Becca Bernstein

Becca Bernstein is a contemporary American artist. She lives and paints in Oregon and Scotland. [1] Bernstein graduated from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, USA[2] and studied at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. She survived two near-fatal car accidents in the summer of 2000, recovering fully from spinal and internal injuries. [3]

Bernstein’s art typically addresses issues of community and the “awkward dance of human interdependence.” She has also worked closely with residents of senior care homes in Oregon and Scotland, which she says has led her to explore as an artist human relationships in the contemporary age. [4]

She won the Kimberley Gales Emerging Artist Award in 2005, the Lake Oswego Public Art Award in 2007, and the George Sugarman Foundation Grant in 2007 for socially conscious artists. Her work can be found in the public collections of the City of Lake Oswego, Oregon, the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, the Northwest Business for Culture and the Arts, and the Oregon Ballet Theater. She is represented by galleries in Portland, Oregon; Park City, Utah; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Aberdeen, UK.[5] [6] [7] Bernstein is best known for her paintings, particularly of elderly subjects, but also earned a grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council for her 2008 conceptual installation in Portland, Oregon. [8]

Her work focuses on human relationships, family and aging, often using unconventional materials like patchwork quilts and slate tiles. She explores issues of human fragility and strength. In her 2008 artist's statement for an installation she wrote, "I am witness to the modern anomaly of dividing the tribe – of the separation of generations from one another, each to their respective institutions. As an artist, my interest in this subject has led me to seek out communities of all kinds for my work, both traditional and uniquely present-day, exploring the relationships we have developed or abandoned in this contemporary age." [9]