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Architecture & DesignContemporary Art

Artist Profile: Bella Feldman

Get to know the artists of Contraption: Rediscovering California Jewish Artists, on view at The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, Feb 22, 2018–Jul 29, 2018.

Uploaded Mar 7, 2018.

about the artist
Bella Feldman

Bella Feldman (b. 1930), a Californian since 1951, is an Oakland-based sculptor working primarily with wood, steel, and glass. Through the juxtaposition of these materials, Feldman addresses issues of the strength and fragility that she sees in her life. She received a Distinguished Artist Award from the Bay Area’s Kala Art Institute and from the Women’s Caucus for Art, as well as fellowships from the California Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her published writings cover topics such as African art; the relationship between women, art, and technology; and her use of glass and mixed media. Her work is included in the collections of the Oakland Museum of California, the Palm Springs Museum, the Berkeley Art Museum, and the de Young Museum, San Francisco. A fifty-year retrospective of Bella Feldman’s work was the subject of a major exhibition at the Richmond Art Center in 2013.

about the exhibition

Contraption: Rediscovering California Jewish Artists is a group show that presents the work of sixteen California-identified artists of Jewish descent—both historical and living—whose work refers to the machine either literally or metaphorically. Some of the artists are rarely seen now. Among the living artists, there will be large-scale mechanical installations by Bernie Lubell and Sheri Simons, as well as ceramics, drawings, sculpture and paintings by Ned Kahn, Bella Feldman, Howard Fried, and Annabeth Rosen. This original exhibition was co-curated by Chief Curator Renny Pritikin and Mark Dean Johnson, Professor of Art at SFSU.

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supporters

Leadership Support for digital media at The Contemporary Jewish Museum is generously provided by the Jim Joseph Foundation.

Contraption: Rediscovering California Jewish Artists, an original exhibition of The Contemporary Jewish Museum (The CJM), was organized in association with the Fine Art and Jewish Studies departments of San Francisco State University. The exhibition is presented on the occasion of The CJM’s Tenth Anniversary in its Daniel Libeskind-designed building.

Major sponsorship is provided by Gaia Fund, the Taube Philanthropies for Jewish Life and Culture, and Dorothy R. Saxe. Patron sponsorship is provided by Fred Levin and Nancy Livingston and The Shenson Foundation, in memory of Ben and A. Jess Shenson. Supporting sponsorship is provided by Riva and David Berelson, in memory of Gita and Henry Baigelman; Howard and Barbara Wollner. Additional support is provided by Doug Mandell and Scott Ullman.

Generous support is provided by The Contemporary Jewish Museum’s Bernard and Barbro Osher Exhibition Fund.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum thanks The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for its lead sponsorship of The Museum’s exhibition program.