Fall exhibit opens at the Richmond Art Center
on October 4, 2013
A towering glass ladder, Yucatan-inspired sculptures and several staircases leading to nowhere make up only a small part of a 50-year survey of art at the Richmond Art Center showcasing artist Bella Feldman’s work.
As part of the RAC’s Fall Exhibit, Feldman takes viewers through a timeline of events with references from her up bringing, world travels and the horrors of war and ethnic genocide. The work takes on dark topics, but does so playfully. For example, Feldman’s “War Toy” series juxtaposes the grandness and intrigue of lethal weapon with their ability to destroy.
“When I visited her studio in Oakland, right then I asked myself, why isn’t this work in our gallery,” said Emily Anderson, curator for the art center.
The exhibit showcases 85 artworks ranging from Feldman’s work as a graduate student at San Jose State University to her most recent piece completed just months ago. Throughout Feldman has explored seemingly contradictory ideas.
“One reoccurring theme in Bella’s work is a certain sense of instability,” said JP Long, who has been the assistant to Feldman for over a decade.
This theme is apparent in several of her pieces exhibited in the art center. “Jacob’s Ladder” showcases a towering ladder with glass stairs resting on circus-like steel wheels. Four freestanding staircases situated closely together, lead to nowhere. Nearby, an assortment of pottery stands like sculptures inspired by the pyramids in Yucatan, Mexico – instead of solid foundations Feldman rounds off the edges, destabilizing the objects.
A child of Jewish emigrants from Poland, she was born and raised in New York City and attended Harlem High School of Music and Art and Queens College before moving to California. Feldman has been teaching in colleges all over the Bay Area for over 40 years and has a studio in Oakland where she produces her self-proclaimed “anxious objects.”
“We live in a very anxious world. I myself was very affected by my childhood, listening to radio and hearing Hitler’s speeches. That really informed my vision of the world and nothing that has happened in the twentieth or the twenty-first century has changed that,” said Feldman, in a recent interview with KQED.
The exhibit will be at the Richmond Art Center until November 15th. Admission is free and open to the public.
2 Comments
Richmond Confidential welcomes comments from our readers, but we ask users to keep all discussion civil and on-topic. Comments post automatically without review from our staff, but we reserve the right to delete material that is libelous, a personal attack, or spam. We request that commenters consistently use the same login name. Comments from the same user posted under multiple aliases may be deleted. Richmond Confidential assumes no liability for comments posted to the site and no endorsement is implied; commenters are solely responsible for their own content.
Richmond Confidential
Richmond Confidential is an online news service produced by the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism for, and about, the people of Richmond, California. Our goal is to produce professional and engaging journalism that is useful for the citizens of the city.
Please send news tips to richconstaff@gmail.com.
Non Toxic Crayons toys horror movie How many of us got hurt
before they were banned. A baby doll comes with almost real looking body parts such as a variety of
flip toys in a range of sizes. They can actually hurt them, so do not bring any exercising wheel at your home, you want to improve the hand-eye coordination of kids and also enhance the child’s motor skills.
Even if they would like to own it.
What?