Rebecca Herman
Instagram: @artgroupc
Website: https://groupc.org
Bio: Rebecca Herman and Mark Shoffner are long-term collaborators working in sculpture, textiles, paper, performance, and installation. Our project-based work is often made in response to conflicts and perceived dangers that surround us–whether environmental dangers, human conflict, or political strife. Over the past nine years we have frequently worked with hand-dyed and patterned textiles to create temporary public art installations, mixed media sculptures, and wearable art that reflect on tensions in society.
Rebecca and Mark’s large-scale textiles were exhibited at the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library, and other textile works were included in the “45th Anniversary Exhibition: New Directions” at San José Museum of Quilts and Textiles and “Pulp: Book & Paper Arts” at Sebastopol Center for the Arts. We have created outdoor installations for Golden Gate Park; McCarren Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn; and Evergreen House, Baltimore, among other outdoor exhibitions and art festivals. In New York, our work was the subject of a two-part solo exhibition at Black & White Gallery in Brooklyn.
Artist residencies include Kala Art Insitute, Berkeley; Venezia Contemporanea, Italy; Sapporo Tenjinyama Art Studio, Japan; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York; and San José Museum of Quilts & Textiles, during which time we were the subject of a feature interview in Content magazine. Rebecca was Resident Artist at the San Francisco Public Library through ProjectArt in 2019-20. Mark has been a Teaching Artist through SFArtsEd, specializing in bookmaking, since 2022.
Statement: The Redacted Portrait Gallery features aspiring autocrats from countries around the world. Through cryptic portrayals of contemporary political leaders, we imagine how specific infamous figures may be remembered in the future, whether reviled or venerated.
In this series of portraits, the veneer of sophistication is counterbalanced by the absurdity of the disembodied noses–a reference to Nikolai Gogol’s satirical short story "The Nose," in which an petty official wakes up without his nose, which he then follows through the street in an attempt to reclaim his dignity.
The specific dictators referenced in this series remain unnamed, although the lush textiles, embellishments and rich sheen of the materials suggest a ridiculous attempt at fabulousness and glory--or a discount holy relic.
