View artwork »

View exhibitions »

View videos and articles »

Visit our Information Center to browse the artist file »

File includes:

Articles 65 Artwork reproductions 120 Exhibition invitations 17

Naomi Bitter, (born in 1936) and Nora Kochavi (1934-1999), a pair of Israeli artists, worked together between 1962 and 1999.

Nora and Naomi began their joint work in 1962, after they met as students at the first class of the Bezalel Ceramics department. During the last year they opened a joint studio in the Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem. In the early years they mainly worked as potters, using a potter's wheel. When the family of Kochavi moved to Tel Aviv, the two continued to work simultaneously in the two studios.

Nora and Naomi's transition to sculpture, which began during 1970s, was an attempt to relate to nature and archaeological evidence of Eretz Israel, as well as an evidence to the influence of abstract art. In 1972 they held the first sculpture exhibition, named "Impressions from Sinai", which was influenced by the natural forms of the Sinai deserts. During the 1980s references to the human figure began to appear in their work, through the use of symbolic forms such as trees or boats.

Nora died in 1999. Naomi continued to work in her studio until 2003.

[See also: Kochavi, Nora; Bitter, Naomi]

Awards And Prizes

1986 Certificate of Excellence, The International Art Competition - New York
1998 The film Escape was nominated for screening at the first International Film Festival on Ceramics, Montpellier, France

Environmental Sculptures

"The Sea", Ceramic wall, Municipal Cultural Center, Akko
"Creation", Ceramic wall, "Maale" High School, Jerusalem
Basin for washing hands, Rambam synagogue, Jewish quarter, Jerusalem
Memorial wall, Kerem Institute for Education, Jerusalem