WORKS ON PAPER Selma Bortner FEBRUARY TO MARCH 2005 Selma Bortner’s works on paper at the Bernstein Gallery focus on the subject of women. The art is about the complex relationship women have with their own bodies. Bortner explores illness, aging and the potential constraints and abuse of a woman’s body. Her vision often seems hallucinatory, a dreamscape of universal themes is approached with a palpable personal touch, and the works resonate with vulnerability. Bortner, a native of Cleveland, studied at the Tyler School of Art and the Philadelphia College of Art. She has been awarded several prizes for her work including the Pennell Memorial Medal in 1970 and 1971, and first prize from the American Color Print Society in 1995. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and James A. Michener Art Museum.
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Selma Bortner, “The Red Boat,” 2002, collagraph and linoleum, 49 x 37 inches