Chai Style Art
Photography by Howard Mendel//
Robin Bernat and Jon Ciliberto enjoy time in their study with black lab Winnie. Robin’s large mixed media drawing is based on the Book of Job (left).
Couple Goes Off Script in Collecting and Creating Artist Robin Bernat and attorney/artist Jon Ciliberto met at a friend’s “Grand Unified Holiday Party” and have been Marcia collaborating Caller Jaffe ever since. Bernat, whose gallery, Poem 88, was recently featured in the Oct. 3 Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Sunday Living section, said, “Most of the [gallery’s] artists work in Atlanta — there’s a wealth of talent residing right here! You don’t need to go to New York or Switzerland to find breathtaking, risktaking, provocative and beautiful art. Creative expression makes life worth living.”
The couple’s Peachtree Road condominium is a multilayered treasure trove that is never static and is awash in natural light and filled with much of Bernat’s own artwork. It’s polished and never shies away from making a statement. Jaffe: What was it like growing up in Monroe, La.? Bernat: My family owned the Palace Department Store, as did so many Jewish merchants in the South. I was one of five Jewish kids in my grade. Despite being from such a small town in the South, I never had an experience of antiSemitism. And maybe that speaks more to Louisiana. I come from a family of artists, so that has always been an outlet. My paternal aunts were both painters. The Masur Museum of Art is in the former home of my great-grandparents. Art was important. Our vacations were spent at art museums.
Jaffe: How would you describe your home? Bernat: We live in this fantastic, midcentury modern building right on Peachtree. Atlanta has not been kind to its modern architecture — demolishing most of it. Luckily, many homeowners are keen to preserve the integrity of our building. Our home is a true amalgamation of modern and eclectic. I have furniture from James Mont mixed with English antiques. Most of the art is my own or from artists I work with. There are pieces by my Aunt Fran, Jon’s drawings, and works by his parents! Jaffe: Describe your own work. Bernat: My primary medium is experimental film. My work captures very momentary experiences, the fleeting and provisional. I approach my work like a
documentary filmmaker — I have an idea of the thing/feeling/experience and I set up the conditions for it to occur and have my camera ready. Some works, like “Real Lush: Short Stories” are recreating childhood memories of having grape juice and saltines in nursery school, or capturing something that made a profound impression on me like the French Barbizon painters and Camille Corot. Some are moments with one of my pets! They’re very personal, but also universal. Some of my work is about loss. Life is fleeting — catching that spark before it dissipates into space. In art school, I trained in printmaking, photography, and artist’s books. I write poetry, too. My works at Atlanta’s High Museum are two series of etchings with hand-set text; at the Whitney Museum, a three-channel video titled “Effortless” and at the Kemper Museum in Kansas City, another ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES OCTOBER 31, 2021| 41
