Phoenix Project 2022: Continuing the Dialogue from 1992
April 22, 2022 – May 20, 2022 Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles
Lili Bernard. Her Granddaughter Her Son, 2022. Oil on Canvas, 48 inches x 48 inches
Spectrum News Coverage on Show, May 9, 2022
ABC News Coverage on Show, May 7, 2022
The Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles (KCCLA), in partnership with Black Artists in Los Angeles (BAILA), and the Korean Artists Association of Southern California (KAASC), proudly presented the Special Exhibition “The Phoenix Project: Continuing the Dialogue from 1992” which took place from April 22nd to May 20th at the Korean Cultural Center Art Gallery, located at 5505 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90036. The performing artists Yeonwoon Seo & Choon Hee Park are partnering with H.E.Z.Y created a special performance for the exhibition’s opening reception.
Performing Artists
Yeonwoon Seo: Singer / Choon Hee Park: Drummer / H.E.Z.Y (aka Elias Ferguson): Rapper & Actor, pictured below, performed at the opening reception.
Click here to view video of opening reception performance
The exhibition focused on continuing the dialogue between African American and Korean American artists related to the 1992 civil unrest in Los Angeles. Although they have experienced hardship and turbulence, through this collaborative exhibition, it is hoped that these two communities will continue to bridge the gaps that have divided them. Furthermore, this exhibition served as an opportunity to create cultural unity and deepen our understanding of each other, as artists and as people.
THE CURATORS: Left to right: Lili Bernard, Tammy Cho, Min Cho and Mark Steven Greenfield. Not pictured: Chungmee Lee
The exhibition presented the individual artworks of 15 Korean American and 15 African American artists which collectively commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Los Angles uprising “4.29” (called Saigu in Korean). Along with 30 individual artworks, a collaborative mosaic piece, comprised of works by 15 artists from both communities is on display at the KCCLA indefinitely.
A wide range of media was presented, including paintings, sculptures, photography, ceramics, and other various mixed-media installations. The “Collaboration mosaic” piece is designed to promote mutual understanding, dialogue, and communication between the artists and by extension, their respective communities.
This exhibition was organized by the Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles (KCCLA), Black Artists in Los Angeles (BAILA), and the Korean Artists Association of Southern California (KAASC), and curated by Mark Steven Greenfield, Chungmee Lee, Lili Bernard, Yun J Choi, Min Cho, and Tammy Cho.
Participating 60 Artists
Moses X. Ball / April Banks / Chelle Barbour / Sharon Barnes / Lili Bernard / Mark Broyard / Steven J. Brooks / Yrneh Gabon / Lavialle Campbell / Jane Chang / Jason Sahan Chang / Hyunsook Cho / Min Cho / Yun J. Choi / Kenturah Davis / Adrienne DeVine / Ingrid Elburg / Isaiah Ferguson / Mark Steven Greenfield / Okka Han / Zeal Harris / Han Na Hong (H.RED) / Marlon Ivory / David B. Jang / Miyoung Jeon / Eunsil Jeoung / In-ok Jeong / Buena Johnson / Sunhee Joo / Jessi Jumanji / Jongmoo Jun / Jinsil Kim / Somoon Kim / Sungil Kim /Yoonchung Park Kim / Yong Sik Kim / Chungmee Lee / Nakyung Lee / Robert Lee / Sam Sanghoon Lee / Talita Long / Michael Massenburg / Rosalind McGary / Rosalyn Myles / Dominique Moody / Kyoung Namkung / Ji Oh / Michelle Oh / Hairan Paik / Heysook Park / Swan Park / Duane Paul / Amber Perry / Alison Saar / Toni Scott / Esther Shim / Lisa Diane Wedgeworth / Wendell Wiggins / Stanley C. Wilson / Vincent Minsook Yang
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Please join us this Sunday, February 28, at 2pm as CalArts LatinFest 2021 presents me in a talk, slideshow and Q&A about my art and life relative to being an Afro-LatinX creative. The event is free and open to the public. You can join us via the Zoom link in the event page linked below.
https://www.latinartsfest.com/lili-bernard/
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2020 Vision: Prophecy Manifested, a Mujeres de Maíz Group Art Exhibition
March 7, 2020 – April 3, 2020 – Self Help Graphics,1300 East 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Lili Bernard and her two paintings on exhibit at Self Help Graphics, Los Angeles, June 2020, for the Mujeres de Maíz group art show, 2020 Vision: Prophecy Manifested
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stARTup Art Fair LA 2020
Lili Bernard: Orishas and Saints Through Afro-Cuban American Eyes
Solo Art Show, Performance and Panel Discussion
Press: Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, Artillery, Argonaut
Lili Bernard. Orisha Chart One, 2019. Acrylic, Rope, Clay, Metal, Wood, Straw, Plastic, Toys, Candy, Beads, Faux Jewelry and Digital Photos on Canvas, 30×36
stARTup Art Fair Los Angeles, 2020
Friday February 14, 6–10 pm
Saturday February 15, 12–9 pm
Sunday February 16, 12–7 pm (performance and panel discussion this day at 2pm)
THE KINNEY
737 West Washington Blvd
Venice, CA 90292
PERFORMANCE and RELATED PANEL DISCUSSION
Sunday, April 16, 2pm-3:30pm
Performance: Carlota and the Other Harriet
Featuring Lili Bernard, Caroline Heldman, Isaiah Ferguson and siblings
Carlota Lucumí (died March 1844) was an enslaved Yoruba woman in Cuba who survived the Middle Passage as a child and was a leader in the Matanzas, Cuba slave rebellion of 1843. Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) was an American author, abolitionist and fugitive slave who wrote the autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, published in 1861
Panel Discussion: #MeToo in the Generations (immediately following performance)
An art and #metoo conversation between the feminist artist-activists, Lili Bernard, Zeal Harris and Caroline Heldman. The talk will explore, through the lens of art and activism, the roles that ingenuity, performance, resilience and sisterhood play in the survival of the sexual attack on womanhood, from antebellum slavery through today’s #MeToo movement.
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What She Said
a group art exhibition organized by the Association of Hysteric Curators
Opening Reception: Friday, Jan 17, 2020 at 7pm-9pm
show runs through March 13, 2020
ACE/121 Gallery
121 N. Kenwood
Glendale, CA 91206
My artwork in the group exhibition, What She Said at Ace/121 Gallery in Glendale, CA:
Lili Bernard. La Orisha Yemayá y La Virgen de Regla con Nina Simone and the Daughter, Zion, Whom I Didn’t Know I would Birth 16 Years Later, Intercede. Oil on Canvas, 24”x24”
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a group art exhibition
Jan 15 – Jan 19, 2020
111 Minna Gallery
111 Minna Street
San Francisco, CA 95105M
My artwork in the upcoming group exhibition Viva La Vulva at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco
Lili Bernard. Ochun as My Bisabuela Clemencia Falls to Her Death, 2018. Oil on Canvas, 48″x36″
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The Wrap, Oct 2019
Mira Sorvino, Lili Bernard Lead Tribute to R. Kelly Survivors: ‘These Women Are Brave, They are Warriors’
Power Women Summit 2019: Six women who were victimized by the R&B singer spoke about how life changed after breaking their silence
Last Updated: October 25, 2019 @ 12:35 PM
Photograph by Court McAllister for TheWrap
Almost a year after the Lifetime documentary series “Surviving R. Kelly” brought public attention back to the R&B singer’s predatory behavior, six of the women who came forward with their accusations remain proud of their decision to speak out.
Lisa VanAllen, Lizzette Martinez, Kitti Jones, Jerhonda Pace, Faith Rodgers and Asante McGee spoke about their whirlwind year and Kelly’s arrest at WrapWomen’s 2019 Power Women Summit, held at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica on Oct. 25. The six received a special tribute from actress and Harvey Weinstein accuser Mira Sorvino and artist and Bill Cosby survivor Lili Bernard.
“We didn’t ask to endure what made us survivors, but we had a choice of what to do with that,” said Sorvino, who became one of the most prominent figures of the #MeToo movement in 2017 after going public with a disturbing history of harassment and Hollywood blackballing she said she experienced at the hands of Weinstein.
Bernard, an artist and actress who spoke out against Bill Cosby, praised the women on stage for their bravery: “I saw firsthand that the legal system is stacked against us,” she said. “These women going against the status quo of our culture are brave, they are warriors.” (Read More)
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Goddesses & Gods Art Exhibition
June 22 – July 20, 2019
Coagula Curatorial & Lisa Derrick Fine Arts Los Angeles
This work was in the exhibit and is still currently on display at Lisa Derrick Fine Arts:
Lili Bernard. Beware of Boogiemen Disguises as Deity, 2019. On exhibit at Coagula Curatorial Gallery, Los Angeles, through July 20, 2019
Lili Bernard. Beware of Boogiemen Disguised as Deity, 2019. Acrylic, chrome metal, changing-color flashing led lights, flashing police light, plastic, faux jewelry, sequin, digital photos, pom-pom balls and ink on canvas and wood panel, 76”x36”
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Buzz Feed, June 2019
Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Bill Cosby: Beware Of Boogie Men Disguised As Deity
An art exhibition in Los Angeles’ Chinatown is stirring up online controversy over one artist’s depiction of three of America’s most famous celebrity rapists as false gods. The show, “Goddesses & Gods” opens Saturday, June 22 at 6pm at Coagula Curatorial and Lisa Derrick Fine Arts.
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Some Blakkity Black Stuff
a Kamikaze Group Art Exhibition Curated by Zeal Harris
MiM Art Gallery Los Angeles, July 5, 2019
Lili Bernard beside new artwork: Elegua’s Phallus, 2019. Acrylic Paint, Cowrie Shells, Twine and Pipe Cleaners on Wood, 34 inches x 9 inches x 6 inches
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Donning and Dismissal of the Conqueror’s Coiffure
a performance by Lili Bernard and Children
Care Critique Complicity Performance Art Exhibition
at Contemporary Irish Art Institute Los Angeles
Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA
June 16, 2019
Lili Bernard. Donning and Dismissal of the Conqueror’s Coiffure, 2019. Contemporary Irish Arts Center Los Angeles Photo by Allison Stewart
Lili Bernard. Donning and Dismissal of the Conqueror’s Coiffure, 2019. Contemporary Irish Arts Center Los Angeles Photo by Allison Stewart
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The Pussy Grabber Plays. May 11, 2019, Thymele Arts in East Hollywood. I played the role of Karena, inspired by Trump truth-teller, Karena Virginia. My fellow Cosby survivor-sister, Victoria Valentino, played my mother. We were directed by Virginia Watson.
Lili Bernard as Karena in The Pussy Grabber Plays, Los Angeles, with cast & crew at rehearsal, May 5, 2019.
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Viva La Vulva Art Exhibition, Band of Vices Art Gallery, November 4, 2018
Lili Bernard, Panelist in Viva La Vulva Art Exhibition and Discussion on Women’s Health and Sexuality, Organized and Moderated by Dr. Cara Quant for the Pembroke Taparelli Art and Film Festival, November 4, 2018.
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LILI BERNARD in ARTBOUND ARTICLE – APRIL 2018
Lili Bernard
“Being a mom turned me into an octopus,” says artist Lili Bernard who is the mother of five boys and one girl ranging in age from nine years old though college. “I am known for having my kids with me at my art shows.”
The Artist Lili Bernard With Her 6 Children, March 2018, Los Angeles, CA, Courtesy of the Artist
Bernard’s work is colorful and deeply emotional. It reflects the many themes she explores in her art and life from motherhood to racism and sexism. She is the founder of BAILA (Black Artists in Los Angeles, an organized group that she formed to advocate to advance the careers of black artists.
Carlota Leading the People, Oil on Canvas, 72”x60″ © 2011 by Lili Bernard
Bernard believes all six of her children inherited art making abilities from her, as she feels she did from her dad and grandfather. Her son Isaiah Ferguson is an animator had been getting attention for his animated films including being invited to meet President Obama at the White House Student Film Festival. “His work is so beautiful. I am so proud of him. All of my children are my best teachers. They are mirrors. My kids’ art is so pure and whole,” says Bernard.
Visions of pregnant women are a frequent motif in Bernard’s work. “What I am trying to show in my paintings of pregnant women is that being pregnant is not a handicap, it is just a different state of being where you can be just as prolific and powerful and industrious. I have known many women who work right up to giving birth,” says Bernard.
Bernard’s kids are also known to help in the studio and inspire their prolific mother. “My kids help me make my art. Help me glue things down when I am making mixed media pieces,” says Bernard. “They are also my best critics. They have a great eye and give me honest straight from the hip responses.”
At her recent exhibition, “Antebellum Appropriations” at MoAD in San Francisco, Bernard showed her detailed muralistic visions that re-imagined classical European paintings into slave narratives. “I believe that part of the reason why I am such a prolific artist is because of my children,” says Bernard. “They inspire me towards creativity. I also want to leave a legacy behind so that when I pass, they will have a good collection of my work to make some money.”
Giving birth six times has deepened Bernard’s commitment to living life with a feminist perspective. “I have always viewed pregnancy and childbirth as one of the most feminist expressions,” says Bernard. “You are bringing into this world, life. You have the opportunity through the rearing of your children to raise feminists, even a greater accomplishment when your child is a male.”
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GROUP EXHIBITION, Viva La Vulva, Ren Gallery, 743 S. Santee St. Unit B, Los Angeles, CA 90014. Show ran through April, 21, 2018. Curator: Gallerist Rene Warren. Artists: Leslie Reed, Lili Bernard, Joanna Cassidy, Edvarda Braanaas, Tanya Ragir, Karen Petty, Aurélia Bizouard and Amanda Sage
Excerpt from Recent Review on Show in Artillery Magazine:
VIVA LA VULVA
Group Show at REN Gallery
Sounding heavy, presented by artists Leslie Reed, Lili Bernard, Joanna Cassidy, Edvarda Braanaas, Tanya Ragir, Karen Petty, Aurélia Bizouard and Amanda Sage honored physiological processes women experience, the mythological narratives that capture histories and the ineviablity of physical and emotional decay. We were greeted with the feminine spirit at the gallery entrance by Bernard with her live painting, Ochun as My Bisabuela Clemencia Falls to Her Death, portraying indigenous Afro-Cuban folklore of the deity Oshun.
(Photo featured in Artillery Magazine review of my work-in-progress, live-painting during opening.)
My other painting in the show:
Lili Bernard. The Sale of Venus (after Sandro Botecelli’s The Birth of Venus, 1486), 2011. Oil on Canvas, 63”x96”
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OTHER RECENT GROUP EXHIBITIONS: Black Dreams Matter, curated by gallerist Lisa Schultz, at Whole 9 Gallery, 3830 Main Street, Culver City, CA 90232. Show runs through April 3, 2018. This is my work in the show:
Lili Bernard. Self-Portrait in Straightjacket with Black Panthers Assata Shakur as Oya-Yansa and Kathleen Cleaver as La Virgen de La Candelaria, 2017. Oil on Canvas, 48″x36″
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OTHER RECENT GROUP EXHIBITION: Creative Souls, Watts Towers Arts Center, 1727 East 107th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90002. Curated by Paul Von Blum in celebration of his recently published book of the same title.
My work in the show:
Lili Bernard. Self Portrait Tortured, 2012. Wood, rope, canvas, paint bush, metal screw, acrylic paint, 31″x28″x5″
Lili Bernard. Maceo y Martí: La Mejorana, 2017. Oil on Canvas, 28″ x 44″
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REVIEW on my new painting, BALSEROS, in recent group art exhibition:
South of the Border, a PST Getty Initiative group art show on the topic of immigration. At Loft at Liz’s through February 1, 2018. Curated by Isabel Rojos-Williams.
Ten Artists Look South of the Border at Loft at Liz’s
December 7, 2017
Author Genie Davis
Detail of Lili Bernard. Aché Balseros, 2017. Oil on Canvas, 36″x60″ South of the Border at Loft at Liz’s
One powerful piece, “Ache Balseros,” comes from artist Lili Bernard. The encompassing oil on canvas work depicts the raft crisis of 1994, when Castro allowed residents of Cuba to leave the island. Cuba was Bernard’s birthplace. “As usual, I’ve codified the painting with symbolism pertaining to the Orishas, Yoruba deity,” Bernard relates. “Some fellow Cuban immigrants who were at the opening told me that they cried when they saw my painting. I cried too as I was making it. Though my family’s departure from the island was dramatic, we left when I was a toddler, we did not leave by raft; we left by plane.” But, she adds “I do however know some fellow Cubans who left the island by raft – they call these people Balseros. They told me how they were literally fighting, punching sharks on the way. Many Balseros suffered dehydration and become delirious and sick from it. Many died from it, got lost or eaten by sharks. Several Balseros with whom I’ve spoken about surviving the trip, speak of the important role that the Orishas played in their survival – hence the homage to the Orishas in my painting.” Vibrant and packed with images that really require repeated viewings to absorb, the work is a passionate tribute to an event, a people, and a spiritual practice. Was such a fraught journey worth the destination?
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REVIEW of my multimedia artwork, Self Portrait as Yemayá Under Attack, in recent group exhibition:
DIVERSIONS LA
Static Clears the Air at Durden and Ray
Posted on December 20, 2017 by Diversions LA
by Genie Davis
Lili Bernard. Self Portrait as Yemaya Under Attack, 2017. Sequin, Acrylic Paint, Photographs, Pills, Glitter, Nylon Afro-Wig, Ribbon, Pipe Cleaners, Cork, False Eyelashes, Plastic Eyes and Costume Jewelry on Canvas, 48″x36″
Artists and Journalists exhibiting include: Lili Bernard, Jennifer Celio, Molly Crabapple, Dani Dodge, Jose Galvez, Emily Goulding, Kio Griffith, Anne Elizabeth Moore, Danial Nord, Sean Noyce, Max Presneill, Walter Robinson, Steven Wolkoff, and Samira Yamin.
Below, the lush, passionate self-portrait in mixed media by Lili Bernard. “Self Portrait as Yemaya Under Attack” uses sequins, acrylic paint, photos, pills, glitter, a section of nylon Afro-wig, ribbon, pipe cleaners, and costume jewelry among other mediums on canvas. Beset on all sides, the titular character may be slightly bowed, but she is unbroken. A gorgeous, powerful, commentary that takes on the voraciousness of our culture – and our news cycle.
Lili Bernard. Self Portrait as Yemaya Under Attack, 2017. Sequin, Acrylic Paint, Photographs, Pills, Glitter, Nylon Afro-Wig, Ribbon, Pipe Cleaners, Cork, False Eyelashes, Plastic Eyes and Costume Jewelry on Canvas, 48″x36″
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NEW ARTWORK:
Lili Bernard. Maceo y Martí: La Mejorana, 2017. Oil on Canvas, 28″ x 44″ Available for Purchase
Lili Bernard. Calle en Santiago De Cuba con Elegua, 2017. Oil on Canvas, 24″x30″ Available for Purchase
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RECENT GROUP EXHIBITION:
South of the Border, a PST Getty Initiative group art show on the topic of immigration. At Loft at Liz’s through February 1, 2018. Curated by Isabel Rojos-Williams. Featured artwork by the following 10 Latino/Latina artists: (alphabetically): Lili Bernard, Marisa Caichiolo, Pablo Cristi, Joel García, Maja, Poli Marichal, Andres Montoya, Sandy Rodriguez, and Votan.
The Loft at Liz’s
453 S. La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 939-4403 ext. 5
Open Monday – Saturday 10am to 6pm
My artwork in the show:
Lili Bernard. Aché Balseros, 2017. Oil on Canvas, 36″x60″ Available for Purchase
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REVIEW ON MY 2017 SOLO EXHIBITION at MUSEUM of the AFRICAN DIASPORA (MoAD):
Write-up in SF Weekly by art critic Jonathan Curiel on my recent museum solo art exhibit, Antebellum Appropriations, at Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, which ran from April 29 – June 25, 2017.
Excerpt from the review:
Michael Jackson Remains Invincible
A series of exhibits at MoAD look at Michael Jackson through the lens of “mental colonialism,” and at the construction of narrative in Africa.
. . . That state of questioning is also inherent in two parallel MoAD exhibits that are equally thought-provoking and visually rousing . . .
Lili Bernard. Caroline (after Édouard Manet’s Olympia, 1863), 2012. Oil on Canvas, 63”x96″ Available for Purchase
Lili Bernard’s MoAD exhibit, “Lili Bernard: Antebellum Appropriations,” reworks well-known European paintings into epic scenes that depict the physical and sexual brutality that slaves endured. But she also depicts liberation, when former slaves are leading others or enacting revenge.
In Carlota Slaying the Slaver (after Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes, 1612), Bernard has a naked, shackled woman take a knife to her slaveholder’s genitals while two other women thrust a sword into his neck and another woman holds a white witness at bay. During her early life, Artemisia Gentileschi — a vaunted, 17th-century Italian painter — was raped, then took her rapist to trial and won. Art scholars have said that Judith Slaying Holofernes is a manifestation of Gentileschi’s public experience as a rape victim, but the work is considered a masterpiece regardless of Gentileschi’s background.
The same can be said of Bernard’s large canvases at MoAD. Bernard, a visual artist with an extensive acting career, has accused Bill Cosby of rape. Bernard’s background isn’t necessary to appreciate the scope of Carlota Leading the People (after Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, 1830) and Bernard’s other paintings. They stand on their own as detailed windows into a kind of revisionist history that’s full of violence, turmoil, and the birth of resistance. Whether directly or indirectly, no one is immune to these three themes.
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APR 26, 2017-JUN 25, 2017
Lili Bernard: Antebellum Appropriations
Through large-scale oil paintings, Lili Bernard reconfigures the art historical canon by turning classical European paintings into slave narratives in her series, Antebellum Appropriations. Bernard’s work exposes the post-colonial paradigm of suffering and resilience, through a collision of cruelty against compassion. The generational struggle of her Afro-Cuban immigrant family and Caribbean ancestors, coupled with her personal experiences as a rape survivor, informs Bernard’s visual exploration of the impact of trauma and the unconquerable nature of the human spirit.
Lili Bernard is a Cuban-born, Los Angeles-based visual artist and actor. Primarily a painter, she has exhibited her artwork in numerous galleries and institutions. An arts activist and independent curator, Lili is the founder and organizer of the movement, BAILA (Black Artists in Los Angeles). Lili received her MFA at Otis College of Art and Design, in the Public Practice Program, under the tutelage of Suzanne Lacy. Married to civil rights attorney, Franklin L. Ferguson, Jr., Lili gave birth to six children in a ten year span: Rafael, Isaiah, Elias, Uriel, Joshua & Zion.
Reception & Artist Talk 6:30-8pm Thursday, May 18, 2017
MoAD Emerging Artists is made possible in part by the Institute of Museum & Library Services.
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REVIEW OF RECENT THREE-PERSON ART SHOW:
Launch LA Gallery, Los Angeles, through May 6, 2017
The plight of being an African American woman is the shared thread in the group show SWEET STICKY THINGS currently on view at LaunchLA gallery thru May 6. Lili Bernard, Zeal Harris and Loren Holland have distinct styles and conceptual concerns but share a compassion for and commiseration with what America sees as a second-class race and gender. Each artist, though, exalts the black female amidst these trials and tribulations, making SWEET STICKY THINGS part celebration, part verification.
The exhibit is more a showcase for each of the participants than it is a truly meshed group show. The artists have their own defined spaces in the gallery with no cross-pollination of sorts. The title of the show comes from Sweet Sticky Thing, a song by the 1970s funk group The Ohio Players. Famous for their music, a close second for the group was their infamous suggestive and erotic album covers. No trip to the record store was complete for young men of all ages without a perusal of the Ohio Players albums section. The show offers three different takes on femininity thru an African American point of reference.
SWEET
Lauren Holland inserts black women in all their SWEET beauty and glory into landscapes that give a conceptual tweak to the Western (colonial) canon. One painting, The Bathers, takes its name from the four Cezanne masterpieces investigating that theme of nude women, isolated in a lake of pastoral splendor. Holland’s vision of the bathing beauties brings in a sad reality. Not only is there a voyeur in the shadows, but discarded binoculars indicate others have been gazing before. Amidst some detritus at the watering hole floats a Greek urn, reminding us that the cradle of the West based its culture heavily on the then long-established African culture. Just beneath the veneer of sweet figurative beauty, Holland challenges centuries of the dominance of the Eurocentric definition of beauty in her oil paintings that show the sweet gorgeousness of black women despite their vulnerability in the culture.
STICKY
Lili Bernard infuses a STICKY combination of spirituality and satire into her offerings here (full disclosure: I have curated this artist into commerical shows). She is known widely for her paintings of Orishas, the saint-like pre-Christian gods worshipped in the Caribbean by African slaves. She expands on that theme with inventive sculptural altars to hair salons as well as a satirical advertisement for Orishas as natural hair products. But her calling card will always be her fantastic oils and she does not disappoint. This artist paints the battle for souls as a pictorial wrestling between a dragon and a saint in one picture. But the most moving image in the show is her portrait of Latasha Harlins as an Orisha. At the top of her halo is her name and the artist has lettered in “Say Her Name” at the bottom. Harlins was murdered by a convenience store cashier in 1991. In this painting she holds the bottle of orange juice the cashier insisted she was stealing. She gave her life for that orange juice and she carries it into eternity here.
THINGS
Zeal Harris reminds us that there are THINGS with which African Americans must deal. Things that are best called burdens. Her outsider-styled drawings are belied by the sophisticated compositional rhythm of text passages woven throughout many of the works in this show. Digitally printed on a silk-like material, they tell dramatic stories of police shootings, relationship hurdles, and pining for a better world, all made more emotional by the mundane nature of these tragedies. That they appear to be so ordinary is what makes the subjects of Zeal’s stories so gripping. When the girlfriend tells her man the positives of them moving for a better job, he retorts “What’s the money gonna mean in Redneck, Arizona if you’re Sandra Bland and I’m El Chapo”. A man leaves his lover’s side not when it is time to go but when he is least likely to be pulled over. The artist “gets real” but on silk the work has a glistening presence – are these artworks also handkerchiefs in which to cry?
Most gallery exhibits have a homogenous quality passed off as an aesthetic. SWEET STICKY THINGS is a bold show about excess, about the diversity within a community, about belief, gender, and experience. Narrative painting too often seeks to spoon-feed viewers in the quest for a wider audience. These three artists give aesthetic investigation as much precedence as they do in elucidating their conceptual narratives. There is an inspiration in this show for a wider range of artists than just the storytellers.
SWEET STICKY THINGS continues at the LaunchLA Gallery thru May 6. Gallery is open TUE-SAT 12-6 PM – located at 170 S La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, California 90036.
An Artists Talk featuring all three artists and moderated by Naima Keith, California African American Museum deputy director of exhibits and programs is Saturday, April 15 at 4 PM, free admission.
COURTESY LAUNCH LA & LILI BERNARD: Lili Bernard “Latasha Harlins en El Cielo con Las 7 Potencias Africanas”, 2017. Oil, Acrylic, Metal Chain, Glitter, Plastic Eyeballs, Styrofoam, Plastic Angel, Faux Jewels on canvas. Available for Purchase
COURTESY LAUNCH LA & ZEAL HARRIS: Zeal Harris “Sandra Bland & El Chapo” dye sublimation on fabric. 2017
COURTESY LAUNCH LA & LOREN HOLLAND: Loren Holland “The Bathers”, Oil on Canvas Triptych. 2016
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REVIEWS OF RECENT GROUP ART EXHIBITIONS
Iconic Black Panther, Gregorio Escalante Gallery, Los Angeles, through May 14, 2017 – Hyperallergic Article
My work in the show:
Lili Bernard. Self-Portrait in Straight Jacket with Black Panthers Assata Shakur as Oya-Yansa and Kathleen Cleaver as La Virgen de La Candelaria, 2017. Oil on Canvas, 48″x36″ Available for Purchase
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Lili Bernard. Latasha Harlins y Las 7 Potencias Africans – Kaleidoscope Tribute to the Harlins Family, 2017. Acrylic Paint, Photos, Costume Jewels, Plastic Eyes and Glitter, 20″x20″ Sold. Collection of Community Coalition
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Lili Bernard. Trump Trigger Warning One, 2017. Acrylic Paint, Photos, Costume Jewels, and Wooden Toothpicks on Canvas, 8″x8.” Sold. Collection of Judy Bowen.
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Lili Bernard, Guest Speaker, Window Between Worlds Artworks for Healing Exhibition/Auction March 2, 2017
Lili Bernard. Self Portrait in Pallet Knife, Red Mouth, 2010. Oil on Canvas, 30”x24″ Sold
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LILI BERNARD featured in ARTnews Magazine July 2016
L.A. HABITAT: LILI BERNARD
Lili Bernard in her Miracle Mile studio. ©KATHERINE MCMAHON
L.A. Habitat is a weekly series of visits with 16 artists in their workspaces around the city.
This week’s studio: Lili Bernard; Miracle Mile, Los Angeles. “It was a large space, two floors plus a loft, about 2200 square feet,” Lili Bernard told me, recalling her previous studio space, on Chung King Road, the main drag of Chinatown in Los Angeles. “But I gave it up.” She did so for three reasons: she could no longer afford it, she started grad school at the Otis College of Art and Design (a 30-minute drive from Chinatown on a good day), and she preferred having a studio space at her home, in the Miracle Mile section of Los Angeles. “I no longer have to waste time driving back and forth through all the L.A. traffic,” she said.
Bernard lives with her husband and six children in a two-story house on a relatively quiet residential street. “The room which I use as my art studio within our home is relatively small, around 256 square feet. My studio therefore ends up spilling out into our living room which is spacious, and better accommodates the creation of my large paintings and sculptures.” Bernard dreams of building a larger studio space in her backyard, which would give her more space to focus on creating larger works. “It would also allow my children to play without having to contend with my art and tools everywhere,” she said, “but I imagine that my kids will still be all up in my work. It’s often me and the children creating art side by side—precious moments for me.”
Bernard was born in Cuba, and spent some time in New York before she moved to L.A. in 1993. The climate and landscape of the city deeply informs Bernard’s action-packed paintings—scenes that often reimagine canonical paintings from European art history with racially diverse subjects and frenetic colors. A recurring motif in her work is the Ceiba tree. “In Cuba, as well as in parts of Africa, Asia, and other parts of Latin America, the Ceiba tree is considered to be a sacred tree,” she said. “Since my artwork is heavily codified with Afro-Cuban religious iconography and folklore, I infuse my paintings, sculptures, photography and video art with images of the Ceiba tree and her flowers.” Because of L.A.’s sunny, warm, stable climate, ceiba trees thrive in the area, even during droughts, because their roots are deep enough to reach subterranean waters.
Her ties to the entertainment industry also inform her work, particularly recently. “I bring my artwork into my political activism as a feminist, specifically in my fighting rape culture and the exploitation of women which is rampant in the entertainment industry whose mecca is Los Angeles,” she told me. Bernard recently discussed her experience as a rape survivor in New York Magazine as well as other news outlets. Her autobiographical body of work called “BC Trauma Bond: As in Before Christ There Were Demons and They’ve Persisted in Heavenly Places” is based on that traumatic event.
Bernard is also actively involved in a number of different causes in the arts, including BAILA: Black Artists in Los Angeles, which she founded in 2011 to help advance the careers of black artists in the city. “L.A. has a rich black arts scene,” she said. “Many of the great black art stars have hailed from Los Angeles. However, the majority of black artists in L.A. are hugely underrepresented.”
Bernard currently has work in a show called “Coming to the Table” at Angels Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro, California, organized by the Association of Hysteric Curators, an intergenerational, multicultural group of Los Angeles-based feminist artists.
Below, a look around Bernard’s Miracle Mile studio.
ALL PHOTOS: KATHERINE MCMAHON
Bernard with a drawing and the then-in-progress Self Portrait as Yemaya Under Attack , which is currently on view at Angels Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro, California.
A detail of her piece Carlota Leading the People from 2011, which draws inspiration from Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, 1830.
A detail of her piece Ain’t Funny Crucifix, 2014, constructed from purple sugarcane, conga drum, nails, rope, acrylic paint, and watermelon seeds.
Some of Bernard’s painting supplies.
Bernard’s desk workspace in her studio.
Some materials around the studio. She often uses textiles in her work.
A part of Bernard’s deconstructed Oshun’s Hair Salon, 2013.
Bernard with some of her art, which spills out from her studio into her living room.
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LILI BERNARD Interviewed on Modern Art Blitz – Host Art Critic Mat Gleason – June 6, 2016
ARTnews Magazine Spring 2016 Icons Issue
First printed in 1902, the progressive ARTnews Magazine is “the oldest and most widely-circulated art magazine in the world.” I’m currently featured in their Spring 2016 “Icons Issue,” which is available for purchase on the magazine stands for $8. There are 5 icons in the cover-feature: Mary Heilmann, Faith Ringgold, Kerry James Marshal, Kenneth Anger and Lynda Benglis. I’m one of 16 Los Angeles-based artists featured in this issue in the article by editor-writer-photographgher, Katherine McMahon, entitled Habitat: LA. The 16 featured L.A. artists are myself, David Hockney, Ed Ruscha, Catherine Opie, Diana Thater, Mary Weatherford, Jim Shaw, Henry Taylor, Thomas Houseago, Kaar Upson, Liz Larner, Amanda Ross-Ho, Enrique Martinez Celaya, Samara Golden, Lara Schnitger and Elad Lassry. Scroll down for an ARTnews.com online preview.
Habitat: Los Angeles
Visits to the studios of 16 artists over the next 16 weeks
The opening layout of Habitat L.A. from the Spring 2016 issue of ARTnews. Clockwise from top left: David Hockney and his studio, Diana Thater and her studio, Ed Ruscha and his studio, Catherine Opie and her studio.
Los Angeles is all the rage at the moment. Last September, megacollector Eli Broad opened his $140 million private museum on Grand Avenue; the shiny Diller Scofidio + Renfro building is open free of charge and has had lines around the block. That same month, New York’s Maccarone gallery inaugurated a big space near L.A.’s downtown arts district with a show of Alex Hubbard. Berlin and London’s Sprüth Magers is expanding to Wilshire Boulevard, across from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. And March brings the big kahuna: Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, a new branch of the London-, Somerset-, New York-, and Zurich-based Hauser & Wirth gallery, will open downtown in a converted flour mill. At 100,000 square feet, it’s on the scale of a museum.
For our Icons issue, we took a look at L.A., that iconic American city, through the lens of some of its many artists’ studios, visiting 16 people of different generations. Over the next 16 weeks, each of those studios will be featured on the site—one per week. Below, a photo preview of what is to come, and below that, the complete lineup of artists.
A layout of Habitat L.A. from the Spring 2016 issue of ARTnews. Clockwise from top left: Mary Weatherford in her studio, Thomas Houseago in his studio, Henry Taylor and his studio, Jim Shaw and his studio.
A layout of Habitat L.A. from the Spring 2016 issue of ARTnews. Clockwise from top left: Kaari Upson and her studio, Amanda Ross-Ho in her studio, Enrique Martinez Celaya and his studio, Liz Larner in her studio.
A layout of Habitat L.A. from the Spring 2016 issue of ARTnews. Clockwise from top left: Lili Bernard in her studio, Lara Schnitger in her studio, Elad Lassry and his studio, Samara Golden and her studio.
The artists:
- Lili Bernard
- Samara Golden
- David Hockney
- Thomas Houseago
- Liz Larner
- Elad Lassry
- Enrique Martinez Celaya
- Catherine Opie
- Amanda Ross-Ho
- Ed Ruscha
- Lara Schnitger
- Jim Shaw
- Henry Taylor
- Diana Thater
- Kaari Upson
- Mary Weatherford
Coagula Art Journal May 2016 Issue
Eric Minh Swenson’s Art World Year Book of Art World All Stars
“Lili Bernard: A survivor, an activist, but most importantly, an artist. Lili Bernard paints elegant, sumptuous scenes of the uttermost cruelty in relating slave stories, Orishas and epic tales of bloodlust, revenge, and finally, redemption. Most importantly, redemption”
— MATT GLEASON, art critic/Coagula Art Journal Editor
Coagula Art Journal, May 2016 Issue: Eric Minh Swenson’s Art World Yearbook
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New York Times Winners of Pictures of Year International
March 1, 2016
Lili Bernard says she was assaulted by Bill Cosby in the early 1990s.
Community Awareness Award, Judges’ Special Recognition.
Credit: Amanda Demme/New York Magazine
Carlota Leading the People, Oil on Canvas, 72”x60″ © 2011 by Lili Bernard
“Oshun Altar-Hair Salon” by Lili Bernard pops out from against a wall inside L.A. Artcore, where it is on view until April 5 for “Pulse of L.A.,” a juried show featuring 23 female artists. The bright yellow table is decked out with crosses and beads, shells and baubles. There’s a prayer candle under the table. A mirror, comb and hairdryer hang from the side. Above it is a poster made to look like an ad for the latest hair product, boasting slogans like “Get your sweat on!” and “Racial Self-Hatred get thee gone!” In the center of the poster, Bernard poses with her daughter in a photo taken by artist Toni Scott. Both mother and daughter wear their hair in a natural style.
The altar is part of a bigger series called “Donning and Dismissal of the Conqueror’s Coiffure.” When presented in full, there are multiple altars that bring together Afro-Cuban religious traditions with elements of the hair salon. The series also includes a performance piece, where women wet their hair — “like a Baptism,” Bernard explains — to reveal their natural curls.
“There’s a lot of trauma for black women with regard to their hair,” says Bernard inside her home studio. She talks about the physical pain that can be caused by straightening hair, using chemicals that burn or wearing weaves that are tightly sewn in with natural hair. She also talks about the emotional trauma that comes with hair, the taunts that children have faced because of the smell of hair relaxing products or because a swim in a pool revealed one’s hair texture. She speaks personally about family pressure regarding her own hair, mentioning the criticism she received from her parents when she visited them with a natural hairstyle. “There’s so much tremendous pressure from the family, the black family, to try and make you look white,” she says.
Trauma is central to Bernard’s work. The Los Angeles-based artist, who was born in Cuba and was raised primarily in New Jersey, delves into trauma experienced by African people brought to the New World as slaves and the scars that exist many generations later. She explores traumas experienced by women, whether it’s the struggle to attain a beauty ideal to the pain of sexual assault. Bernard’s work is boldly feminist and as universal in its themes as it is personal.
In her “Antebellum Appropriations” series, Bernard references the great paintings of Europe’s art history as she builds a narrative of slavery and abuse. The project started with her participation in the “Tel-Art-Phone” show that Coagula Curatorial’s Mat Gleason curated at Beacon Arts in 2011. The event was modeled after the game Telephone, where each artist riffs on one who immediately preceded him or her. Bernard followed Coop and was inspired by his pin-up-style piece to reference Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus.” She created “The Sale of Venus,” with a pregnant woman on an auction block, clearly suffering from trauma. Bernard decided to keep going with the theme after the show. She followed “The Sale of Venus” with “Carlota Leading the People,” based on Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People. The piece depicts the story of a woman who led a slave revolt in Cuba and was ultimately executed. Bernard notes the horses in a corner of the painting — “they dragged and quartered her to death,” she explains. [image: “Oshun Altar-Hair Salon” by Lili Bernard]
Yet, there is more to the story. In “Caroline,” based on Manet’s “Olympia,” Bernard depicts rape, with Caroline representing her great-grandmother and the perpetrator representing her great-grandfather. Then there is “Carlota Slaying the Slaver,” which pays homage to Artimesia Gentilesch painting “Judith Slaying Holofernes.” In it, women are depicted mutilating their rapist.
As Gentilesch’s painting is said to be inspired by the artist’s own experience, so is Bernard’s work. Only recently has she been able to talk about the autobiographical aspects of the “Antebellum Appropriations” paintings. She points to some of the details, metaphors that reflect her own experience, like the silencing of women in the paintings.
The Sale of Venus, Oil on Canvas, 96”x72” © 2011by Lili Bernard
While Bernard plans to continue with “Antebellum Appropriations”– she has ideas for more than 20 more additions to the series — she has already begun work on a new series of more autobiographical pieces. “I’m working on this body of work that’s coming out of me, not with effort, but compulsively,” she says. “It’s born out of this trauma, of which I spoke, that I endured in my early 20s.”
After Bernard was attacked, she sought help. A couple years later, she believed that she was getting better. Bernard carried on with her life and moved to Los Angeles. She had six children and went back to school, earning an MFA at Otis College of Art and Design. Still, she suffered from night terrors and panic attacks. Eventually, she was overcome by the memories. Bernard likens it to Hurricane Katrina. “Hurricane Katrina came and broke the levy and all the water came flooding over New Orleans, which was once very functional,” she says. Bernard sought help.
“I’m healing,” she says. “I’ve been recovering, but what’s coming out is the art. I’ve been prolifically, compulsively creating a whole bunch of art as therapy.”
Bernard describes the urgency and therapeutic nature of her art, comparing her art-making tools to “tools on an operating table in the ER.” While art helps Bernard’s recovery, the graphic nature of the paintings captures the physical and emotional violence so often perpetrated against women. Bernard points to the woman at the center of “Carlota Slaying the Slaver,” which she started last summer and is ver close to competition. The woman appears to be ready to castrate the attacker, but her expression shows that she is unsure about what she should do. “There’s a war going on there,” says Bernard.
That challenge to bring an end to rape culture is imbued in much of Bernard’s work. “I used to spend so much time with my art addressing white privilege, but, now I’m really focusing on male privilege,” she says. “I’m fighting male privilege.”
Top Image: “Carlota Leading the People” by Lili Bernard
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