THE DAVID BERMANT FOUNDATION
COLOR, LIGHT, MOTION

Founded by David W. Bermant, who began to build in 1965 a collection that has become the pre-eminent private assemblage of work from this genre, the Foundation is devoted to fostering the efforts of artists working with non- traditional materials. These materials include physical sources of energy, light and sound, which are used in works that question and extend the boundaries of the visual arts.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The Foundation, governed by a board, seeks to cultivate public awareness of and appreciation for the synthesis of fine art and technology by supporting both those artists and institutions involved in the presentation, study, commission, collection or exhibition of such work.

BESS ROCHLITZER                 Chair of the Board
ROBERT MARGOLIES              Director
ANDREW BERMANT                Director
SANDY HOPMANS                  Director
GABW M. WOLOSKY               Director
VICTORIA VESNA                    Art Advisor

RESIDENCY

In celebration of Susan Hopmans Bermant’s life, who passed away in April 2013, a residency program was initiated. The program was an opportunity for art historians, artists and writers to spend time at the foundation’s collection to study the work and access the archives. We continued the program through 2020 at which time the collection was relocated to the Butler institute of art.

LINDA WEINTRAUB

Linda Weintraub is a curator, educator, artist, and author of several popular books about contemporary art. She has earned her reputation by making the outposts of vanguard art accessible to broad audiences. The current vanguard, she believes, is propelled by environmental consciousness that is not only the defining characteristic of contemporary manufacturing, architecture, science, and philosophy; it is delineating contemporary art. Weintraub’s books exploring contemporary art and ecology include WHAT’s NEXT? Eco Materialism & Contemporary Art (2018), To LIFE! Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet (2012), and Avant-Guardians (2007), a series of textlets that include EcoCentric Topics: Pioneering Themes for Eco-Art; Cycle-Logical Art: Recycling Matters for Eco-Art; EnvironMentalities: Twenty-two Approaches to Eco-Art. Weintraub applies environmental concerns to her personal life by managing a sustainable homestead where she practices permaculture. http://lindaweintraub.com/

ANNE NIEMETZ

Anne Niemetz is a media artist and designer working in the fields of wearable technology, interactive installation and audio-visual design. She is particularly fascinated by the convergence of art, science, design and technology, and she pursues collaborative and cross-disciplinary projects.

Anne holds a Media Arts degree from the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe (HfG), Germany, with a focus in digital media and interactive sound installation. She continued her studies at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) where she received an MFA in Design and Media Arts in 2004. In 2007 she moved to New Zealand, where she holds the position of Senior Lecturer in the Media Design programme at Victoria University of Wellington. www.adime.de

ANNE NIEMETZ

Anne Niemetz is a media artist and designer working in the fields of wearable technology, interactive installation and audio-visual design. She is particularly fascinated by the convergence of art, science, design and technology, and she pursues collaborative and cross-disciplinary projects.

Anne holds a Media Arts degree from the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe (HfG), Germany, with a focus in digital media and interactive sound installation. She continued her studies at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) where she received an MFA in Design and Media Arts in 2004. In 2007 she moved to New Zealand, where she holds the position of Senior Lecturer in the Media Design programme at Victoria University of Wellington. www.adime.de

ANNE NIEMETZ

Anne Niemetz is a media artist and designer working in the fields of wearable technology, interactive installation and audio-visual design. She is particularly fascinated by the convergence of art, science, design and technology, and she pursues collaborative and cross-disciplinary projects.

Anne holds a Media Arts degree from the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe (HfG), Germany, with a focus in digital media and interactive sound installation. She continued her studies at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) where she received an MFA in Design and Media Arts in 2004. In 2007 she moved to New Zealand, where she holds the position of Senior Lecturer in the Media Design programme at Victoria University of Wellington. www.adime.de

CLAUDIA JACQUES
A Brazilian-American interdisciplinary artist, designer, educator and researcher, Claudia Jacques de Moraes Cardoso holds an MFA in Computer Art (School of Visual Arts, NY) and is currently a PhD candidate at the Planetary Collegium, University of Plymouth, UK. She is researching space-time aesthetics in the user-information-interface relationship through the lens of Cybersemiotics. Intersecting art, technology and science, she designs interactive hybrid art and information environments that aim to explore perceptions of space-time and the digital-physical in the pursuit of human consciousness. She also teaches studio, digital and communication arts, and her studio is in Valhalla, NY. http://claudiajacques.com
CLAUDIA SCHNUGG

Dr. Claudia Schnugg is an independent researcher in intersections of art and aesthetics with science, technology, and business, and producer of art and science collaboration.

Her recent work focuses on intertwining artists and art projects with new technologies and scientific research. She has explored effects of artistic interventions on social settings, especially framing artistic interventions and art programs in organizations.

Claudia produces media art projects as well as art and science programs. She also holds workshops, runs research projects, and gives talks about developments on the intersection of art, science, technology, and business. http://www.claudiaschnugg.com/

CHRISTA SOMMERER & LAURENT MIGNONNEAU
Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau are internationally renowned media artists working in the field of interactive computer installation. They are Professors at the University of Art and Design in Linz Austria where they head the Department for Interface Culture at the Institute for Media.

Sommerer and Mignonneau previously held positions as Professors at the IAMAS International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences in Gifu, Japan and as Researchers and Artistic Directors at the ATR Media Integration and Communications Research Lab in Kyoto Japan. They also were Visiting Researchers at the MIT CAVS in Cambridge US, the Beckmann Institute in Champaign Urbana, IL, USA and the NTT-InterCommunication Center in Tokyo. http://www.interface.ufg.ac.at/christa-laurent/BIOGRAPHY/Biographylong.html

ANNE NIEMETZ

Anne Niemetz is a media artist and designer working in the fields of wearable technology, interactive installation and audio-visual design. She is particularly fascinated by the convergence of art, science, design and technology, and she pursues collaborative and cross-disciplinary projects.

Anne holds a Media Arts degree from the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe (HfG), Germany, with a focus in digital media and interactive sound installation. She continued her studies at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) where she received an MFA in Design and Media Arts in 2004. In 2007 she moved to New Zealand, where she holds the position of Senior Lecturer in the Media Design programme at Victoria University of Wellington. www.adime.de

GEORGE QUASHA
Artist, poet, and musician working across mediums to explore principles in common within language, sculpture, drawing, video, sound, installation, and performance. Solo exhibitions of axial stones and axial drawings include the Baumgartner Gallery in New York (Chelsea), the Slought Foundation in Philadelphia, and at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz. This work is featured in the published book, Axial Stones: An Art of Precarious Balance, Foreword by Carter Ratcliff (North Atlantic Books: Berkeley, 2006).

Quasha’s video installation/single-channel work art is (Speaking Portraits) asks  over 1,000 artists, poets, and composers (from 11 countries and 21 languages) what in their view art is. This ongoing work (art is/music is/poetry is) has been exhibited at the Snite Museum of Art (University of Notre Dame), at White Box in Chelsea, at the Samuel Dorsky Museum (SUNY New Paltz), and in several other countries, including France and India. Further extensions of this work in speaking portraiture include myth is and peace is. Other work in axial video (including Pulp FrictionAxial ObjectsVerbal ObjectsAxialLandscapes) has appeared internationally in museums, galleries, schools, and biennials. Quasha continues to work on a 30-year performance collaboration (video/language/sound) with artists Gary Hill and Charles Stein. http://www.quasha.com/

SUSAN QUASHA
Artist Susan Quasha has worked in photography, assemblage, collage, ceramics, typography, and poetry. She has exhibited her art at The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, The Blum Art Center and Kleinert James, among others. Quasha is the co-founder of Station Hill Press where she has been principal book designer for three decades.

Quasha studied at The University of Connecticut with poet Charles Olson and did graduate work in English Literature. http://www.stationhill.org/about/people/

CHRISTA SOMMERER & LAURENT MIGNONNEAU
Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau are internationally renowned media artists working in the field of interactive computer installation. They are Professors at the University of Art and Design in Linz Austria where they head the Department for Interface Culture at the Institute for Media.

Sommerer and Mignonneau previously held positions as Professors at the IAMAS International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences in Gifu, Japan and as Researchers and Artistic Directors at the ATR Media Integration and Communications Research Lab in Kyoto Japan. They also were Visiting Researchers at the MIT CAVS in Cambridge US, the Beckmann Institute in Champaign Urbana, IL, USA and the NTT-InterCommunication Center in Tokyo. http://www.interface.ufg.ac.at/christa-laurent/BIOGRAPHY/Biographylong.html

CHRISTIANE PAUL
Christiane is Associate Professor at the School of Media Studies, The New School, and Adjunct Curator of New Media Arts at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She has written extensively on new media arts and lectured internationally on art and technology. Essay: Virtual Volumes and Electric Choreographies Selected Works from the David Bermant Collection. http://www.christianepaul.info/
KAREN MOSS
Karen is an art historian, curator and educator who has worked in museums and academic positions since 1980. She is faculty at the USC Roski School of Fine Arts and Design Curatorial M.A. Program and the Otis College of Art and Design Graduate Public Practice MFA program.

Currently, she is also co-curator for Talking to Action, a multi-platform exhibition of social practice artists and researchers from seven Latin American countries and Los Angeles that is part of the Getty Pacific Standard Time LA/LA initiative, 2015 – 2017. http://karenmoss.art/

DAVID FAMILIAN
David is Associate Director at the Beall Center for Art and Technology. An artist and educator, he received his BFA from California Institute of the Arts in 1979 and his MFA from UCLA in 1986. For the past twenty years he taught studio art and critical theory in art schools and universities including Otis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Santa Clara University, San Francisco Art Institute and U.C. Irvine. He currently teaches the Beall Center’s Digital Arts Exhibition course at UC Irvine’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts.

Although David began his career as a photographer, since 1990 new media has become integral to his own artistic practice and his work as a web producer and technical advisor for individual artists, museums and universities such as Walker Art Center, University of Minnesota and the Orange County Museum of Art. http://www.familian.net/