Lauren Bergman
As part of the Covid exodus from NYC, Bergman currently lives and works in a barn in Saugerties, NY. She grew up in the Washington metro area, where she studied at the Corcoran School of Art. Bergman earned a BA in Fine Art and Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, graduating summa cum laude, and an MA at Smith College before relocating to Manhattan to study painting at The Art Students League.
Her collection of 24 paintings entitled “LIVES ELIMINATED, DREAMS ILLUMINATED”, purchased by the Dr. David Milch Foundation, has been exhibited at Brandeis University, the Museum of Science and History in Jacksonville, FL, the Ritz Museum in Jacksonville, FL, and is on long-term display at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, NJ, with musical compositions for each painting by renowned composer Ella Milch-Sheriff, and an extensive educational component to the exhibition. Bergman’s work has been featured in publications ranging from The New York Times to Juxtapoz Magazine. She has had three solo exhibitions at the O.K. Harris Gallery in New York, which represented her for a decade. Other solo and two-person exhibitions include the Makor Gallery and Tria Gallery in New York and the Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles. Her many group shows include Plus One Gallery in London, Carl Hammer Gallery in Chicago, and Jonathan Levine Gallery and Claire Oliver Fine Art in New York.
Artist Statement
Several years ago, I was looking at photographs in an online archive and was stopped by an image of a young girl that I found completely arresting. Upon further research, I realized that this girl’s life had ended in the Holocaust. There was no known name, no information; I was gutted by the realization that this one photo was the only documentation that she had ever existed. I knew immediately that I wanted to give something back to her—an alternative world that would illuminate the beauty and infinite potential of the life she didn’t get to have.
The through line of my work is narrative paintings told through the female lens. As a woman painting women I explore both the vulnerability and resilience that defines the female experience; reclaiming stories that patriarchal systems are structured to control and silence. Using reference photos from European archives, I paint these girls and women into idyllic narratives, beckoning the viewer to experience a story that didn’t get to unfold; to connect with a life that was so much more than a number. While depicting worlds of beauty and wonder, the paintings are a subversive reminder of the haunting parallels between the past and the troubling resurgence of authoritarianism today. Authoritarian regimes survive by dehumanizing people into categories, enemies, numbers. Art does the opposite - it insists on the particular, the individual, the irreplaceable.
www.laurenbergmanart.com
