Rebeca Bollinger

Rebeca Bollinger (born Los Angeles, California) is an American artist whose practice encompasses sculpture, video, photography, drawing, installation and performance.[1][2][3][4] Her work employs unconventional materials and processes through which she aggregates, fragments, re-translates or juxtaposes images and objects, in order to examine shifts in meaning, information and memory.[5][6][7] She began her art career amid cultural shifts in the 1990s, and her work of that time engages the effects of the early internet on image production and display, systems of ordering, and the construction of identity.[1][8][9] Her later work shifted in emphasis from images to objects, employing similar processes to give form to invisible forces, memories, ephemeral phenomena, and open-ended narratives.[7][10][11] Bollinger has exhibited at institutions including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA),[12] de Young Museum,[13] and Orange County Museum of Art (2002 California Biennial).[14] Her work has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts and belongs to the public art collections of SFMOMA, de Young Museum, and San Jose Museum of Art, among others.[15][16][17][18]

Rebeca Bollinger
Born
Los Angeles, California, United States
NationalityAmerican
EducationSan Francisco Art Institute
Known forPhotography, sculpture, video, drawing
AwardsNational Endowment for the Arts, Artadia
WebsiteRebeca Bollinger

Life and career

Bollinger was born and raised in Los Angeles.[19] After earning her BFA (Painting and New Genres, 1993) from the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), she attracted critical and institutional attention for her early work.[8][19][20] She has exhibited at The Lab, SFMOMA, Art in the Anchorage (Creative Time, Brooklyn), Museum Fridericianum (Kassel, Germany), ISEA International (Rotterdam), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts,[21][22][23][19] Walter Maciel (Los Angeles),[24] Rena Bransten (San Francisco)[25] and Feigen Contemporary (New York) galleries, Mills College Art Museum,[11] Henry Art Gallery,[26] Gallery 16,[7] Ballroom Marfa, Pacific Film Archive and Asian Art Museum.[27][15] In 2005, she joined the faculty of California College of the Arts, teaching there until 2018.[28]

Work

Critics characterize Bollinger's work by its conceptual and aesthetic economy and exploration of unexpected materials, processes and combinations.[29][9][7] She often enacts translations between different media and modes of representation and abstraction, individual and aggregate, order and randomness, and ephemerality and concreteness.[30][31][26][32]

Rebeca Bollinger, Untitled (nillas), ink on cookies, shrink wrap, 18" x 9" x 2.5", 1997.

Early work: archives, sculpture, video

Bollinger first gained notice for her video Alphabetically Sorted (1994),[33] a found object of 644 keywords on a CompuServe photography forum called "Plain Brown Wrapper," which were then alphabetized and read by Victoria: High Quality, an early Apple PlainTalk electronic voice.[34][35][8] New York Times critic Roberta Smith noted the work's sociological slant and "surprisingly inflected" narration suggesting "a kind of found poetry."[34]

In 1995, Bollinger began imprinting downloaded portraits from early websites onto baked goods using a commercial baking printer called the Sweet Art Machine.[36][5][37] These sculptures and installations featured shrink-wrapped cookies, cakes and crackers.[36][38][39] Critics described them as both "eerie" portraits[40] whose printed imperfections suggested impermanence and the fragility of identity,[41][36][19] and as critical objects commenting on the blurring of private and public.[5][37][42]

In the later 1990s, Bollinger explored digital archiving and display, revealing imperceptible structures, affinities and cultural assumptions built into the seemingly neutral ordering processes of an image-saturated culture.[13][39][1] These themes were investigated in the "Similar/Same" series (1999-2000), colored pencil drawings and wall-sized video projections, and the site-specific video installation The Collection (descending) (1999) for the de Young Museum. Glen Helfand wrote that The Collection (descending) "dazzling mosaics of colors and shapes" revealed the enormity of the museum's holdings (much of it largely forgotten) and raised questions about how contemporary audiences see (or don't see) art.[13]

Rebeca Bollinger, Background, glazed ceramic, 7.5" x 10.5" x 6", 2010.

Later work: photography, sculpture

In the 2000s, Bollinger began creating a repository of her own photographs of everyday subjects, which she catalogued and presented in video projections and works on paper exploring uncertainty, the fragmentation of experience, and randomness.[6][43][14][44] The video projection Fields (2001) presented this archive as time-based abstractions, while the "Index" print series (2001) translated the material into meditative fields organized by time and color.[6][14] Critics suggest that the chance structuring of the work enabled surprising forms of beauty reminiscent of the rhythms and randomness of John Cage compositions.[6][43]

Bollinger's "Straight Photos" blurred distinctions between photography and painting, foreground and background, familiar and foreign by mixing painterly abstraction, representation, wavering perspectives, and fields of refracted light.[44] In Here to There (2007), she extended this work into sculptural space, projecting sequences of multiple images onto a freestanding wall with raised wood boxes to form collage-like wholes that combined Cubist-like fragmentation with cinematic duration and dissolves.[24]

Rebeca Bollinger, Darling Dark Direct Directly, installation view, acrylic on framed cork board, poured aluminum, pearl head straight pins, wood, plywood, dowels, porcelain clamp lamps, LED flood lights, power strip, extension cord, 76" x 189" x 37.5", 2018.

Beginning in 2010, Bollinger increasingly translated two-dimensional images and ephemeral experiences into three-dimensional space and physical objects (e.g., Background, 2010).[45][30] Using photography as a structural base to extract shapes and abstractions, she produced works such as Color Study (2010), which combined an unfocused photograph with glazed ceramic elements, recalling early Cubist collage while suggesting the implied space of an abstract painting come to life.[24][31] In later sculpture, installations and performances, she aggregated materials and objects—found ephemera, ceramic, glass, bronze or poured aluminum elements, imprinted cork boards, and writing—much as earlier work aggregated images (e.g., Darling Dark Direct Directly, 2018).[10][46][7][47] The show "The Burrow" (2019) offered unexpected juxtapositions that evoked the lives of objects and elusive, the labyrinthine quality of memory, and enigmatic, non-linear narratives that Sculpture Magazine described as "hauntingly idiosyncratic."[7][10]

Recognition

Bollinger has been recognized by SFMOMA (SECA Electronic Media) (1996),[21] the Bay Area Video Coalition (1996, 2008), Fleishhacker Foundation (1997), National Endowment for the Arts (1999), Artadia (2001), and Center for Cultural Innovation (2014), and received the James D. Phelan Art Award in Video (2004).[15][19] She has been recognized with artist residencies from the Headlands Center for the Arts (1996), Loyola University New Orleans (1998), The Lab (1999), Dennis Gallagher and Sam Perry Ceramic Program (2010), and Mills College Art Museum (2018).[48][45][11] Bollinger is featured in the book Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945–2000 (2010),[1] and her work belongs to the public art collections of SFMOMA, de Young Museum, San Jose Museum of Art, Oakland International Airport, University of California, San Francisco, and Video Data Bank.[16][17][18][49][50]

References
  1. Morse, Margaret. "Rebeca Bollinger, Search Memory" in "Pixels and Chips: Alan Rath, Jim Campbell and Rebeca Bollinger," Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-2000, Steve Anker, Kathy Geritz and Steve Seid (eds.), University of California Press, 2010, p. 311–2.
  2. Baker, Kenneth. "Foraging on Internet For Raw Materials," San Francisco Chronicle, September 4, 1999. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  3. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "SFMOMA Acquires Art In Technological Times Acquisitions," News, April 1, 2001. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  4. Ollman, Leah. "Scribes of Precision and Obsession," Los Angeles Times, January 11, 2002, p. F29. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  5. Calame, Ingrid. "In the Polka Dot Kitchen," In the Polka Dot Kitchen (catalogue), Los Angeles: Otis Gallery, p. 38–41.
  6. Helfand, Glen. "Rebeca Bollinger at Rena Bransten Gallery," Artforum, September 2001. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  7. Porges, Maria. "Rebeca Bollinger," Sculpture Magazine, July 23, 2019. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  8. Riley, Robert. "Electronic Media: 1996 SECA Award," Rebeca Bollinger, Jim Campbell, Paul Marinis, Carol Selter, Electronic Media: 1996 SECA Award (catalogue), San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1996.
  9. Buuck, David. "Rebeca Bollinger at Rena Bransten Gallery," Artweek, January 2005, Vol. 35, Issue 10, p. 12.
  10. Stuebner, Anton. "Gesture/Fragment/Trace," Art Practical, September 17, 2015. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  11. Swartzman-Brosky, Jayna. "Art + Practice + Ideas," Exhibition materials, Oakland, CA: Mills College Art Museum, April 2018.
  12. Bishop Janet. "Rebeca Bollinger," 010101: Art in Technological Times (catalogue), San Francisco: SFMOMA, 2001), p.50–51.
  13. Helfand, Glen. "The Museum, In Pieces," Museum Pieces: Bay Area Artists Consider the de Young (catalogue), San Francisco: de Young Museum, 1999, p. 14.
  14. Scott, Andrea. "Rebeca Bollinger," 2002 California Biennial (catalogue), Newport Beach, CA: Orange County Museum of Art, 2002, p. 10-12.
  15. Artadia. "Rebeca Bollinger," Artists. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  16. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "Rebeca Bollinger," Collection. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  17. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Rebeca Bollinger," Collections. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  18. San Jose Museum of Art. Truck Stop, Rebeca Bollinger, SJMA Permanent Collection. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  19. Pritikin, Renny and René de Guzman. Bay Area Now (catalogue), San Francisco: Yerba Buena Gardens Center for the Arts, 1997, p. 7, 15.
  20. Bollinger, Rebeca. "Artist’s Pages: Rebeca Bollinger," Camerawork: A Journal of Photographic Arts, Fall/Winter 1995, p. 7.
  21. Lowrey, Loretta. "Foreword," Rebeca Bollinger, Jim Campbell, Paul Marinis, Carol Selter, Electronic Media: 1996 SECA Award (catalogue), San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1996.
  22. Mahoney, Robert "quasimodo at the anchorage," artnet, August 26, 1996. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  23. Lunenfeld, Peter. "Technofornia," Flash Art, March–April 1996, p. 69–71.
  24. DiMichele, David. "ABEX Returns: The Sequel in LA: It’s Not Just About The Paint Anymore," Artillery, March/April 2011, p. 28–32.
  25. Spalding, David. "Rebeca Bollinger @Rena Bransten," Flash Art, November/December 2001.
  26. Krajewski, Sara. "Rebeca Bollinger: Fields," Exhibitions, Henry Art Gallery, 2007. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  27. Asian Art Museum. "Rebeca Bollinger," Exhibitions, 2017. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  28. California College of the Arts. "Rebeca Bollinger," Professors. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  29. Baker, Kenneth. "Local Heroes," San Francisco Chronicle, November 20, 1999. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  30. Rose, Katherine. "The Hand of the Artist," Double Take (catalogue) Oakland, CA: Mills College Art Museum, 2013.
  31. Grattan, Nikki and Klea McKenna. "Studio Visit with Rebeca Bollinger," In the Make, September 2012. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  32. Morse, Margaret. "Sunshine and Shroud: Cyborg Bodies and the Collective and Personal Self: Last Year by Color and Composition," Medien Kuntz Net, 2003.
  33. Bollinger, Rebeca. "Rebeca Bollinger: Alphabetically Sorted", 1994, vimeo. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  34. Smith, Roberta. "In Tomblike Vaults, the Future Flickers and Hums," The New York Times, August 9, 1996. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  35. Tirado, Michelle. "Art in the Anchorage '96," New Art Examiner, October 1996, p. 44.
  36. Berry, Colin. "Rebeca Bollinger and Lowell Darling: Gallery 16," CitySearch (San Francisco), 1997.
  37. Eggebeen, Rachel. "Touch Me, Talk to Me," Interface: Art + Tech in the Bay Area (catalogue), Durham, NC: Duke University Museum of Art, 1998.
  38. Irwin, Oliver. "In the Polka Dot Kitchen at Otis and Armory Center for the Arts," Artweek, 1998.
  39. Buuck, David. "Rebeca Bollinger: Keyword Search Results," Tripwire, Summer 1999, p. 91-–5.
  40. Helfand, Glen. "Rebeca Bollinger and Lowell Darling at Gallery 16," (exhibition essay), San Francisco: Gallery 16, 1997.
  41. Forrest, Jason. "Bay Area Now, Yerba Buena Gardens Center for the Arts," Art Papers November–December 1997, p. 39.
  42. Smith, Richard. "Bay Area Now at the Center for the Arts," Artweek, August 1997, p. 23.
  43. Goldberg, David. "Fields: Rebeca Bollinger at Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco," Art Papers, December 2001.
  44. Helfand, Glen. "On View," Photograph, March/April 2008, p. 80–81.
  45. Nisbet, James. "Rebeca Bollinger," Artforum, October 2010. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  46. Hotchkiss, Sarah. [At fused space, 'Seven Places of the Mind' Is No Slouch "At fused space, 'Seven Places of the Mind' Is No Slouch,"] KQED Arts, November 27, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  47. Center for New Music. "Refracted Pathways: Dirt and Copper with Rebeca Bollinger," Center for New Music, September 27, 2019. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  48. Van Proyen, Mark. "Rebeca Bollinger at The Lab," New Art Examiner, December/January 1999/2000, p. 56.
  49. Baker, Kenneth. "UCSF public art collection one of SF's most ambitious," San Francisco Chronicle, July 18, 2013. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  50. Video Data Bank. "Rebeca Bollinger," Artists. Retrieved September 12, 2019.

Life and career
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