Artists Registry
New York NY United States
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Artist's Statement
Statement of Work
Meredith Bergmann is a sculptor who for over 25 years has been making work that deals with profound themes in an accessible, beautiful and stimulating way. She works on both public monuments and on a private scale. Her public commissions explore issues of history, race, human rights, disabilities and the power of poetry and music. Her private works often involve visual and verbal puns.
Nick Capasso, curator of the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, has written: “As a contemporary artist, Meredith Bergmann relies on her knowledge of history and art history, as well as her considerable talent as a figurative sculptor, to forge enriching links between the past and the concerns of the present. Her success as a creator of public art stems from her ability to make free, imaginative use of the forms and symbols of traditional sculpture to address, in complex yet accessible ways, the multi-layered personal and societal concerns of modern life.”
Her largest public commission, unveiled in 2003, was for the Boston Women’s Memorial on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston’s Back Bay. She is currently completing a large bronze bas-relief commemorating the Labor Movement for the Massachusetts State House.
She has written: “My work has always seemed cut out for me. I give myself assignments or I take commissions to find challenges to make heroic work in which the themes must be expressed with beauty and with irony. Light touches on dark subjects help me break away what’s monolithic or opaque. No thing, for me, embodies mystery, gives life to clay, or conveys narrative enduringly as can the human form. Loving to sculpt and to manipulate ideas, I’m happiest when I can give new meaning to old urges, or can warm a concept into art that’s worth its weight.”
Meredith’s articles, essays, reviews and poems have appeared in The American Arts Quarterly, Iambs and Trochees, The New Criterion, The New York Review of Art, The Tri Quarterly Review, and Sculpture Review. She is the poetry editor of the American Arts Quarterly and its related website: www.nccsc.net/poetry.
Meredith lives in New York City with her husband Michael Bergmann, a writer and director, and their son.
Pictures of her work may be found at www.meredithbergmann.com.
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SELECTED COMMISSIONS:
Labor Memorial Plaque, Massachusetts State House, Boston 2007
Marian Anderson, Converse College, Spartanburg, SC 2006
Boston Women's Memorial, Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 2003
Alma Mater, Alabama Inst. for Deaf & Blind, Talladega, AL 1997
Memorial to Countee Cullen, Bronx Council on the Arts 1995
Sister City Commemorative Bas-reliefs: Montclair, NJ and Barnet, UK 1993
Growing Up, Outdoor Installation for Westside YMCA, NYC 1992
Finalist: Harriet Tubman Memorial for Harlem, NYC
Finalist: Virginia Center for the Performing Arts, Richmond, VA
Finalist: Queens Korean Veterans Memorial, Kissena Park, NYC
Finalist: University of Mississippi Civil Rights Memorial
Finalist: 3 New York City Percent for Art projects: Walton Ave. Firehouse; Williamsburg Day Care Center; ACS Foster Child Care Center
Finalist: Florida Art in State Buildings/Dept. of Transportation, Bartow, FL
Finalist: Dallas Area Rapid Transit, Morrell Station
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: (* solo shows)
2009 Interpreting Brooklyn, Brooklyn Historical Society, NY
2007 Common Ground, Westchester Community College, NY
2006 Marian Anderson*, Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA
2003 Making Monuments & Murals, Boston Public Library, Boston, MA
2002 Response to September 11th, Pelham Arts Center, Pelham, NY
Reactions, Exit Art, NYC
Celebration of the Spirit, Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland, OH
2001 Just the Thing, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
1999 Just the Thing, Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI
1998 Mouse: An American Icon, Alternative Museum, NYC
1997 Annual Exhibition, National Sculpture Society, NYC
1996 Biography Memorials, Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx NY
1994 Wildlife in Midtown, National Sculpture Society, NYC
1993 Surprise!, Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY
1992 Growing Up*, West Side YMCA, NYC
1991 Daphne Reconsidered*, Asser Levy Center, NYC
1990 Vital Signs, Henry Street Settlement, NYC
Intimate Rituals, City Without Walls Gallery, Newark, NJ
1989 The Little Soldier*, sculpture installation, Brooklyn, NY
Noah's Art, Central Park, NYC
1984 N. J. State Arts Council Fellowship Exhibition, Hunterdon Arts Center, NJ
1983 Terminal New York, Brooklyn Army Terminal, NY
1982 Traffic Frieze*,10 on 8, NYC
1979 New Work*, Center For the Arts, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
CORPORATE AND INSTITUTIONAL COLLECTIONS:
Abington Friends School
Atlantic Chemical Company
Benco Dental Supply Inc.
City of Boston, Massachusetts
Converse College
Goldring International Group
McGraw Hill
New York Public Library
Tampa Children’s Medical Services
SELECTED PRIVATE COLLECTIONS:
Mr.&Mrs. Richard Anisfield, Saddle River, NJ; Ardythe Ashley, New York, NY; Shimon Dotan, Pelham, NY; Mr.&Mrs. Steven Gag, Boston, MA; Jennifer Gallagher Lansdale, Baltimore, MD; Mr.&Mrs. Morris Goldberger, Nutley, NJ; Mr.&Mrs. Bridgford Hunt, Shelter Island, NY; Dr. Paulina Kernberg, Scarsdale, NY; Val Kilmer, NYC; Dr. Joyce MacDougal, Paris, France; Judith Young Mallin, NYC; Bruna Nardelli, Venice, Italy; Lisa Nesselson, Paris, France; William Orbe, NYC; Preston Phillips, Bridgehampton, NY; Jeffrey Scheuer, NYC; Mark Schwartz, Bryn Mawr, PA; Dr. Joseph Simo, NYC; Regina Skyer, NYC; Michael Sivy, NYC; Nicolas Collins, Chicago; John Bigelow Taylor, NYC; Paul Warchol, NYC; Sujata Gupta & Richard Winfield, Athens, GA; Sara Winkler & Simon Leopold, NYC; Deborah Zabarenko, Bethesda, MD
AWARDS:
2008 Brooklyn Historical Society Residency
2003 Grand Circle Foundation for Boston Women’s Memorial
2002 Edward Ingersoll Browne Fund for Boston Women’s Memorial
2001 Barbara Lee Family Foundation for Boston Women’s Memorial
1997 Fellowship for Sculpture, New York Foundation for the Arts
1983 Fellowship for Sculpture, New Jersey State Council On the Arts
1982 Project Grant, New York State Council On the Arts
1977 The Eliot Lash Award for Sculpture, The Cooper Union
EDUCATION:
1978-1980 Art Students League: Sidney Simon, Jose De Creeft
1978 Apprentice, Palla Marble Atelier, Pietrasanta, Italy
1975–1977 The Cooper Union, NYC (B.F.A.)
1975 Apeiron Photography Workshop, Millerton, NY
1974–1975 Parsons School of Design, NYC
1972–1974 Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
LECTURES, PANELS, INTERVIEWS:
Boston Architectural College, Converse College, Dahesh Museum, DAR NYC Regents Roundtable, Ford Hall Forum, The Franklin Institute, New York Public Library, Questar Library, WalkBoston, West Chester University Poetry Conference, WGBH
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Monuments: America’s History in Art and Memory by Judith Dupre, Random House 2007
The Outdoor Gallery: 40 Years of Public Art in NYC Parks, Sept. 2007
American Arts Quarterly, Winter 2007: “Re-energizing Public Sculpture” by Gail Leggio
The London Guardian, Dec. 7, 2006, “Computers Transform the Cutting Edge of Sculpture” by Wendy Grossman
Fine Arts Connoisseur, Nov/Dec 06 pg. 80
Philadelphia Tribune, 9/5/06: “Gold Voice Honored in Bronze”
American Arts Quarterly, Summer 2005: “The Boston Women’s Memorial”
At Cooper Union, Winter 03/04: “Making A Metaphor Concrete”
The Boston Globe, Oct. 26, 2003: “Women Pioneers Take a Bow”
Sculpture Magazine, June 2000: Remember The Ladies: New Women’s Memorials in Boston & Contemporary Commemorative Public Art” by Nick Capasso
“Just The Thing” catalog, June 1998: essay
American Arts Quarterly, Fall 1997: “An Alma Mater for the Helen Keller School”
The New York Times, 9/3/95: “Exhibition Draws Spotlight to Woodlawn Cemetery’s Famous”
Sights and Sounds, Alabama Institute for Deaf & Blind, Summer ‘95: “Carving a New Niche”
The Newark Star Ledger, 10/8/93: "Sculptor links Montclair and sister city"
The Montclair Times, 9/30/93: "Bergmann Chosen to Create Barnet Sister City Sculptures"
Pictorial Maps by Nigel Holmes, Watson-Guptil 1991: photos of two sculptures
Greenline, December, 1989: "Tooth Fairy Visits Greenpoint Park"
The New York Observer, September 25, 1989: "The Observatory" on "Noah's Art" show
The New York Times, September 25, 1989: editorial on "Noah's Art" show
“Noah's Art” catalog, September 1989: essay
Written by Meredith Bergmann:
“Greek History Inspires Feminist Art”, Athens News, Aug. 17, 2007
“Facing the Other: Charles Cordier”, Sculpture Review, Winter 2005
Jonathan Shahn: Thoughts On His Work, 2002 catalog essay
The Greek World: book review, American Arts Quarterly, Winter 1997
Paint and Possibilities, 1996 catalog essay - PSA Gallery
The New York Review of Art, gallery reviews, 1994-1995
“The Arm and the Wing”, essay on Charles Wells, Tri Quarterly Review, Feb. 1995
Love, War and Rhythm - The Films of Maya Zrnic 1993 catalog essay