Artist Statement

Randall Berndt - 2011

“The painting impulse gets weakened if I get too verbal about things ...
It's dangerous for a painter to be too eloquent with words."

(George Tooker 1920- 2011)

Recently deceased artist George Tooker, painter of figures luminous with existential dread and wonder, thought it best to let the work speak for itself- too much explanation takes away the magic.

With that in mind I will say only a little (trying to keep the magic) about the paintings and drawings in this exhibition because sometimes onlookers are curious about what might make all this possible. Anyway I hope they are curious.
How much hand wringing and head scratching, not to mention erasures, has gone into producing these images!? Lots. Also a teeny bit of satisfaction when a nice image bubbles up from the well of inspiration and vague yearnings.

The narratives of these works seem to be mostly set in the past - the comfort of memory, the romance of history - because today is in unpredictable flux and tomorrow could be full of nasty surprises.

They are all self portraits of a kind, mixed up with stories that just appear in my sketchbook begging to become more finished pictures that are like illustrations* of what might occur in a truly innocent state of mind. Innocence is hard to come by in these times of double talking politicians, the disappearance of money and nature's retribution for our environmental follies.

Maybe art can comfort us and also lure the angels of our better intentions to sit on our shoulders at least while we spend time looking at it. Art is one place that our innocence and imagination can roam free from the harsh realities that stalk us on a daily basis.
There, it's all explained.
Enjoy.
Now it's out the door and down the street.

Human/Nature (An exhibit with Charles Munch) 2008 statement

"I think I could turn and live awhile with the animals. . .they are so placid and self contained, I stand and look at them sometimes half the day long. " Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass 1855

"Through the years, I have learned that there is no harm in charging oneself up with delusions between moments of valid inspiration. " Steve Martin Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life 2007

The imagery in my art explores the interaction of humans with the natural world. This imagery is often presented in narratives that call up the question of what exactly that relationship is. I feel that interesting art must contain an element of mystery, something elusive and sought after along with some humorous detachment from overweening
utilitarianisms. Some part of the art experience has to be ineffable, beyond academic explanations, just as I believe our ultimate relationship to nature to be. But I also seek a feeling of naturalness, of image rightness along with the unexplained in these storied pictures.

Many of the goings-on in my art reflect a quest after that which exists beyond our everyday civilized and socialized lives. As a displaced country person, living mostly in the city now, I am often surprised by how much wildness shows itself in the midst of the busy urban hubbub. I have seen a Cooper's hawk pounce on a hapless sparrow right next to a sidewalk near the capitol building in downtown Madison. I have seen the unlikely, primordial opossum wobble past our front porch in the early spring snow and the screech owl perch in our apple tree in the full moon that rises over our backyard just as it does over the tamaracks in the north-country swamp.

Some of these works are blatantly romantic yearnings - deliberate archaisms, seeking after refuge from our overly organized lives, searching for rescue from business as usual and transport to the moonlit big pine woods with its secret campfire that invites dreaming where the sound of traffic is not heard. These paintings suggest, I hope, the
impossibly extravagant idea of going to live with the animals as proposed by Walt Whitman; oddly, they may be the result of valid inspirations conjured while walking those city sidewalks.

Randall Berndt Artist's Statement - 2006
"I think I could turn and live awhile with the animals... they are so placid and self contained, I stand and look at them sometimes half the day long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition, They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, Not one is dissatisfied... not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another of his kind that lived thousands of years ago, Not one is respectable or
industrious over the whole earth.

So they show me their relations to me and I accept them; They bring me tokens of myself. . . they evince them plainly in their possession. "

Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass 1855

My current paintings and drawings reflect my meditations over the years on my personal and artistic relationships to nature.
I grew up on a farm in the 1940s and 50s in Green Lake County (50 miles north of Madison) where as a boy I rambled around in the woods, watched birds, fished in the little streams and generally enjoyed a Huckleberry Finn childhood in search of that wild place where the imagination could roam.

The subject matter in my current art is drawn almost entirely from my private, unphotographed memory bank of image situations; it ranges back and forth between the world of organized human society and the wildness and unexplainable mysteries of nature.
Living mostly in the city now, I am impressed by the side by side existence of urban life along with the chance sightings above the roof tops of billowing storm clouds, a hawk perched on a busy street or the improbable opossum waddling past our front porch in the early spring twilight. My farm and forest pictures are not literal transcriptions of these kinds of episodes but rather allusions to the big mystery of how we fit into the natural
scheme of things. Some of these works are blatantly romantic yearnings, deliberate archaisms, see kings after refuge from our overly organized lives - maybe to be rescued from business as usual and transported to the moonlit woods where the sound of traffic is not heard or to the secret campfire place that invites dreaming. Or to listen to the impossible, extravagant idea of going to live with the animals like the poet Walt Whitman wanted to do. Or to make art that might sing with those ideas.

Randall Berndt - 2011

Selected Exhibitions

2010 October: " Here and Now and Then" University of Wisconsin-Madison Art Department Alumni Exhibition
2010 February: Forward, A Survey of Wisconsin Art Now" Charles Allis Art Museum, Milwaukee (juried, group)
2009 November: "Celebrating 30 Years" Grace Chosy Gallery "
2007 Perfectly Natural. H. C. Johnson Gallery, Carthage College, Kenosha, WI (group, invitational)
Wild Places. Wilson Center for the Arts, Brookfield, WI (two person show)
2006 Up North: Imaging North Woods Culture & Mythology. West Bend Art Museum, West Bend, WI (group, invitational)
2005 Out of the Woods. Grace Chosy Gallery, Madison, WI (two-person show)
“Inner Visions: 4 Painters’’ Nature Narratives. New Visions Gallery, Marshfield, WI. (Group, Invitational)
2004 Emblems, Allegories & Natural Appearances. Wisconsin Academy Gallery, Madison, WI (two-person show)
Midwest Painters. Carlsten Art Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (group, invitational)
2003 Wisconsin Artists Biennial 2003. University of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial Union (juried)
Fire Works. Grace Chosy Gallery, Madison, WI (two-person show)
2001 Northern National. Nicolet College, Rhinelander, WI (juried)
Unconventional Wisconsin. Carlsten Gallery, UW-Stevens Point, WI (juried)
Culture and Agriculture. New Visions Gallery, Marshfield, WI (juried)
Ah, Wilderness. Edgewood Orchard Galleries, Fish Creek, WI (group, invitational)
2001 Parallel Worlds. Grace Chosy Gallery, Madison, WI (two-person show)
The Painted Landscape. Groveland Gallery, Minneapolis, MN (group, invitational)
Century 2 –– New Glass and Paintings. Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI (juried)
The Nature of Things: Diverse Observations, Illustrations and Interpretations of Nature. West Bend Art Museum, West Bend, WI (group, invitational)
2000 Featured Artist. Edgewood Orchard Galleries, Fish Creek, WI
New American Paintings Number 29. Open Studios Press, Wellesley, MA (juried exhibition in print)
1999 Culture and Agriculture. New Visions Gallery, Marshfield, WI (juried)
1999 55th Juried Exhibition. Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, IA (juried)
1998 Day and Night. Grace Chosy Gallery, Madison, WI (two-person show)
62nd Annual Midyear Exhibition. Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH (juried)
Two-Person Exhibition. Paine Art Center and Arboretum, Oshkosh, WI
1997-98 Recent Paintings: From Farm and Forest. Neville Public Museum, Green Bay, WI (solo)
1996-98 Wisconsin Arts Board Visual Arts and Media Arts Fellowship Awards Traveling Exhibition
1996 Wisconsin Dreams. Grace Chosy Gallery, Madison, WI (two-person show)
1995 An Exhibition of Wisconsin Art From The David Barnett Gallery. Federal Plaza, Milwaukee
1994 Nocturnes, Daydreams and True Stories: Paintings and Drawings by Randall Berndt. Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, Madison, WI (solo)
1993 Wisconsin Artists Showcase. Jura Silverman Gallery, Spring Green, WI (invitational)
1991 Randall Berndt. Rahr-West Museum, Manitowoc, WI (solo)
Privileged Access. Cudahy Gallery of Wisconsin Art, Milwaukee Art Museum (juried)
Wisconsin 91. Carlsten Art Gallery, UW-Stevens Point, WI (juried)
1990 Flora 90. Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, IL (juried)
33rd Annual Beloit and Vicinity Exhibition. The Wright Museum of Art, Beloit, WI (juried)
1989 Wisconsin Painters & Sculptors, Juried Membership Show '89. West Bend Gallery of Fine Arts,
West Bend, WI
Wisconsin '89. Edna Carlsten Gallery, UW-Stevens Point (juried)
Wisconsin Painters & Sculptors' South Central Chapter Membership Show. Signature Gallery, Stoughton, WI (juried)
1988 The Spiral and the Dolphin. David Barnett Gallery, Milwaukee (solo)
1987 The Wisconsin Triennial. Madison Art Center, Madison (invitational)
State of the Arts . . . New Art, New Artists. David Barnett Gallery, Milwaukee
1986 Wisconsin Painters & Sculptors, Members Show. Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (juried)
1985 Wisconsin History Paintings. Exhibited at The Wright Museum of Art, Beloit College, WI; The Madison Art Center, Madison; and the Edna Carlsten Gallery, UW-Stevens Point, WI (solo)
Wisconsin '85. Edna Carlsten Gallery, UW-Stevens Point, WI (juried)
Exhibition 63 - Wisconsin Painters & Sculptors. Henry P. Reuss Federal Plaza, Milwaukee (juried)
1984 Wisconsin Directions 4. Milwaukee Art Museum (invitational)
Wisconsin Arts Board Group Show. Governor's Offices, State Capitol, Madison
The Pisa Project. UW-Parkside, Kenosha, WI (invitational)
1983 Paintings: 1978-1982. UW-Parkside Communications Art Gallery, Kenosha, WI (solo)
Rituals, Fetishes & Obsessions. Center Gallery, Madison (solo)
Emerging Imagists of Wisconsin. Cudahy Gallery of Wisconsin Art, Milwaukee Art Museum (invitational)
26th Annual Beloit and Vicinity Exhibition. Wright Museum of Art, Beloit College, Beloit, WI (juried)
1981 Wisconsin '81. Edna Carlsten Gallery, UW-Stevens Point, WI
Figurative Artists from Center Gallery. Edna Carlsten Gallery, UW-Stevens Point
The Door. Seuferer-Chosy Gallery, Madison (invitational)
1980 61st Annual Wisconsin Painters and Sculptors. UW-Milwaukee (juried)
The Chair. Seuferer-Chosy Gallery, Madison (invitational)
Salon des Refuses. Wolf Kubly Building, Madison (invitational)
1979 History Paintings. Center Gallery, Madison (solo)

Honors and Awards

A painting reproduced on the Dane County Cultural Affairs 2011 art calendar
1998 Juror's Choice Award. 62nd Annual Midyear Exhibition, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission. Art reproduced for Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission Annual Art Postel
1997 Mayor's Purchase Award. Madison CitiARTS Commission, Madison, WI
1996 Wisconsin Arts Board Fellowship Award
1986 Cash Award, Wisconsin Painters & Sculptors Members, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design
1985 Cash Award, Wisconsin '85, Edna Carlsten Gallery, UW-Stevens Point, WI
1984 Honorable Mention, Wisconsin Arts Board Fellowship Program
1980 Cash Award, 61st Annual Wisconsin Painters & Sculptors, UW-Milwaukee
1978 Cash Award, Wisconsin Biennale, Madison Art Center, Madison, WI

Commissions

2002 Painting commissioned for First Wisconsin Book Festival Poster
1996 Felicity's House. Cover art for Scenes and Settings, created for Pleasant Company, Middleton, WI
1986-87 Series of paintings based on historic architecture of Oconomowoc, WI, created for the 1st Bank of Oconomowoc
1982-86 Series of drawings of historic houses created for reproduction for First Reality Group, Inc.,
Madison, WI
1977 Mural at St. Mary's Hospital, Madison, WI (with George Cramer)

Grants

1984 Wisconsin History Paintings. Supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board.
1983 Peter Pan, a play. Funded in part by the Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission.
The Passion of Passover. Funded in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board.
1982 Paintings 1978-1982. Supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board.

Professional Experience

2004-pres Co-Director, James Watrous Gallery of the Wisconsin Academy, Overture Center for the Arts,
Madison, WI
1998-04 Director, Wisconsin Academy Gallery, Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters
2002 Visiting Artist, UW-Green Bay, WI
Juror, Art Fair on the Square, Madison, WI
2001 Visiting Artist, Columbus Elementary Schools, Columbus, WI
Juror, ArtsWest 22 Exhibition, L.E. Phillips Memorial Library, Eau Claire, WI
1995-98 Co-Director, Wisconsin Academy Gallery, Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters
1995 Exhibition Curator, Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
1994-95 Art Conservation Technician, Fine Arts Conservation Services, Sheboygan, WI
1989-94 Art Conservation Technician, Wisconsin State Capitol Conservation Project, Fine Arts Conservation Services, Sheboygan, WI
1990-92 Colorist, Kitchen Sink Press, Inc., Princeton, WI
1987-88 Self-employed artist
1982-86 Display and sign work for Advance Exposition Sales and Ampersand, Madison, WI
1981 Instructor, Life Drawing and Anatomy, UW-Madison
1978-80 Instructor, Drawing and Painting, Madison Area Technical College, Madison, WI
1978 Visiting Artist, Sheboygan, WI, Public School System
1977 Instructor, Drawing, UW-Madison

Education

1969 M.F.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison
1966 B.S., Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Gallery Representation

Grace Chosy Gallery, Madison, Wisconsin