Arts, Walker Art Center, Optica, Musee des Beaux Arts/Bruxelles, Corps de Gaarde/Nederlands, Noga/ Tel Aviv, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Orange County Museum of Art. She has taught art and visual studies at universities and colleges in the USA, Canada, France, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Israel. Her awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Japan Foundation, Bush, McKnight, Jerome, Ordway, Durfee Foundations, Straus Institute at Pepperdine University, City of Los Angeles Cultural Arts Department and the Fellows of Contemporary Art.

Dorit Cypis is currently Director of Foreign Exchanges, an initiative she founded in 2007 for creative leaders and groups to build capacity for deep engagement across personal and cultural differences, and for transformation of conflict to generative relations. Her career as Mediator comes directly out of her artistic practice and follows a Masters of Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine University, 2005/7. Dorit is Chair, Middle East Initiative of Mediators Beyond Borders, currently leading a multicultural engagement project in collaboration with Neve Shalom/ Wahat al Salam, an intentional Arab/Jewish Israeli village founded in 1976, with a commitment to dialogue and engagement.

Website, www.doritcypis.com

Artist Code: 479