Maxi Cohen

Maxi Cohen is an award-winning artist and filmmaker based in New York City. Her films, photographs, and multimedia installations have been exhibited internationally and are in the permanent collections of numerous museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

Her films have influenced two generations of filmmakers, having played in movie theatres, film festivals and on television around the world. As a media activist, her film and television work has had significant influence in creating visible social change. Maxi has been supported by grants and awards from The National Endowment for the Arts, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Annenberg Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, The Karan-Weiss Foundation, and most recently The Buckminster Fuller Institute for Design Science, among others. 

For twenty-five years, Maxi has been travelling the world, filming and photographing bodies of water. From these documented images and film footage, she has created and exhibited multi-media works and installations. The latest evolution of Cohen’s reverence for water is A Movement in Water™ an interactive travelling “museum” of water, intended to increase one’s reverence for water, both within oneself and in nature.

Cohen, in collaboration with Gina Bria, founder of the Hydration Foundation, is a knowledge partner with the US State Department - UAE Agricultural Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM), working with 126 countries, NGOs, and entities eager for better water practices. Together with Bria and scientists in Dubai, Cohen developed a program entitled Grow More Food With Less Water, to address food and water insecurity in the UAE.

In New York, Cohen has taught at the NYU Graduate School of Education, the New School, and at Pratt Institute. She has lectured around the world, including at MIT and DIDI.