PORTSMOUTH – Exploring the devastating effects of climate crises faced globally, New Hampshire Art Association artist Rosemarie Bernardi offers comment through mixed media in an exhibit titled “Tidal Tales III: Casting Spells for the Undertow” during the month of October at the Robert Lincoln Levy Gallery.
Bernardi’s exhibition is presented in large charcoal/pastel drawings and an installation of chemistry beakers.
“Both droughts and flooding, and their concurrent cascading events of fire and temperature rise, leave humans
with deep loss, grief, and fear,” Bernardi said.
“It is unclear to me if and how technology/science will help the earth,” she added. “Individual spells and efforts can be meaningful and ultimately bring solutions. These repurposed chemistry beakers allude to both modern industrial workings as well as a refashioning in alignment with alchemy and magic.”
Bernardi’s artworks stem out of printmaking and often includes installation work, drawing, and written texts.
Over her 40-plus year career she has shared her art works nationally and internationally in over 300 exhibitions. Her printworks are in many public collections including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Nelson Atkins Museum, and the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. Her awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, five MacDowell Colony Residencies, a Frans Masereel Centrum Print Residency in Belgium, a John Anson Kittredge Fund Award, and a month-long invited artist residency in Sweden.
In 2021, the Berkshire Taconic Foundation awarded Bernardi an A.R.T. Grant towards her purchase of an oversized etching press, supporting her new public works projects in large scale linocuts. She received a Monadnock Ewing Arts Award in 2022 for her support of community arts. She was awarded first place award in the NH Art Association's New England Printmakers Juried Exhibition in 2022.
Since her retirement from 40 years of tenured professorships, Bernardi has been active in supporting public art in Keene.
With Friends of Public Art, she instituted “May is Mural Month” which offers Keene's alleyways as galleries. Original prints and paintings are pasted onto walls for temporary year-long exhibitions. Regional, national, and international artists of all ages have had their works shared with the public.
GO & DO
“Tidal Tales III: Casting Spells for the Undertow”– NH Art Association artist Rosemarie Bernardi
Where: Robert Lincoln Levy Gallery, 136 State Street, Portsmouth, NH, and online at www.nhartassociation.org
When: Oct. 5 through Oct. 30. Opening reception on Oct. 7 from 5 to 8 p.m.
Gallery hours: Tuesday and Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m.
SHOWN: “Bereft,” charcoal and lace mixed media by Rosemarie Bernardi
Original source can be found here.
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