34 years! (707) 933-1300 info@sculpturesite.com
34 years! (707) 933-1300 info@sculpturesite.com
Abstract Metal and Glass Sculpture
Bella Feldman (b. 1930 – d. 2024) was born in 1930 in New York City to a family of working-class Jewish immigrants from Poland. She grew up in the Bronx and attended The High School of Music and Art in Manhattan during World War II. "It’s been a tough 20th century,” she said. “I’m Jewish. My relatives were either incinerated in Poland or barely escaped with their lives, and as a child I was aware of this going on.”
Feldman received a BA degree from Queen's College, New York and an MA from San Jose State University. She married Leonard Feldman at age 18, and moved to California with him in 1951 where they both accepted teaching positions.
Feldman is primarily known for her glass and steel sculptures. She pioneered the technique of blowing glass into metal forms in the late 1990s. The first series of mostly hanging sculptures Flasks of Fiction (1998–2001) were originally inspired by the lanterns in mosques Feldman visited while in Turkey. She said of these: “I combined glass and metal to suggest vulnerability and constraint as well as seduction.”
Setting up a dialectic between machine-like and animal forms, Feldman's glass and steel works continued to express her interest in the relationship between the architectural and organic. "The artist exploits the contradictions between objects and image, materials and function to create fetishes that strive to both domesticate danger and to inject menace into the seemingly banal." Colin Gardner, Los Angeles Times, 1986.
Feldman has participated in over fifty solo exhibitions including several solo museum shows (Oakland Museum Sculpture Court, San Jose Museum of Art, the Fresno Art Museum and the Downey Museum in California) and group shows in all parts of the US and in Switzerland. Her work has been published in numerous catalogues and articles and reviews have appeared throughout the art press. She has been invited to lecture at universities across the country and in Uganda, where she lived, teaching art for two years. She taught sculpture at the California College for the Arts (previously CCAC) for several decades and chaired the sculpture department for two years. Her sculpture is in museum, corporate and private collections worldwide.
A prolific artist, a long time professor at California College of the Arts in Oakland, and a pioneer among women sculptors, Feldman established her position in the California art scene with courage and conviction. Feldman's works remind us that nothing is invincible, and life, like her sculptures, can be seemingly tough and witty, yet delicate and meaningful. Her work is a constant reminder of the absurdity of our times.
Artists often don’t have a clue about the contents and drive behind their work. It took me years to understand my own work, yet I still feel like one of the blind men in the fable describing what an elephant looks like. Viewers see things in my work that I myself haven’t seen yet. I will never know the whole. Art, or at least my art, is part intellect, part problem-solving, and part the expression of my subconscious. I do know my work is driven by my angst about the state of the world as well as the love-hate relationship I have with machines. It includes an edgy sense of the world being out of whack. Though the forms and materials I use have often changed, the above-mentioned aspects can be found throughout. I produce anxious objects, yet humor laces through my work because, like my ghetto forebears, I need to laugh at the dark.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2013 “Bella: A 50-year Survey of the work of Bella Feldman,” Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
2011 “Anxious Objects,” Nieto Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2011 “Works in Glass and Steel,” Public Glass, San Francisco, CA
2010 “RPM Series and Reach Series,” San Luis Obispo Museum, San Luis Obispo, CA
2010 “Overview,” Micaela Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2009 “Metal and Glass,” The Atrium @ 600 Townsend, San Francisco, CA
2009 “Bella Feldman–JP Long Dialogue,” Scupturesite Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2008 Meridian Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2008 Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, ID
2007 Sculpturesite Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2006-2007 Buschlen Mowatt, Palm Desert, CA
2006 Sculpturesite Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
2006 “Glass Engravings,” Habatat Gallery, Chicago, IL
2004 City of Oakland Craft and Cultural Arts, California State Building, Oakland, CA
2004 Varnish Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2003-2004 “War Toys Redux,” traveling exhibition: Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Museum of Folk Arts and Crafts, San Francisco, CA, Bryan Ohno Gallery, Seattle, WA, Habatat Gallery, Chicago, IL
2002 Tucson Museum, Tucson, AZ
2002 Habatat, Chicago, IL
2002 Buschlen Mowatt, Palm Desert, CA
2001 Habatat Pontiac, Pontiac, MI
2001 Habatat, Chicago, IL
2000 Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1999 Habatat, Chicago, IL
1998 D. P. Fong, San Jose, CA
1998 Pat Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1997 “New Work,” Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1996 Fresno Art Museum (Distinguished Woman Artist of 1996), Fresno, CA
1996 Alto Cultural Center, Palo Alto, CA
1996 Michael Dunev Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1995 Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1995 Decompression Gallery, Phoenix, AZ, April
1994 “War Toy Installation,” Center for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI
1993 Shidoni Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1993 Gwenda Jay Gallery, Chicago, IL
1993 Downey Museum, Downey, CA
1993 St. Mary's College, Moraga, CA
1992 Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1992 California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, CA
1991 1992 Oakland Museum, Downtown Sculpture Court, Oakland, CA
1989 Zaks Gallery, Chicago, IL
1991 SPACE Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1989 “Changes,” San Jose State University, San Jose, CA
1988 Foxley Leach Gallery, Washington, DC
1988 SPACE Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1987 “Bella Feldman, Steel Sculpture” (funded by Chicago Arts Council), Artemisia Gallery, Chicago, IL
1987 SPACE Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1984 “Fiber Forms of Bella Feldman,” University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
1984 “Sculpture,” Monterey Peninsula Museum, Monterey, CA
1983 “Sculpture by Bella Feldman,” University of Denver, Denver, CO
1982 “Bella T. Feldman/Sculpture,” San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
1980 “Spine Series,” Memorial Union Art Gallery, University of California, Davis, CA
1976 Mills College Art Gallery, Oakland, CA
1975 “Bella: Sculptures,” Gallerie Bernard Letu, Geneva, Switzerland
Group Exhibitions
2014 “Being Woman,” Sculpturesite Gallery, Sonoma, CA
2013 “Armed Medium: The Military Vehicle as Subject,” Transmission Gallery, Oakland, CA
2013 “Black, White, Red,” a new leaf gallery | sculpturesite, Sonoma, CA
2013 “New Media Combinations: Traditional/ Digital,” Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
2013 “Tradition of Mayhem,” Santa Rosa Junior College Art Gallery, Santa Rosa CA
2012 “Playing with Fire: Artists of the California Studio Glass Movement,” Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
2011 “75th Anniversary Show,” Richmond Art Center, Richmond CA
2011 “Amorphous Dreams,” Micaela Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2009 “estro-GEN,” Melissa Morgan Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2008 “Artists of Invention: 100 years CCA,” Oakland Art Museum, Oakland, CA
2007 Arts Benicia, Benicia, CA
2006 “18 Profiles, Distinguished Women Artists of California,” Fresno Art Museum and Art Center, Fresno, CA
2006 Whitney Biennial 2006, Peace Tower, New York, NY
2005 Varnish Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2005 Habatat Gallery, Chicago, IL
2004 Varnish Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2001 “Being There: 45 Artists, Oakland Museum,” Oakland, CA
1996 “Generations: The Lineage of Influence in the Bay Area,” Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
1994 “Menorah Exhibit,” Spertus Museum, Chicago, IL
1994 “National Showcase,” Alternative Museum, New York, NY
1993 War Toy Installation, Rockford Museum, Rockford, IL
1991 Inaugural Exhibition, Downtown Sculpture Court, Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
1992 “Crossovers,” Gallery of Contemporary Art, Univ of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO
1989 “Five California Artists,” Baeker Galerie, Cologne, Germany
1987-1988 “Tangents: Seven Artists,” Maryland Art Institute, Baltimore, MD, traveled to Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA; Cleveland Art Institute, Cleveland, OH
1986 “Survey of California Women Artists 1945 Present,” Fresno Art Museum and Art Center, Fresno, CA
1985 “Menagerie—Contemporary Animal Images,” San Francisco Airport Commission, San Francisco, CA
1985 “Six Artistes of the Biennal,” Focus Gallery, Lausanne, Switzerland
1985 “Fibre/Sculpture Biennale,” Muse'e de Beaux Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland
1984 “The Presence of Light,” Meadows Museum, Dallas, TX
1984 “Art in Craft Media,” Twining Gallery, New York, NY
1984 “Fiber Cross Currents,” John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Milwaukee, WI
1983 “Fibre/Espace; Tapisserie Biennale,” Muse'e de Beaux Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland
1983 “Art and/or Craft USA: 1982 Japan,” Japan Traveling Exhibit
1982 “Between the Lines: Light¬weight Sculpture,” Walnut Creek Art Center, Walnut Creek, CA
1982 “National Sculpture Invitational,” Visual Art Center of Alaska, Anchorage, AK
1978 1980 “Paper as Medium,” Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit
1978 “Death Show,” SPACE Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1976 “The Handmade Paper Object,” Santa Barbara Museum, Santa Barbara, CA, Richard Kubiak* (traveled until 1982)
Commissions
Sculpture Fountain, Federal Home Loan Bank Lobby, 600 California Street, San Francisco
Sculpture Fountain, Ron Lutsko, Landscape Architect, Barclay Simpson garden, Orinda, CA
Mosaic Tile Facade, Van Bourg Architect, Crystal Elementary School, Suisun City, CA
Mosaic Panel, Burns Cadwalader Architect, Medical Building, Redding, CA
Panels for Garden Wall, John Bolles Architect, IBM, San Jose, CA
Mosaic Mural, Executive Office, Lovable Brassiere Co., Atlanta, GA
Relief, Marquis & Stoller, Architects, Temple Rodef Sholom, San Rafael, CA
Relief, George Dueker Architect, City Hall, Mountain View, CA
Relief, Aitkin & Collin Architects, Science & Industrial Arts Building, Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School, Berkeley, CA
Sculptures, Royston, Hanamoto & Mayes Landscape Architects, Marina Vista Plaza, Vallejo, CA and Potrero Project, Richmond, CA
Sculpture, James Hilleary Associates Architects, Hydronautics, Inc., Washington, DC suburb
Group of Sculptures, Sasaki, Walker, Landscape Architects, Newport Shopping Center, Newport, CA
Museum Collections
DiRosa Collection, Napa, CA
Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, CA
Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Logan, UT
Selected Private Collections
Tina and Barbara Phipps, Philadelphia, PA
George and Dorothy, Saxe, Menlo Park, CA
Jack and Aviva Robinson, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Murial Meyers, Palm Desert, CA
Kati Casida, Berkeley, CA
Daniel Hainey, Los Angeles, CA
Charles Drexler, Berkeley, CA
Joan Finton Baumrind, Berkeley, CA
Dr. Robert Carroll, Beverly Hills, CA
Diane Licht, Los Angeles, CA
Robin Benson, Los Angeles, CA
Kate Buckelew, Oakland, CA
Susan David, San Francisco, CA
Robert Barton, San Francisco, CA
Adrienne Blumberg, Lafayette, CA
Peter Walker, Landscape Architect, New York, NY
Lawrence Halprin, Landscape Architect, San Francisco, CA
Michael Wornum, Architect, Mill Valley, CA
Wendy and Alan Hart, Santa Monica, CA
Steve Goldstine, San Francisco, CA
Ellen Falcon, Sherman Oaks, CA
Diane Gendel, Los Angeles, CA
John and Lynn Pleshette, Los Angeles, CA
Jean and Ben Bullock, San Francisco, CA
Lars Speyer, Palo Alto, CA
Awards
2005 Women’s Caucus for the Arts, Distinguished Artist Award
2004 Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, Distinguished Artist Award
1996 Fresno Art Museum, Distinguished Woman Artist 1996
1995 Florsheim Art Grant
1994 California Arts Council Grant
1994 Spertus Museum Award
1986 1987 National Endowment for the Arts, Visual Artist's Fellowship (major award)
1975 E. L. Cabot Trust Fund at Harvard University (travel award)
Publications
2008 Bella, Bella, a documentary film by Elizabeth Sher.
2006 Eighteen Profiles, Distinguished Women Artists of California, Fresno Art Museum.
2006 “Bella Feldman,” (cover story) Artist Blacksmith, UK, Summer.
2001 Bella, Works in Glass and Mixed Media, Catalogue.
1996 Bella: Survey of Sculpture, 1974-1996, catalogue for Fresno Art Museum Distinguished Woman Artist of 1996 exhibit.
1992 War Toys, An Installation, Traveling Catalogue.
1992 "Women, Art and Technology," Theme Publication #8, Leonardo.
1991 “Profile: An Interview," Paula Blasier, City Life.
1987 International Who's Who of Business and Professional Women, International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England.
1987 Possibility and Paradox in Fiber Art, The Museum of Californi, The Oakland Museum, Sept.-Oct.
1986 Contemporary American Women Sculptors, Virginia Matson Jones, Oryx Press, Phoenix, AZ.
1986 "Sculpture of Bella Feldman,” Elizabeth Singer, Textic Kunst, Hannover, Germany, Heft 2 3.
1985 Fibre/Sculpture, Muse'e de Beaux Arts Catalogue, Lausanne, Switzerland.
1984 "Vision of Bella Feldman," Jessica Scarborough, Fiber Arts Magazine.
1984 "A View of Evolution Expressed in Sculpture: A Reflection of Nuclear Angst." Leonardo, Journal of the International Society of Arts, Sciences and Technology, Dec Jan Issue.
1983 "The So Cattle Sculpture of Uganda." Co authored with Dr. Ross Coates, African Arts, University of California Press, Los Angeles, Fall Issue.
1983 Fibre/Espace, Muse'e de Beaux Arts Catalogue, Lausanne, Switzerland
1982 Art and/or Craft, USA catalogue: Japan
1982 Center for the Visual Arts, Sculpture Catalogue, Oakland, CA
1982 Atlantic Coast/Pacific Coast, 75th Anniversary Exhibit Catalogue, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA
1979 Second Stories, Gloria Frym, Editor, Chronicle Books.
1976 The Handmade Paper Object, Santa Barbara Museum Catalogue, Santa Barbara, CA
1974 Berkeley Gazette, Feature article, Barbara Erickson.
Selected Reviews
2013 Lou Fancher, “Exhibit: 50-year survey of Oakland artist Bella Feldman impresses,” Contra Costa Times, September 10.
2006 David Roth, “Bella Feldman at Sculpturesite Gallery,” Artweek, November.
2004 Sheila Farr, “War Toys: Weapons of Mass Devotion,” The Seattle Times, July 9.
2000 Kathleen Whitney, “Feldman at Habatat Gallery,” World Sculpture News, Summer.
2000 Kathleen Whitney, “”Bella Feldman—Remarkable Pieces of Apparatus,” Sculpture Magazine, June.
1999 Leah Ollman, “Metaphoric Richness in Steel and Glass,” Los Angeles Times, June.
1999 Victoria Dalkey, “Imagination Highlights Sculpture,” Sacramento Bee, May.
1998 “Bella Feldman at d.p. Fong,” Artweek, November.
1998 Maria Porge, “Bella Feldman,” Sculpture Magazine, October.
1996 Guy Keeler, “Heavy Mettle,” Fresno Bee, September 22.
1996 Kenneth Baker, “Feldman’s Moving Sculpture Exhibit,” San Francisco Chronicle, March 7. 1996 Chiori Santiago, “Exploring the Dark Side,” San Jose Mercury News, July 21.
1995 Richard Nilsen, “Inventive Artworks are Scary, Funny,” Arizona Republic, May 21.
1995 Betty Rinheart, “Toying with Our Emotions,” Arizona New Times, April 20-26.
1994 “Review of Exhibit for Center for Creative Studies,” Sculpture Magazine, December.
1994 Joy Hakanson Colby, "Sculptor's War Toys Make a Play for Peace," Detroit News, March 11.
1994 Marsha Miro, "Sculptor Uses Ridicule to Stress War's Folly," Detroit Free Press, March 13.
1993 Bill Lebzelter, "Solidity is Always Undermined in the Work of Bella Feldman," Pasatiempo, Santa Fe, May 7.
1992 Kenneth Baker, "Scavenged Material Becomes Sculpture," San Francisco Chronicle, September 15.
1992 Terri Cohn, "Bella Feldman," ArtWeek, Jan. 9.
1991 Suvan Geer, "Form that Uses Movement as an Idea and Reality," Los Angeles Times, April 18.
1989 Kenneth Baker, "Summer Surprises," San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 26.
1988 Roger Anderson, "Murmurs of the Art," East Bay Express, May 27.
1988 Kenneth Baker, "Home Grown Sculpture," San Francisco Chronicle, Mar. 31.
1988 Melinda Donohue, Los Angeles Times, Mar. 4.
1987 Kenneth Baker, "New Works of Art in Search of a Context," San Francisco Chronicle, May 2.
1987 Colin Gardner, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 23.
1984 Jim Jordan, "A Vocabulary of Subtle Aggressions," Artweek, Nov.
1984 Anne Bornstein, "Sculpture Recreates Our Link to Nature," Daily Californian, Oct. 26.
1983 Jessica Scarborough, "Bella Tabak Feldman," Recent Sculpture, Fiber Arts Magazine, March April.
1983 Alan R. Meisel, "From the San Francisco Bay Area", Craft International, January.
1982 Suzaan Boettger, "Best of 1982," Bay Guardian, December.
1982 Suzaan Boettger, "Potent Allusions," ArtWeek, October.
1982 Cathy Curtis, "Lightweight Sculpture Comes of Age" ArtWeek, February.
1982 Dorothy Burkhart, "See¬through Sculpture Reshapes Our Ideas About Space and Mass," San Jose Mercury News, September.
Professional Experience
2006 Visiting Artist, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
2005 Visiting Artist, Foothill/DeAnza College, Cupertino, CA
2004 Artist in Residence, California State University San Jose, CA
2003 Artist in Residence, Pilchuck School of Glass, Stanhope, WA
2002 Visiting Artist, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK
1997 Visiting Artist, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
1994 Visiting Artist, Center for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI
1992 Visiting Artist, California Polytechnic Institute at San Luis Obispo
1990 Cultural Specialist for the U.S. Information Service, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
1989 Lecture tour, three Japanese art colleges
1986 Visiting artist, Chicago Art Institute, Chicago, IL
1986 Visiting artist, Montclair State College, Montclair, NJ
1986 Visiting artist, California State University at Humboldt, Arcada, CA
1985 Visiting artist, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA
1984 Visiting artist, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
1983 Visiting artist, University of Hawaii of Manoa, Honolulu, HI
1982 Sculpture workshop for International Sculpture Conference, Mills College, Oakland, CA
1981 Visiting artist, Visual Arts Center, Anchorage, AK
1980 Visiting artist, Oregon School of Arts and Crafts, Portland, OR
1979 Visiting artist, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
1975 Visiting artist, Sonoma State University, Cotati, CA
1974 Visiting artist, University of Washington, Pullman, WA
Juror
2003 State of Colorado Art Association, Denver, CO
2002 Fairbanks Art Association, Fairbanks, AK
1997 Pacific Rim Sculptors, San Francisco, CA
1995 San Francisco Women Artists, San Francisco, CA
1989 National Women's Art, Matrix Gallery, Sacramento, CA
1987 State Grants to Artists, State of Rhode Island
1984 Annual Juried Exhibition, San Mateo Art Association, CA
1982 Fiber Art, Iowa City, IA
Teaching Experience
1965 2001 Professor of Sculpture, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland.
1987 1989, 1996 Chair, Sculpture Department, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland. 1987 Consultant, African Nomadic Art Exhibit, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
1975 1979 Graduate Director, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland.
1972 1975 Founder, Sculpture Program, Santa Rosa Jr. College, Santa Rosa.
1968 1970 Lecturer, Fine Art School, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
1961 Lecturer, University of California, Extension Division
Education
M. A., San Jose State University, San Jose, CA
B. A., Queens College, Queens, NY
Diploma, H. S. of Music and Art, New York, NY