Dwell on the Past, Lose an Eye,
Forget the Past, Lose Both.
First Prize?!?
I’ve been spending a great deal of time on the Northern California coast and it just seemed the perfect time to enter a local juried exhibit that invited work from across the nation. This cooperative gallery is full of life and enthusiasm, artist members with focus and camaraderie, and is located in the heart of Fort Bragg.
https://www.advocate-news.com/2024/02/15/edgewater-gallery-hosts-first-national-juried-show/
Thank you to Candace Fuhrman who wrote about my work for the magazine 94920. This exclusive monthly periodical serves the residents of the Tiburon Peninsula. It appeared in the January 2023 issue.
This magazine is not available online.
January 2023
https://www.sfgate.com/news/bayarea/article/Best-Bets-Robin-Bernstein-s-Fiber-Arts-Exhibit-17712731.php
https://www.pleasantonweekly.com/news/2023/01/04/beauty-and-terror-displays-powerful-and-historic-subject-matter
Failure of Justice, String and Wax on Wood, 2020, 52” x 38”
Read all about it! Published September 22, 2022
Click above to read the article published in the Pittsburgh City Paper
https://jewishchronicle.timesofisrael.com/fiber-artist-confronts-the-holocaust-in-beauty-and-terror-series/
Sponsored by the FiberArts Guild and The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh
July 28, 2022 Thursday FI 22 Artist Robin Bernstein Meet and Greet/Demonstration at Brew House, followed by lecture.
”Meet and Greet at the Brew House Gallery, followed by refreshments followed by 6:00 pm Presentation by Robin Bernstein “Beauty and Terror” with Introduction by Marcel Walker of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh.
FI2022 Artist Robin Bernstein, trained as a painter, has worked with string and wax as her primary medium for the past 15 years. Her work focuses on both historical and urgent contemporary content and is created by obsessively cutting tiny pieces of colored string and then pressing them into wax. Bernstein believes that art has the power to shift human behavior and therefore chooses subject matter, materials, and processes that support this idea. Bernstein’s subject matter combined with her artistic technique is her way of shouting from the rooftops that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
I was invited to participate in this powerful exhibition curated by Cheryl Coons and am excited to be in such good company!
See the entire online exhibition here: https://missioncollegegallery.weebly.com
Coons says in her curatorial statement, “The artists in this exhibition, Jenny Balisle, Kristine Mays, Maria de Los Angeles, Priscilla Otani, and Robin Bernstein observe contemporary events and use art, writing and social media to bring awareness to issues that they are passionate about. We have just lived through an extraordinary time and transition in our country - from the first Black president Barack Obama, through the experiment of trumpism, to the hard-won election of President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, who made history as the first woman, the first Black person, and the first person of Asian descent elected as vice-president.
Through all of these transitions, artists have responded, protested, marched, published, composed, performed, and fabricated works of art. Their artworks show concern, anxiety, courage, passion, and the belief that through meaningful engagement and action, they can effect real change. And, in each of these artworks, the broader issues are seen through the personal narratives of the individual artists. They allow us to view recent events through the unique lens of creative expression and artistic activism.”
Blue Line Arts in Roseville, CA exhibited 13 works from my series Beauty and Terror October 2 - November 14, 2020. At their invitation, and in the midst of a global pandemic, I gave this recorded art talk in the gallery. I also greeted gallery visitors one at a time during their third Saturday gallery meet-and-greet. It was heartening to be able to meet people (safely masked and distanced) to discuss my artwork as well as current political affairs.
The visual arts continue to need our support. Safely visit your favorite galleries and museums if you can!
Installation at Blue Line Arts, with Ratlines (work in progress)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St2Xs--YiXI
Rural Missouri is incredibly beautiful. Without mountains, oceans, deep canyons, towering trees, or raging rivers, it is beautiful in its plainness. It’s deep winter. Bare trees against sky, dry grass one day snow another, bird song, horses grazing, freezing temperatures and neighbors waving. I am spending three weeks here working on a set of drawings about my father. I carry the deaths of 6 million in my regular work, but these three weeks are reserved for a deep, intimate reflection on one man’s death. I did not realize that making portraits of the familiar dead can bring them back to life.
