BERNICE BING

Into View: Bernice Bing is the first in an ongoing series of exhibitions that shine a spotlight on underappreciated modern artists. Not recognized her lifetime, Bernice Bing (1936–1998) was a vibrant and inspiring figure to her creative contemporaries and a heroic advocate for marginalized communities. Into View offers a chance not only to engage with Bing’s artwork, but to get to know the artist as a person.

Upon entering Hambrecht Gallery, visitors encounter what is perhaps the exhibition’s most personal work: Bing’s 1960 oil painting Self-Portrait with a Mask. Curator Abby Chen reveals that this painting was discovered during the height of the pandemic, when she and her team visited a storage space in search of Bing’s large-scale abstract paintings. By chance, Chen came across a smaller painting, sitting off to the side like an afterthought. “When I happened to uncover it,” she remembers, “I froze.” Recognizing the figure’s blue sweater, which Bing is seen wearing in numerous photographs, Chen saw herself in the work as well: “She’s wearing that white mask, while we were all wearing masks; it was quite moving.”

Bing’s later abstract paintings draw inspiration from Buddhist sutras and the California landscape, and the artist would eventually

Now On View Hambrecht Gallery

extend her energies beyond the studio as a tireless community advocate and organizer. By contrast, Chen says the youthful selfportrait “offers a very different, more interior energy: a soulful and intensely personal approach to self-reflection.” In the context of Bing’s abstract works, “the self-portrait provided an anchoring point, becoming the soul of the exhibition. It has a penetrating effect — it’s so strong, yet so vulnerable.”

To allow Bing’s legacy to germinate further, Chen has organized an Open Call for artists and writers. “As people respond to the Open Call, they’ll need to investigate who Bernice Bing was: It’s a way to foster greater awareness of her work across generations.” n