Berenice D’Vorzon
$2,500$2,000
American (1932–2014)
About the artist:
Artist Statement: My work has always been involved with water images, the element of birth and renewal in nature. This would probably not have been so if I hadn’t grown up in the Bronx, particularly Hillside Homes, which being tucked away in the Northeast corner of the borough, was close to Pelham Bay, Orchard Beach, City Island, and seemingly endless marshes. From an early age, I had a great need to explore. Just walking up Boston Post Road to the drawbridge, with the swampy inlets all around, seemed a wonderfully mysterious adventure. The edges of all these waterways seemed particularly important to me, and before I was 12, I began to draw the marshes, and what I found around them. By my teens, these images were embedded in my psyche due to my habitual use (or need) of this unique environment. And, although I have since drawn on other places of nature, such as the waterways of Long Island (a close relation to the early experiences), Southern swamps, Northern ice, and most recently, tropical rain forests, the waterways of the northeast Bronx have remained as the base of my life’s work. My ecological involvement also dates from this early period. In my wanderings as a child, the discovery of man’s carelessness in his use of the land seemed enormously sad to me. No one at that time spoke of the environment or ecological concerns, so I didn’t have words to put to this feeling. But as young as I was, I felt oddly responsible. Today, this sense of responsibility to the environment is one of the elements in my work. One of my concerns is to remind people of the beauty, terror, and the fear of loss of our fragile ecosystem, and to engage the viewer in the experience of being in (and a part of) nature. Another thing I could not understand as a child was the denial of nature by the adult world around me unless it was controlled and a civilized “landscape” was created. Today I believe it is, in part, the subconscious message of the awesome sexuality of primal nature that had caused man to trash, destroy, or try to control nature; or to become blind to the environment. This closeness to nature, which is the basis of my work and my being, is intricately connected to growing up in a part of the Bronx which gave me access to my beloved wetlands. SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 2003 Scranton University, PA 2001 Clayton-Liberatore Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY 2001 Women Artists Series Solo Show: Rutgers University, NJ 2000 Blue Heron Arts Center, NY, NY 1999 Emanuel Gallery, Great Neck, NY 1996 Nabi Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY, The Underwater Series 1996 Artopia Gallery, NYC (10 Year Retrospective) 1994 Millenium Gallery, East Hampton, NY 1990 Dome Gallery, Soho, NYC 1989 Museum of the South, Mobile, Alabama 1989 Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo 1988 Pensacola Museum of Art, Florida 1988 Dome Gallery, NYC 1988 Scranton University, Pennsylvania 1988 Vered Gallery, East Hampton, NY 1987 Installation: Bay Street Club, Sag Harbor, NY 1987 Vered Gallery, East Hampton, NY 1986 Bologna-Landi Gallery, East Hampton, NY 1984 Anita Shapolsky Gallery, Soho, NYC 1984 Bologna-Landi Gallery, East Hampton, NY 1983 Adagio Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY 1982 Sordoni Gallery, Wilkes College, Pennsylvania 1980 Soho Center for Visual Artists, NYC 1976 Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY 1975 Everhart Museum, Pennsylvania 1972 Keystone College, Pennsylvania 1969 Wilkes College, Pennsylvania 1962,59,57 Brata Gallery, NYC 1955 City Center, NYC SELECTED MUSEUM GROUPS [back to top] 2004 Guild Hall Museum, "On the Book" 2001 The Museum at StonyBrook, Long Island morning/noon/night 1994 Guild Hall Museum, “Contemporary Long Island Painting” 1993 Thomas Art Center, Gainesville, FLA., “Sacred Places” 1990 Heckscher Museum, “Long Island Landscape Ptg in the 20th C” in conjunction with the publication of the book by the same name by Ronald Pisano 1990 Guild Hall Museum, Spiga Gallery 1986 Fine Arts Museum of Long Island, Hempstead, “Artists of the Hamptons” 1985 Aldrich Museum, Connecticut, “Review 1980-85” 1985 Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, “Artists of the South Fork” 1984 Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, “New Acquisitions” 1981 Aldrich Museum, Connecticut, “New Acquisitions” 1981 Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY, “Winterscape” 1976-99 Ashawagh Hall, East Hampton, “Artists of the Springs Invitational” 1976 Allentown Museum, Pennsylvania 1975 Roberson Museum, New York 1973 Spoleto Festival, Italy 1972 Vienna Print Biennale, Austria 1977,70,68 Everhart Museum, Pennsylvania 1960 Tokyo Museum of Modern Art, Japan 1957 Whitney Museum, NYC “Watercolor Annual” 1957 Library of Congress, Wash., DC, “National Print Exhibition” 1954 Detroit Institute of Art, Michigan SELECTED GALLERY GROUPS [back to top] 2004 Studio 18 Gallery, Tribeca, NY 1999 Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College (CUNY) NY, NY 1999 Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY (“Think Small Show} 1996 Rathbone Gallery, Albany, NDA Selections 1995 Omni Gallery, Nassau County, Selected Drawings from the NDA 1994 Southampton College 1993, 99 Gillman Gallery, Miami, “Bookart” 1991 Art Collective, NYC 1989,90 Dome Gallery, Soho, NYC 1986-90 Vered Gallery, East Hampton, NY 1981-99 Barbara Gillman Gallery, Miami 1985-88 Anita Shapolsky Gallery, Soho, NYC 1983-85 Bologna-Landi Gallery, East Hampton, NY 1981-83 Marion Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 1981 Loft Gallery, Southampton, NY 1980-1999 Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY 1978-79 Ianuzzi Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ 1978,81 N.E. Pennsylvania Invitational Traveling Exhibition 1978 10th Street Artists, Soho Co-op Galleries, NYC 1976 Rockefeller Gallery, SUNY -- National Print Show 1973 Plinio il Giovane, Spoleto, Italy 1972 Primo Piano Gallery, Rome, Italy 1971-2 Rubiner Gallery, Detroit, Michigan 1971 Robert Paul Gallery, Chicago, Illinois 1965 Creuze Gallery, Paris, France 1960 Proteo Gallery, Mexico City 1958-68 New York Galleries: Brata, Camino, Tanager, Nonegon, Phoenix, Artists, Marino, D’Aenle AWARDS [back to top] 2001 The Kittredge Fund Foundation Grant 2000 Grrant from Thanks Be to Grandmother Winifred Foundation 2000 Residency: Virginia Center for Creative Art 1987 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant 1986 Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation 1976 Everhart Museum, PA, Purchase Prize 1975 Roberson Museum, NY, Juror’s Award 1955 City Center, NYC Award Exhibition COMMISSIONS [back to top] 1986 Curator: “The Transforming Landscape”, for WCA, NYC 1984 Poster Design: Planned Parenthood of PA 1980-81 Curator: OIA sponsored traveling print show, “Artists Who Make Prints” 1976-77 Cover Design for NE Pennsylvania Philharmonic season program 1977 Mural: (4x32 feet), Community Medical Center Hospital, Pennsylvania 1971 Mural: (9x50 feet), Percy Brown, Allentown, Pennsylvania SELECTED PUBLIC AND CORPORATE COLLECTIONS [back to top] Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton Southampton Hospital, NY Everhart Museum, Pennsylvania Bank of New York, Intl. Banking Center, Miami Aldrich Museum, Connecticut Michael DeSantis Wyoming Natl Bank, Dallas & Kingston,PA General Instrument Library of Congress, Washington, DC BHF Bank, New York & Frankfurt, Germany Oppenheimer Company, NYC Ciga Corp., Grand Bay Hotel, Miami Best Corporation, Virginia CUNY (City College of New York) Ivan Chermayoff, NYC The Musueum at StonyBrook
Artist Statement: My work has always been involved with water images, the element of birth and renewal in nature. This would probably not have been so if I hadn’t grown up in the Bronx, particularly Hillside Homes, which being tucked away in
$2,500$2,000