NOA BORNSTEIN

Figurative sculptor and painter Noa Bornstein was born in San Rafael, California, and grew up mostly in Los Angeles. She has lived and worked in New York City since 1986. Bornstein holds a Bachelor of Arts in degree in Art from The University of California at Santa Cruz. Her sculptures have been shown at the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art in Florida, the Rotunda Gallery in Brooklyn, and Grounds for Sculpture, Toad Hall Gallery in New Jersey. Public installations include Lakeland, Florida, sponsored by the Polk Museum of Art, TriBeCa Park in Manhattan, as well as several parks in New Jersey and Baltimore. In 2009, the Walter Randel Gallery in New York City exhibited Bornstein’s sculptures as part of a group show integrated with ancient sculptures from around the world. Her work has been featured in Art in America and in Artnews, among many other publications.

Selected Solo Exhibitions
1994 “Noa Bornstein Drawings,” Planet Thailand, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
1986 “Peintures Murales de Noa Bornstein,” Traveling Exhibition:(drawings, paintings, photographic replicas) L'Institut superieur pour l'Etude du Langage Plastique, Brussels, Belgium; La Galerie de la province de Hainaut, Mons, Belgium; The Wuk Kulturhauser, Vienna, Austria
1978 “Paintings and Drawings by Noa Bornstein,” Claudia Chapline I.D.E.A. Gallery (Institute for Dance and Experimental Art), Santa Monica, CA

Selected Group Exhibitions
2014 "Nation II At the Alamo", Sideshow Gallery, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
2013 "Survival of the Fittest", Duo Show- Noa Bornstein, Sculpture; Daniel Clurman, Painting, P339 Gallery, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
2013 Prague/Manhattan Graphic Center Selections, Hallor Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
2013 AES ("bronze") Gallery, Long Island City, Queens, NY
2013 "Scholarship Recipients: Prints from the Collections," Manhattan Graphics Center, NY, NY
2013 "Sideshow Nation," Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2012 "Clayfest, NYC," Clay Space 1205 Showroom, Brooklyn, NY
2012 "Mic: Check (Occupy)," Sideshow Gallery, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
2011 Grounds for Sculpture, Toad Hall Gallery, Hamilton, NJ
2010 "Animal Dreams," a new leaf gallery | sculpturesite, Sonoma, CA
2009 "Selections from the Gallery's Artists," Walter Randel Gallery, New York, NY
2009 "Dreamwork," Center for Psychoanalytic Studies (CMPS), New York, NY
2009 "Inspiration to Interpretation-Ceramic Work," Gallery Clay Space 1205, Brooklyn, NY
2009 "It's a Wonderful Life," Sideshow Gallery, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
2008 Holiday Group Show, AES (Bronze) Gallery, Long Island City, Queens, NY
2007 "Big Ideas, Small Works: Miniature Sculptures and Maquettes," Sculpturesite Gallery, San Francisco,CA
2007 "Common Ground, Proposals for Public Art," Westchester Community College, State Univ. of New York, Valhalla, NY
2007 "War is Over Again," Sideshow Gallery, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
2007 SOFA Chicago, with Sculpturesite Gallery, Chicago, IL
2006 "Images of Social Justice, Small Works, Big Heart," St. Joseph's College, Brooklyn, NY
2006 "Snapshot of Survival," 4 year traveling exhibition of 13 drawings and paintings; NY University Cancer Center; Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX; other hospitals and cancer centers in the U.S.
2005 "Vernissage," A New Leaf Gallery, Sonoma, CA and Sculpturesite Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2005 “Stairmaster,” Holland Tunnel Art Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (part of Williamsburg Gallery Association Walking Tour)
2005 “Spectrum,” Micro Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2005 “Gallery Artists,” The Figurative Gallery, La Quinta, CA
2004 “Metamorphoses,” Studio 18 Gallery, New York, NY
2004 “Italian Painters and American Sculptors,” Gallery Boreas satellite project, Gateways Inn, Lenox, MA
2004 “Olympus Revisited,” Holland Tunnel Extension, Paroikia, Paros, Greece
2003 “Quiet Places,” Atelier Fine Art Gallery, Frenchtown, NJ (3-person show)
2002-2003 “To Scale,” The Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2002 “The Figure in Bronze,” Grounds for Sculpture, Toad Hall Gallery, Hamilton, NJ
2002 “20th Anniversary of Outdoor Sculpture,” Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, Brooklyn, NY
2002 “Drawing from Perception,” Wright State University Gallery, Dayton, OH, Juror: Graham Nickson
2002 “The Pastel National, 2002,” The Wichita Center for the Arts, Wichita, KS, Juror: Wolf Kahn
2001-2002 “The Florida Outdoor Sculpture Competition," Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL
2001 “BROOKLYN!” Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Lakeworth, FL
2000 “North American Sculpture Biennial,” Foothills Art Center, Golden, CO, Juror: Alison Saar
2000 “Figurative and Portrait Show,” Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY
1998 Theodora Gallery, Palm Beach, FL
1998 “Wood Memorial Biennial,” Gallery in the Wood, South Windsor, CT, Juror: Susan Cross, curator, Guggenheim Museum
1997 “National Juried Competition”, Denise Bibro Fine Art, New York, NY, Juror: Judd Tully
1997 “42nd Annual Long Island Artists’ Exhibition,” Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY, Juror: Holly Solomon
1996 “Summer Group Show,” Caelum Gallery, New York, NY (outreach to visually-impaired community; sculptures to see, touch, and hold)
1995 “The Best Contemporary Art CD-ROM, Juried Collection,” mural, Art Communication Int’l,Philadelphia, PA, Jurors: Claudia Stone, Ivan Karp, Pamela Auchincloss
1994 “The Self-Portrait Show, Part I,” drawing and painting, The New York Law School, New York, NY
1992 “Family,” drawing and paintingGoddard-Riverside Center, New York, NY
1985 “Fusion '85: Works of Asian, Black, Jewish and Latino Artists of Los Angeles,” drawing and painting, Jewish Federation, Los Angeles, CA
1985 “Southern California Figurative Art,” painting, California State University, Los Angeles, CA, Juror: Ruth Weisberg

Selected Commissions
2010 Finalist: Sculpture for the New Wishard Hospital, Indianapolis, IN
2008 NYC Chapter Engineers without Borders, sculptures for model of dam, Cambodia Water Dam Project, NY
2007 Baltimore Sculpture Project, Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, MD
2005 Summit Outdoor Art Project (SOAP) and the Mayor’s Council on the Arts, Summit, NJ
1999-2000 City of New York Parks & Recreation, sculpture, Live Well! installed in Tribeca Park, New York, NY
1998 “Children in Crisis International," The Tempest and Midsummer Night’s Dream for traveling benefit exhibition, tour NYC and Germany
1995 Bellmont Italian American Playhouse, Luigi Pirandello’s Henry IV, New York, NY
1992 Wellstone Inc., Architectural Associates, Dream of the Two Houses, Santa Monica, CA
1987 Operation GreenThumb, Department of General Services, The New York State Council on the Arts, Striving Together, Mural at the Harlem Rehabilitation Center, New York, NY
1984 Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, Chevron, Inc., and IBM, Inc, mural, Magritte in Los Angeles, CA
1983 Clint Eastwood, drawings and on-screen paintings of Sondra Locke for his Warner Brothers film, Sudden Impact
1983 Grifftex Corporate Collections, purchase of Chaim Soutine Drinking, nationwide distribution.

Selected Collections
Dr. Claude Tolbert, Beaufort, SC
Kleinfelder Engineers, Bohemia, NY
Law offices of Jerod Peterson, Minneapolis, MN
Christian Stephans, President, Price Waterhouse, Hamburg, Germany
Dr. Deborah Stern, Los Angeles, CA
Georges Leroux, Architectes des Interieurs, Brussels, Belgium
Clint Eastwood, Los Angeles, CA
Grifftex Corporate Collections, GA

Selected Honors and Awards
2012 Scholarship, Manhattan Graphics Center, NYC (Lithography)
2012 Featured on KCET TV online, (Los Angeles) Ed Fuentes, "This is not a surrealist mural: Magritte in Los Angeles"
2006 First Place, "Images of Social Justice, Small Works, Big Heart," St. Joseph's College, Brooklyn NY
2006 Honorable Mention, "Snapshot of Survival," Sanofi-Aventis, New York, NY
2000 Knox Galleries Award for Cast Bronze, North American Sculpture Biennial, Juror: Alison Saar
1996 Catherine and Denis Krusos Award of Excellence (for sculpture), Juror: Holly Solomon
1985 Award of Outstanding Contribution to the Los Angeles Murals Program, Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department

Education
1996 Sculpture Center, New York, NY, Bronze casting and mold making
1988 National Academy of Design
1981 Santa Monica City College, Functional Human Anatomy, Science Department
1974 University of California at Santa Cruz, BA, Major in Art, Minor in Dance Theater. Junior year, traveled, painted in Israel and Europe, attended Life Drawing classes, Art Academy of Vienna, Austria.

Noa Bornstein describes herself as “a draw-er”. Many of her sculptures begin as a quick drawing or impression - from memory, from dreams, or from life itself. “Watching an old man walking down the street, I take out my little pad and am compelled to capture something of his gait, the rhythm, shape, whatever attracts my attention,” says Bornstein.

Later, the form is re-worked, usually in wax for bronze pieces, as she attempts to “find the real figure”, meaning the feeling of the piece rather than a realistic interpretation of something she has observed.

Bornstein states, “When I model, I struggle to arrive at the shape or feeling that captures the essence of what I’m trying to communicate. I’m also thinking about how the shapes relate to each other and to the movement of the piece.

I cast in bronze because this warm metal can capture the plasticity and emotion of my figurative forms. The right color strikes me when the shape is right, or sometimes, color actually leads the shape. Some questions I ask myself: Have I risked everything in pursuit of the essence of the thing? Does the work have the original spark of my intention, yet also gone beyond it and become something new? Does it communicate? Does it have a reason for being?

Underlying my art is the hope or belief in the human potential for intelligence and compassion. As I work, it’s almost as if the tension between these and other human propensities can be made visible—even resolved—if I am successful in resolving the piece.”