ABOUT
Biography
Leslie Berns's artwork explores aspects of social, racial and personal history through the languages of geometric abstraction and figuration. She creates research-based, interdisciplinary projects that begin as works on, or of, paper, and develop into mixed media sculptural objects and performances. The latter are documented as moving images and digital prints. Her recent works incorporate graphic and textual materials into book arts-inspired pieces intended to enable contemplation of materials as metaphors for racialized identities and experiences within social, historical contexts.
Exhibitions of her work have been held at the Cultural DC Flashpoint Gallery (Wash.,D.C.); The Castleton Downtown Gallery, Rutland, VT; galerie transition (Berlin), Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut/Heidelberg Schloss Garten; RAUM 404/Unterwegs Dance Theater (Heidelberg). Berns’s work has also been included in numerous group exhibitions including, Confusing Yourself is a Way to Stay Honest, Kulturpalast Wedding International, Berlin; MIMIC: Works about Replication and Simulation, Manifest Creative Research Gallery, Cincinnati; LINE, Bruce Gallery, Edinboro University,PA; In the Realm of Forms, Pearl Conard Gallery, Ohio State University, the Washington Project for the Arts (Washington, D.C.); and others.
Born in Buffalo, NY (1959) to parents of German and Jamaican ancestry and raised in western New York and southern California, Leslie Berns holds a BFA in painting from Pratt Institute and an MFA in painting from the Yale School of Art.
Based in Hudson, NY, she was formerly a Senior Lecturer of Fine Art at the University of Maryland. She has been awarded residencies with Arts, Letters and Numbers (Averill Park, New York), The Earth Of, ‘an experiment with language and form for writers and artists' (2020) and the James Weldon Johnson Foundation Fellowship in the Arts (2023) in partnership with Bard College-Simon's Rock (Great Barrington, Massachusetts).
CV
Leslie Berns
b. 1959, Buffalo, New York
Education
1986
Master of Fine Arts, Painting, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT
1983
Bachelor of Fine Arts (cum laude), Painting, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
Awards, Solo & Two Person Exhibitions/Performances
2023
James Weldon Johnson Foundation Fellow in residence at Bard College-Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, MA (June 16 - July 3)
2020
Arts, Letters, and Numbers, Averill Park, NY, The Earth Of, an online experiment in language and form for writers and artists (July)
2014
Embodying the Ephemeral, Cultural DC Flashpoint Gallery,
Washington, D.C.,
Stream, The Castleton Downtown Gallery, Rutland, VT
2011
Quilting the Waterway/A Seed that May One Day Come to Flower,
Adkins Arboretum, Ridgely, MD
2005
Washington Post Educational Grant in the Arts Award,
The Folding & Unfolding Landscape
1999
Life is Folding and Unfolding, galerie transition, Berlin, Germany
Threshold, a collaborative, site-specific performance installation in the Heidelberg Schlossgarten, Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut (DAI), Heidelberg, Germany
1998
Life is Folding and Unfolding (performance), Raum 404/Unterwegs Dance Theatre, Heidelberg, Germany
Cathexis, Atelier Backstube, Heidelberg, Germany
Around the Clock (Rund um die Uhr), Children's playground designed in collaboration with Bernhard Hoppe, Die Werkstatt der Eigenen Art, Heidelberg, Germany
1994
A Sculpture and a Drawing, Daniel Streiff Ex Libris,
Heidelberg, Germany
1990
Matter-lineage, Saint Peter’s Church, New York, NY
Group Exhibitions
2023
Confusing Yourself is a Way to Stay Honest, from the Collection of Bernd Bohlendorf, Kulturpalast Wedding International, Berlin, Germany
2022
MIMIC: Works about Replication and Simulation, Manifest Creative Research Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, (book forthcoming)
2022-21
LINE, Edinboro University, Bruce Gallery, Edinboro, PA, Curated by Lisa Austin, inspired by Bridget Riley’s Print No. 7; catalog with essays by Paula Burleigh & Charlotte Wellman
2018
Glances from Infinity: Faculty Exhibition,
University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, MD,
Auction Gala 2018, Washington Project for the Arts, Juried by Edgar Arceneaux, Mark Beasley, Jocelyn Miller, Frederick P. Ognibene, Jessica Stafford Davis & Renée Stout
Alchemical Vessels: Our Common Thread, Smith Center for Healing & the Arts, Washington, D.C.
2017
Members’ Exhibition, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Hyattsville, MD, Juror: Joann Moser, Senior Curator of Graphic Arts Emerita, Smithsonian American Art Museum,
Washington, D.C.
2016
Alchemical Vessels, Smith Center for Healing & the Arts, Washington, D.C.,
Portrait - Portrayal - Portal, 39th Street Gallery, Brentwood, MD
2015
Implicit Bias, Smith Center for Healing and the Arts and
Busboys & Poets, Washington, D.C.
In the Realm of Forms, Pearl Conard Gallery, Ohio State University, Mansfield, Ohio
Faculty Exhibition, University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, MD
2014
The Art of Caring, AREA 405, Casa Baltimore Art Auction
2012
INFORM: Faculty Exhibition, University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, MD
Landscape: 3 Views, 39th Street Gallery, Brentwood, MD
2011
Washington Project for the Arts Experimental Media Series, Washington, D.C., Juried by Paul D. Miller - aka DJ Spooky, with screenings at:
- Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.,
Juror: Barbara Kelly Gordon, Curator, Hirshhorn Museum
- The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
- Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
- The Ibrahim Theater at International House,
Philadelphia, PA
- The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts
Center, Montgomery College, Silver Spring, MD
2006
Fieldwork for Mixed Disciplines, Dance Place, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Washington, D.C./Takoma Park, MD
2005
Exploring Diversity Through Art, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD,
Superstition, District of Columbia Arts Center, Washington, D.C.,
Curated by Jefferson Pinder
2004
A New Day, Harmony Hall Center, Fort Washington, MD,
Juror: Vincent Varga
PRINT, University of Indiana, Bloomington, Curated by Dawn Whetzel
2002
Dance on Camera Film Festival, New York, NY
2001
Montpelier Cultural Arts Center, Laurel, MD
American University, Washington, D.C.
Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
2000
Vollzeit, Galerie Bernd Bohlendorf und Christoph Duerr, Berlin, Germany,
Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
1996
Estro-turf, Annika Sundvik Gallery, New York, NY
1992
Without a Notion: Paintings, The 88 Room, Boston, MA,
Curated by Winston C. Robinson
The Neurotic Art Show, Artists Space/Four Walls, New York, NY,
Salon of the Mating Spiders, Gallery Test-Site, Brooklyn, NY
The Productive Park: New Waterworks as Neighborhood Resources, a design study sponsored by the Architectural League of New York, the Parks Council & the Department of Environmental Protection, The Urban Center, New York, NY
1990
Lotus, Homage to Lavinia Williams, in partnership with Jean-Leon Destine,
Saint Peter’s Church, New York, NY
1986
Yale School of Art and Architecture Gallery, New Haven, CT,
MFA Thesis Exhibition
Artist’s Talks et. Al. Professional Activities
2022
Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference (Virtual),
Featured Artist Showcase, March 17
2021
Edinboro University, Bruce Gallery, LINE, Art historian & critic Paula Burleigh in conversation with Leslie Berns and Barbara Kendrick, Edinboro, PA, November 17
2018
University of Maryland Art Gallery, Gallery Talk with Leslie Berns, Cy Keener, and W.C. Richardson, organized by Curator Taras Matla, College Park, MD, September 27
Pratt Alumni D.C. Network, Cannon Design, Artist’s Talk, Arlington, VA, June 22
The Drawing Center, Torkwase Dyson and the Wynter-Wells Drawing School for Environmental Justice, Participant: Architecture and Liquidity, with Torkwase Dyson & Mario Gooden, New York, NY, March 2nd
2015
Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery at Smith Center, Implicit Bias, Artists’ and Curators’ Discussion, Washington, D.C., October 17
2014
Smithsonian American Art Museum Luce Foundation Center, Artists’ Talk with Shelley Warren, sculptor, Washington, DC, Oct. 26
Castleton College, Artist’s Talk, Castleton, Vermont, March 25
2013
University of Maryland Art Gallery, Network of Mutuality: 50 Years Post Birmingham, Brown Bag Lunch Discussion, Leslie Berns, Bradley McCallum, Jacqueline Tarry, and Janelle Wong, College Park, MD, March 11
2011
Busboys and Poets, Artist’s Talk, Hyattsville, MD, December 3
Washington Project for the Arts Experimental Media Series: Artist’s comments, Q & A:
The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center, Montgomery College, Silver Spring, MD, February 17
Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD, February 2
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., January 13
2007
University of Maryland, Department of Women’s Studies, Artist’s Talk, College Park, MD
2006
Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Panel discussion, Art and the Environment, in conjunction with Art from the Gulf: Reflections on Katrina, Silver Spring, MD
2005
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Panelist, Exploring Diversity Through the Arts, Greenbelt, MD
2002
Allegheny College, Meadville, PA, Artist’s Talk
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Erie, PA, Artist’s Talk
Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD, Artist’s Talk
Collections
J.A. Forde, (New York, NY - Doha, Qatar)
Jose Ruiz, (New York, NY - Baltimore, MD)
Private Collection, (Baltimore, MD)
Private Collection, (Berlin, Germany)
Private Collection, (Baltimore, MD)
Private Collection, (Baltimore, MD)
Private Collection, (Washington, DC)
Reviews/Media
2018
The Washington Post, Mark Jenkins - Meet Your Neighbors, December 7
2015
The Washington Post, Mark Jenkins - Implicit Bias, November 28
2014
Maryland Public Television, Season 3, Artworks, Episode 314,
Pop-Up, 15:45, February 5
The Washington Post, Mark Jenkins - Embodying the Ephemeral,
November 9
The Rutland Herald, Victoria Crain, Visual Art Review,
‘Stream’: A Meditative Mix, April 3
2011
The Chestertown Spy, Adkins Celebrates Environmental Art, July 15
Eastern Shore Examiner, Michael Driscoll - Quilting the Waterway, Works by Leslie Berns, On View at Adkins Arboretum, June 7
2004
The Washington Post, Sara Gebhardt - The State of the County’s Art, December 30
Teaching
2024/23
University of Maryland, College Park, MD, English Department, Guest Artist in Explorations in Arts and Humanities - The Art of Public Health, taught by Professor Michelle Moncrieffe, Director of the NAME Project. Conceived and presented a portrait drawing workshop focusing on art and identity and addressing implicit bias in the health professions.
2007 - 21
Senior Lecturer/Lecturer, University of Maryland, Department of Art,
College Park, MD, Two-Dimensional Design, Foundation and Advanced Drawing & Painting, Art Theory
2001/06
Adjunct Professor, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
Painting and Extended Painting/Installation
2001 - 05
Teacher, Northwestern High School/Jim Henson Academy of Arts, Media &
Communications, Hyattsville, MD, Two- and Three-Dimensional Art Design, Drawing, Painting
2000
Professorial Lecturer, American University, Department of Art, Washington, D.C., Drawing, Painting, Sculpture
1995 - 96
Adjunct Professor, University of Maryland University College, European Division, Art & Art History Departments, Heidelberg/Mannheim, Germany,
Drawing and Design, Western Art History, Art Appreciation
1991 - 92
Adjunct Professor, Parsons School of Design, Department of Environmental Design (currently Department of Architecture), New York, NY – Fine Art and Architectural Approaches to Drawing and Three-Dimensional Design; co-taught with Madeline
Schwartzman, author, See Yourself Sensing & See Yourself X...
1986 - 88
Lecturer, Chautauqua Institute, Chautauqua, NY,
Summer residency program for adults, undergraduates and high school seniors. Assistant to the Director (1986(
1985 - 86
Teaching Assistant to Professor Roger Tibbetts, Yale School of Art and Architecture, Yale University, New Haven, CT - Painting