Yaakov Dorchin was born in Haifa in 1946. He began to paint in his early youth, mostly scenes of Mount Carmel.
In 1967 he moved to Kibbutz Kfar Hachoresh and set up a studio for painting and sculpture, employing a range of materials, assemblages, drawings and stabilizers, alongside his work in agriculture and industry.
Since 1969 his works have been exhibited in numerous galleries in Israel and abroad.
Many of his works have appeared in group collections in Israel, the USA, Japan and Europe, and his sculptures and drawings are part of many public and private collections. His outdoor sculptures are on permanent display at Tel Aviv University, at the Tel Aviv Museum. His work introduced Israeli art to the use of local materials and a form of processing that has become an Israeli cannon and an accepted standard.Towards the 1980's, Dorchin began using iron as a main stay in his creative endeavor. He taught sculpture at Oranim Academic College, and since 1991 has taught at the Art department of Haifa University.