We Don't Owe You a Tomorrow: Judith Bernstein
805 Traction Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90013
Judith Bernstein presents her new, meteoric series We Don’t Owe U A Tomorrow in her sixth solo
exhibition with the Box LA. Her psychological paintings are inspired by the catastrophic political climate that dominates the current zeitgeist. Bernstein tackles extremism that threatens the core of democracy through fluorescent paint and gestural brush strokes against infinite black canvases. Swastikas and assault rifles allude to not only a nightmarish tomorrow, but the current reality that we face today. As with much of Bernstein’s work, humor provides an entry point to contemplate themes of bigotry, abuse, fascism, war, and death. Her iconic imagery intersects with knock out maxims: “Trumpenschlong,” the intentionally misspelled “Gasligting Ukraine,” and “We Don’t Owe U A Tomorrow.” In Bernstein’s universe, there are no guarantees.
Since receiving her MFA from Yale in 1967, Judith Bernstein has developed a reputation as one of the most unwaveringly provocative artists of her generation. For over 50 years, her work has explored connections between the political and the sexual. Steadfast in her cultural, political, and social critique, Bernstein surged into art world prominence in the early 1970s with her monumental anti-war and feminist charcoal drawings of penis-screw hybrids—one of the artist’s most recognizable motifs. Bernstein has been awarded numerous accolades throughout her career and has been the subject of major solo exhibitions at museums in New York and abroad. Her monumental 9 x 12 1⁄2 feet charcoal drawing Horizontal was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY in 2023.
Judith Bernstein’s exhibition We Don’t Owe U A Tomorrow is curated by Paul McCarthy.
In 2016, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation recognized Bernstein’s accomplishments in the fine arts by awarding the artist its prestigious annual fellowship, and the National Academy of Design elected her a member of the National Academicians. Additional accolades include the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Art in 2019, among several others. Bernstein has been the subject of solo exhibitions at The Drawing Center, New York (2017-18); the New Museum, New York (2012-13), Kunsthall Stavanger, Norway (2016), and Studio Voltaire, London (2014), among numerous galleries and venues internationally. She has also exhibited at Kunsthaus Zurich (2021); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2020); the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. (2019); Migros Museum, Zurich (2019 and 2015); Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany (2019); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2016); Institute of Contemporary Art, London (2013); and Hauser & Wirth, Zurich and London (2011-12). Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; the Jewish Museum, New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Art Institute of Chicago; the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY; and the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT, among others.