About the Work
At first glance, these artworks defy a clear medium and process. They appear to be embroidered or woven, mosaic, painted, or sewn. The colors are rich and the forms are attractive. They are “beautiful”. Each piece is composed of thousands of tiny cut pieces of string that have been pressed into a bed of wax that has been brushed onto cut plywood. The viewer is inclined to step very close to examine the crafted surface. The subject matter then becomes viscerally apparent.
Beauty and Terror is an 18 piece series about the Holocaust. It includes major aspects as well as lesser known crimes, as well as redemptive stories and heroic acts of resistance. A paragraph of text accompanies each piece, retelling the horrific act of violence and terror that the artwork memorializes. Each is an example of how people will behave under set conditions and these conditions appear to be manifesting in our current time. Much of the string that is used in Beauty and Terror is vintage and originated in Europe. Other work carries equally urgent contemporary content: political, historical, psychological. Each single work takes between 4 and 6 months to create. These pieces exist in part to help prevent historical amnesia and to push back against rising autocracies around the world.
Biography
Robin L. Bernstein was born in St Louis, Missouri into a distinctly non-artistic family. Luckily, music was played and encouraged which lay the groundwork for creative, visual expression.
Bernstein studied Art in St Paul, MN, Champaign-Urbana, IL, and San Francisco, CA, before settling in Emeryville and Canyon, CA. She earned her MFA in Painting and Drawing from the San Francisco Art Institute but upon discovering wood construction began to combine woodcarvings with thinly cut sheet metal, hammered together with thousands of tiny escutcheon pins. Years later, and along a similarly obsessive vein, she began pressing colored string into wax after learning about the Huichol Indians and their spiritual practices in Central Mexico.
Robin’s current subject matter combined with her artistic technique is her way of shouting from the rooftops: those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Human behavior being highly predictable, after all.
Robin and her husband have two children, now young adults.
Resumé
Selection of Exhibitions
2024 In Flux: Recalibrating the Unknown, Presented by SFAA at The Museum of Northern California Art. Chico, CA
(upcoming) Selections from Beauty and Terror, Yom HaShoah Community Observance, SFJCC, San Franciso, CA
Reflections: Now and Then, The Edgewater Gallery, Fort Bragg, CA
Big Works, Deep Valley Arts Collective and The Medium Gallery, Ukiah, CA
2023 Selections from Beauty and Terror, Solo Show, Pacific Textile Arts, Fort Bragg, CA
Art Talk and Workshop https://www.pacifictextilearts.org/show-item/yarnpainting/
About Face, Portraiture through a Contemporary Lens, The Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA
https://www.bedfordgallery.org/exhibitions/current-season/about-face
Left Coast Annual, Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA
Beauty and Terror, Solo Show, Artist Talk/Demo, Bankhead Uncle Credit Union Gallery, Livermore, CA
Yarn, Rope, String at the New Bedford Museum of Art, New Bedford, MA
2022 Beauty and Terror, Part 2, Solo Show, Artist Talk, Transmission Gallery Oakland, Oakland, CA
Beauty and Terror, Part 1, Solo Show, Artist Talk, Vargas Gallery, Mission College, Santa Clara, CA
Yarn/Rope/String, FiberArtNow, July 2022 Issue
Fiberart International 2022, The Brewhouse Association and Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, PA
Art Talk, Demo, Workshop funded by The FiberArts Guild and The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh
EmeryArts 36th 2020, A Fantastic Ekphrastic Art and Poetry compilation
funded by Rotten City Cultural Arts District and the California Arts Council
2021 #art #activism, Mission College, Vargas Gallery, Santa Clara, California
https://missioncollegegallery.weebly.com
2020 Beauty and Terror, Solo Show and Artist Talk, Blue Line Arts, Roseville, Ca
De Young Open, juried group exhibition, De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
https://deyoung.famsf.org/exhibitions/de-young-open
EmeryArts 34th 2020: the plague year, A Fantastic Ekphrastic Art and Poetry compilation
funded by The Rotten City Cultural Arts District and the California Arts Council
Invitational Drawing Residency, 3 weeks, Tomlinhill Farms, Columbia, Missouri
Pop Up Show at SFJCC Yom Hashoah Memorial Ceremony, San Francisco, CA - postponed due to Covid-19
1993 - 2023 Emeryville Celebration of the Arts, Emeryville, CA
2019 Beauty and Terror, Solo Exhibition and Artist Talk, Transmission Gallery, Oakland, CA
Mirka Knaster Art Blog, What is Art For? https://mirkaart.com/exploringtheheartofit
Lenore Weiss: Robin Bernstein’s Beauty and Terror http://www.lenoreweiss.com/
2017 Renegade Fiber, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Novato, CA
https://marinmoca.org/exhibitions/2017/
2016 Artists Rendezvous Art Talk, Emeryville, CA, Beauty and Terror: The Tyranny of the Witness
A Commentary on the Rise of Trump 70 years after Hitler
We are the Bridge Invitational and We are the Bridge Interfaith Art Biennial
Osher Marin and the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, Oakland, CA
https://www.interfaithart.org/news/tag/we%20are%20the%20bridge
https://www.interfaithart.org/news/we-are-the-bridge-exhibition-at-the-marin-jcc
2006 See Jane Run, Contemporary Art about Childhood, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA
http://www.bedfordgallery.org/exhibitions/past/see-jane-run
1989 - 2002 Modesto Junior College Faculty Exhibitions, Modesto, CA
2002 Robin Bernstein Solo Exhibition, College of the Redwoods, Arcata, CA
2000 Murals and Miniatures, Terrain Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1999 Matrix Gallery, 2 Person Exhibition, Sacramento, CA
1997 West Coast Painting and Sculpture, Oceanside Museum of Art, Oceanside, CA
https://oma-online.org/past_exhibitions1995-1997/westcoast-1997/
Robin Bernstein, Kennedy Art Center, Holy Names University, Oakland, CA
1996 Concerning Wood, Joan Roebuck Gallery, Lafayette, CA
1993 Works on Paper, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
Constructure, College of Marin, San Raphael, CA
Gallery Representation
Transmission Gallery, Oakland, CA https://thetransmissiongallery.com/index.html
Curation
2023 Juror: Bearing Witness (SAQA Global) on the theme of the Holocaust and Global Genocides, Studio Art Quilt Associates, Hebron, CT
Teaching Experience
1989-2003 Modesto Junior College , Fine Art Faculty and Gallery Director, Drawing, Printmaking, Gallery Operations and Management, Modesto, CA
2005 -2018. The Renaissance International School , Visual Arts Faculty, Elementary and Junior High, Oakland, CA
2011 - Present ArtMakers Studio School, Founder and Senior Instructor in all media including Stop Motion Animation, Portfolio Consultation, Age 6 - Adult, Emeryville, CA