Rita Bernstein: Out of Place

Please join us Saturday, June 2, from 6 – 8 p.m. for the opening of Rita Bernstein: Out of Place. The exhibition will run through Saturday, September 1, 2012. The artist will be in attendance for the opening reception.

Journey: mixed media (photograph on handmade paper with beeswax and oil paint) 9 x 9 inches, Ed. of 5

 

Rita Bernstein began photographing after working nearly two decades as a civil rights lawyer, eschewing her legal career in favor of time with her two children. As such, her work explores the sorrows and sweetness of family life and, more generally, the ambivalence that shadows intimate relationships. Though her subjects tend to be younger individuals, Bernstein’s intent is not specifically to examine childhood. Rather, it is the uninhibited behavior of children that reveals, in a broader sense, the complexities of the human psyche.

Charmaine: hand applied silver emulsion on Japanese gampi, 10 x 11.5 inches, Ed. of 15

 

As a self-professed “reluctant traveler,” Bernstein shoots most of her photographs close to her Philadelphia home or near her family’s summer cottage in the northern stretches of Pennsylvania. In difference to staged photography she chooses to work intuitively, discovering rather than orchestrating her compositions. While some of her subjects are strangers, she prefers shooting those whom she knows well, resulting in works of increased intimacy, honesty and subtlety.

Lake Swim (hand applied silver emulsion on Japanese gampi, 10 x 10 inches, Ed of 15)

 

Bernstein’s work has received notable international acclaim, having been featured in publications ranging from LensWork to B + W Magazine (UK) to The Philadelphia Inquirer. In addition to print features, her photographs can be found in collections at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Johnson and Johnson World Headquarters Corporate Collection, among others.

Still Lives: mixed media (photograph on handmade paper with beeswax and oil paint) 9 x 9 inches, Ed. of 5

 

For the complete catalogue of Out of Place, please visit our exhibition page here.

A Photographic Mother's Day

 

A Happy Mother's Day to all of our blog readers out there!  In celebration, enjoy a selection of appropriately themed photographs … and then call your mother!

Elliot Erwitt: Mother and Child, New York City

 

Ida Wyman: Mama, Papa, Billy

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Edward Steichen: Mother and Child – Sunlight

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Dorothea Lange: Migrant Mother

 

Gordon Parks: Mother and Child, Harlem

 

Martin Elkhort: Where's Momma

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Ruth Orkin: Mother and Baby

 

Rita Bernstein: Expecting

 

Happy Mother's Day!

Rita Bernstein: BWGallerist 2011 “Best of the Best” and Solo Exhibition Announcement

 

Congratulations to Rita Bernstein for the recent announcement of her inclusion in the BWGAllerist “Best of the Best” Emerging Fine Art Photographers of 2011!

Transgression, hand applied silver emulsion on Japanese gampi paper (from the Lament series)

 

The John Cleary Gallery is also pleased to announce a solo exhibition of Rita’s work opening July 14, 2012 and running through the month of August.  Make sure to keep checking the blog and gallery website for more information in the coming months!

Still Lives; silver emulsion, beeswax, oil paint on paper

 

“I explored the sorrows as well as the sweetness of family life and, more generally, the ambivalence that shadows intimate relationships. Although my subjects have often been young people, it is not my intention to examine childhood specifically. Rather, I am interested more broadly in the complex mysteries of the human psyche. I find the uninhibited behavior of children to be a rich source of clues to the interior life generally; with awkwardness and eloquence, they experience the same psychological and social dramas with which we continue to struggle as adults.” [via www.RitaBernstein.com]

Alice, hand applied silver emulsion on Japanese gampi paper (from the undertow series)