Vinland - Recent Work by Cindy Bernard

Exhibition

Vinland - Recent Work by Cindy Bernard

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Curated By
Curated by Jennifer Farrell, Curator of Exhibitions and Contemporary Art Asian Corridor, Print Study Gallery, Gallery C
In the summer of 2014, The Fralin Museum of Art will present a new project by Los-Angeles-based artist Cindy Bernard. Drawn from her family's history, the artist's trips to Newfoundland, and the myriad ways in which the region has been depicted in both literature and film, the new works reflect Bernard's ongoing interest in memory, landscape, the production of space, and the construction of social exchanges. In the series, Bernard uses both archival family materials—including photographs and oral histories—and contemporary interviews to reflect on her great-grandmother's role within the local community, the history of the French shore, and, in a larger sense, issues of migration and place. At the same time, she reflects on displacement and industrialization by focusing on one of the area's major exports, newsprint, and its journey from lumber gathered in remote areas of Newfoundland to newspapers produced thousands of miles away in countries such as the United States, Great Britain, India, and Peru. Comprising video, sculpture, and photographs, this yet-to-be-titled series is a profound meditation on the complex and continually shifting relationships between spaces, social and economic structures, and personal and collective histories. Bernard is the inaugural Ruffin Distinguished Artist-in-Residence for the 2013–14 academic year, and is working with Studio Art's Distinguished Majors Program. Bernard has exhibited widely in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Japan; notable shows include the Whitney Biennial and the Lyon Biennial. She has also received numerous grants and fellowships from organizations such as the J. Paul Getty Trust Fund for the Visual Arts, the California Arts Council, Anonymous Was a Woman, the Harpo Foundation, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.