Rebeca Bollinger

Last updated
Rebeca Bollinger
Born
Los Angeles, California, United States
NationalityAmerican
Education San Francisco Art Institute
Known forPhotography, sculpture, video, drawing
Awards National Endowment for the Arts, Artadia
Website Rebeca Bollinger

Rebeca Bollinger (born Los Angeles, California) is an American artist. She works with sculpture, photography, video, drawing, installation, writing and sound.

Contents

Early life and education

Bollinger was born and raised in Los Angeles. She completed her BFA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) in 1993.

Work

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

Bollinger first gained notice for her video Alphabetically Sorted (1994), [1] 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. [2] [3] [4] New York Times critic Roberta Smith noted the work's sociological slant and "surprisingly inflected" narration suggesting "a kind of found poetry." [2]

From 1995-1997, she imprinted downloaded portraits from early websites onto baked goods using a commercial baking printer called the Sweet Art Machine. [5] [6] These installations and sculptures featured shrink-wrapped cookies, cakes, crackers and video projection. [7] In the late 1990s, Bollinger aggregated image searches and stock photography archives online to create colored pencil drawings and wall-sized video projections for the "Similar/Same" series (1999-2000.)

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

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. [8] [9] [10] The video projection Fields (2001) presented this archive as time-based abstractions, along with drawings and photographs. Critics suggest that the chance structuring of the work enabled surprising forms of beauty reminiscent of the rhythms and randomness of John Cage compositions. [8] [11] 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. [12]

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. RBollinger Darling-Dark-Direct-Directly 2018.jpg
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). [13] Using photography as a structural base to extract shapes and abstractions, she produced works such as Color Study (2010), which combined a single photograph with glazed ceramic elements. [12] [14] In later sculpture, installations and performances, she aggregated materials and objects—found ephemera, her own hand built ceramics, cast glass, bronze and poured aluminum elements, imprinted cork boards, and writing—much as earlier work aggregated images (e.g., Darling Dark Direct Directly, 2018). [15] [16] [17]

Recognition

Bollinger has been recognized by SFMOMA (SECA Electronic Media) (1996), [18] 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). [19] [20] 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). [21] [13] Bollinger is featured in the book Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945–2000 (2010), [22] 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. [23] [24] [25]

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References

  1. ↑ Bollinger, Rebeca. "Rebeca Bollinger: Alphabetically Sorted", 1994, vimeo. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  2. 1 2 Smith, Roberta. "In Tomblike Vaults, the Future Flickers and Hums," The New York Times, August 9, 1996. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  3. ↑ Tirado, Michelle. "Art in the Anchorage '96," New Art Examiner, October 1996, p. 44.
  4. ↑ 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.
  5. ↑ Berry, Colin. "Rebeca Bollinger and Lowell Darling: Gallery 16," CitySearch (San Francisco), 1997.
  6. ↑ Calame, Ingrid. "In the Polka Dot Kitchen," In the Polka Dot Kitchen (catalogue), Los Angeles: Otis Gallery, p. 38–41.
  7. ↑ Irwin, Oliver. "In the Polka Dot Kitchen at Otis and Armory Center for the Arts," Artweek, 1998.
  8. 1 2 Helfand, Glen. "Rebeca Bollinger at Rena Bransten Gallery," Artforum, September 2001. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  9. ↑ Scott, Andrea. "Rebeca Bollinger," 2002 California Biennial (catalogue), Newport Beach, CA: Orange County Museum of Art, 2002, p. 10-12.
  10. ↑ Helfand, Glen. "On View," Photograph, March/April 2008, p. 80–81.
  11. ↑ Goldberg, David. "Fields: Rebeca Bollinger at Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco," Art Papers, December 2001.
  12. 1 2 DiMichele, David. "ABEX Returns: The Sequel in LA: It’s Not Just About The Paint Anymore," Artillery, March/April 2011, p. 28–32.
  13. 1 2 Nisbet, James. "Rebeca Bollinger," Artforum, October 2010. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  14. ↑ Grattan, Nikki and Klea McKenna. "Studio Visit with Rebeca Bollinger," In the Make, September 2012. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  15. ↑ 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.
  16. ↑ Porges, Maria. "Rebeca Bollinger," Sculpture Magazine, July 23, 2019. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  17. ↑ Center for New Music. "Refracted Pathways: Dirt and Copper with Rebeca Bollinger," Center for New Music, September 27, 2019. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  18. ↑ 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.
  19. ↑ Artadia. "Rebeca Bollinger," Artists. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  20. ↑ Pritikin, Renny and René de Guzman. Bay Area Now (catalogue), San Francisco: Yerba Buena Gardens Center for the Arts, 1997, p. 7, 15.
  21. ↑ Van Proyen, Mark. "Rebeca Bollinger at The Lab," New Art Examiner, December/January 1999/2000, p. 56.
  22. ↑ 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.
  23. ↑ San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "Rebeca Bollinger," Collection. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  24. ↑ Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Rebeca Bollinger," Collections. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  25. ↑ Video Data Bank. "Rebeca Bollinger," Artists. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
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