Elizabeth Berdann, Emoticons (2008), oil on steel

The Contemporary Art Museum Honolulu is currently presenting four concurrent solo exhibitions by New York and Los Angeles-based artists, including Daily Serving featured artist and interviewee, Allison Schulnik, as well as Elizabeth Berdann, Judy Fox and Fay Ku. New York-based Elizabeth Berdann‘s solo show, entitled Wonders Curiosities and Conundrums, is the first museum retrospective of the artist’s work over the past two decades. The work on view, created from 1989 to 2009, adheres to TCM’s theme for all four shows “in which the artists work in different media and styles but have a common denominator in their interest in the figure.” Berdann describes her own work as “highly focused, detailed examinations of bodies (frequently human, but not exclusively so),” and says she is “continually fascinated by the plasticity of bodies and the underlying psychological terrain.” Berdann’s collective works—from the 1990 installation, The Wall of Tongues, to the more recent Emoticons—are whimsical, fierce, peculiar and beautiful at once.

Elizabeth Berdann, The Wall of Tongues (1990), oil on copper, installation view and detail view

New York-based Elizabeth Berdann earned her BA at Smith College and has studied at Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, France; Yale University, New Haven, CT; Instituto Allende, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; and Parsons School of Design, New York, NY. Her work has been exhibited wildely, including at Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art & Design, Los Angeles; Lesley Heller Gallery, New York; Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum; New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; White Columns, New York; and Betty Rymer Gallery at School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, among several other prestigious awards.