Judith Chernoff and Jeffrey Bernstein
Based in Laurel, Maryland, Judith Chernoff and Jeffrey Bernstein are craft advocates and avid collectors. They focus on sculptural and turned wood but collect a range of other media, including baskets, ceramics, fiber and glass.
Over the past thirty years, their wood collection has grown to include outstanding museum quality pieces from artists nationally and around the world. With the belief that sharing their collection with the public is what gives it greater meaning, they recently donated 43 objects in wood to the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery. In addition, over the years, they have opened their home to give educational collection tours to many wood centered groups and those new to wood.
Jeffrey and Judith have each held the position of President of Collectors of Wood Art, Jeffrey from 2009–2010 and Judith from 2014–2016. Judith has also been a volunteer docent at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery since 2012.
Header Image: Mary Savig, Judith Chernoff, and Jeffrey Bernstein. Photo: Denise Kang
Fleur Bresler
Fleur Bresler is an international craft collector and patron of the arts. Bresler attended Mount Vernon Jr. College, Maryland University, and George Washington University. She was the recipient of the 2014 American Craft Council Aileen Osborn Webb Award for Philanthropy. With her first love being education, Bresler worked as a teacher, program director, and instructor. Bresler’s memories of collecting stretch back to her earliest days, from the barrettes and bobbles of her childhood to the internationally recognized craft art of today. Bresler’s collection encompasses all media. Her philanthropy goes beyond collecting, to preserving and promoting craft art and artists.
Jaime “Germs” Zacarias
Los Angeles native and Chicano artist Jaime “Germs” Zacarias blends futuristic visions with Chicano heritage. His vibrant paintings, filled with 3D characters and outlandish designs, capture the spirit of LA and Chicano history. Germs draws inspiration from Chicano art legend Gilbert “Magú” Luján, a founding member of Los Four, a pioneering Chicano art collective. One of Germs’ works pays homage to Magú. It features a playful scene with a blue dog cruising in a sleek, futuristic car, all entangled in purple tentacles. A closer look at Germs’ pop surrealist art reveals hidden messages – eyeballs, phones adorned with LA Dodgers logos, even the Virgin Mary – all woven into his vibrant canvases.
Frank Romero
Frank Romero is a dedicated participant in the Los Angeles arts community. He is a member of the 1970s Chicano art collective, Los Four, with fellow artists Carlos Almaraz, Beto de la Rocha and Gilbert Lujan. Through murals, publications and exhibitions, this group helped to define and increase awareness of La Raza. In 1974, Los Four held an historic exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It was the first Chicano art show at a major art institution. Romero was the first Chicano artist to exhibit at MOLAA. The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach. He had a retrospective in 2017 accompanied by a catalog, DREAMLAND. Romero created more than 15 murals in Los Angeles. He contributed “Going to the Olympics,” to the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival: a large-scale mural alongside of a bustling Los Angeles freeway.
Yolanda González
Yolanda González was born into a family whose artistic heritage dates back to 1877. She is a dynamic multidisciplinary expressionist artist known for her vibrant and emotive works that traverse various mediums, including painting, sculpture, ceramics and installation. Born and raised in Los Angeles, González draws from her rich Chicana heritage and personal experiences to create art that resonates with themes of unconventional beauty, identity and culture. In the span of 40 years as a professional artist, she has developed a unique style which combines bold colors, abstract forms, portraits and powerful narratives, making her a standout figure in the contemporary art scene. González has gained significant recognition for her ability to evoke deep emotional responses through her work, blending traditional and modern techniques to explore the complexities of the human condition. She believes that art is a way to connect people through emotion and dialogue.
Cheech Marin & the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture
Best known as one half of the hilariously irreverent, satirical, counter-culture, no-holds-barred duo Cheech and Chong, Cheech Marin is a paradox in the world of entertainment. Cheech is an actor, director, writer, musician, art collector, and humanitarian. Cheech (real name Richard) Marin was born in South Central Los Angeles. Cheech is recognized today as a preeminent Chicano art advocate. In the mid-1980s, he began developing what is now arguably the finest private collection of Chicano art. Furthering his goal to introduce Chicano art to a wider audience, Marin has entered a partnership with the City of Riverside and Riverside Art Museum to create The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture.
Sonny and Gloria Kamm
Los Angeles residents Sonny and Gloria Kamm have collected teapots for over 35 years. Their interest in teapots began as an adjunct to their collection of contemporary art and led to a passion that has resulted in the world’s largest and most comprehensive teapot collection. The Kamm Teapot Collection numbers over 17,000 items and runs the gamut from historical decorative arts to industrial design icons to unique works of contemporary art.
Sara Vance Waddell
Sara Vance Waddell has built a significant collection of artworks by women, people of color and artists in the LGBTQ community, including the quilts of Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi and Cynthia Lockhart. A media expert, she was brought in to work with the Cincinnati Museum of Art and that association changed her life. She is on the Brooklyn Museums Council For Feminist Art, is a member of the National Museum of Women in the Arts board of trustees and board president of the Carolee Schneemann Foundation.
Header Image: Sara Vance Wadell, Denise Kang Photo
Chris Maynard
Birds were always a part of Chris Maynard’s childhood. As a young person, he took refuge in the woods around his home in Washington State where, his head nestled in moss, he watched the birds up in the tall trees. He began working with feathers at age 12. Today, Maynard carves feathers into intricate art in order to make their natural beauty more noticeable. His work highlights the patterns and colors of the feathers themselves, inviting the viewer to look and look again. For him, feathers represent flight, transformation, and a bridge between our present lives and our dreams. He displays his work in shadow boxes, a signature art form he developed that enchants people around the world. Maynard works with feathers from turkeys, parrots, peacocks, and other birds and crafts them into scenes that are displayed in his world-renowned shadow boxes. A conservationist at heart, Maynard’s feathers are legally obtained. Many of the feathers are naturally shed which means that the birds they came from may still be alive today.
www.featherfolio.com
Lloyd Cotsen’s collections
Learn about Lloyd Cotsen‘s collections, which include Chinese bronze mirrors, textiles, folk art, and Japanese baskets. Lloyd Cotsen founded the Cotsen Children’s Library at Princeton University, which houses Cotsen’s vast collection of children’s books from around the world. Bonus video from the PLAY episode.
Archival courtesy of:
Cotsen Foundation for the Art of Teaching
Tom McCarthy/Museum of New Mexico
Bruce White Photography & Cahill, Suzanne and Lothar von Falkenhausen (ed.). Lloyd Cotsen Study Collection of Chinese Bronze Mirrors: Volume I: Catalogue; Volume II: Studies. Monumenta Archaeological 25. Los Angeles: Cotsen Occasional Press & Cotsen Institute of Archaeology (2012).
Openwork Flower basket, 1926–2000, by Maeda Chikubosai II (Japanese, 1917–2003). Bamboo (madake) and rattan, selected techniques: comb plaiting (thousand-line construction), square plaiting, circular plaited base (inside), chrysanthemum plaited base (variant; underside). Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Lloyd Cotsen Japanese Bamboo Basket Collection, 2006.3.34. © Estate of Maeda Chikubosai II. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
Museum of International Folk Art, Gift of Lloyd E. Cotsen and the Neutrogena Corporation, A.1995.93.1542, A.1995.93.2566, A.1995.93.358, A.1995.93.2547, A.1995.93.2510, A.1995.93.1359, A.1995.93.1102, A.1995.93.1305, A.1995.93.1696, A.1995.93.1800, A.1995.93.2603, A.1995.93.1568, A.1995.93.2321V, A.1995.93.2415V, A.1995.93.2326, A.1995.93.1181, A.1995.93.1160, A.1995.93.961, A.1995.93.374, A.1995.93.248, A.1995.93.409, A.1995.93.65, A.1995.93.254, A.1995.93.13.
Museum of International Folk Art, IFAF Collection, Gift of Julia Meech and Andrew Pekarik in honor of Nucy Meech, FA.1986.539.67.
Museum of International Folk Art, Gift of Susan & Robert Alder Baker, A.2002.48.2.
Museum of International Folk Art, gift of Harry Pieris, A.1955.47.4.
Museum of International Folk Art, IFAF Collection, FA.1955.6.2.
twistah/Pond5
Suspended flower basket, 1912–1947, by Yamashita Kochikusai (Japanese, 1876–1947). Bamboo (madake and smoked nemagari dake [hobichiku]) and rattan, selected techniques: compound lozenge plaiting (variant), twining, chrysanthemum base plaiting. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Lloyd Cotsen Japanese Bamboo Basket Collection, 2006.3.5. © Estate of Yamashita Kochikusai. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
Circles and Harmony (Wa to Wa), 1979, by Shiotsuki Juran (Japanese, 1948–2016). Bamboo (madake) and rattan, selected techniques: thousand-line construction, hexagonal plaiting. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Lloyd Cotsen Japanese Bamboo Basket Collection, 2006.3.498. © Estate of Shiotsuki Juran. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
Wave, approx. 1999, by Yamaguchi Ryuun (Japanese, b. 1940). Bamboo (madake) and rattan, selected techniques: thousand-line construction. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Lloyd Cotsen Japanese Bamboo Basket Collection, 2006.3.531. © Yamaguchi Ryuun. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
Flower basket, approx. 1935, by Kadota Niko (Japanese, 1907–1994). Bamboo (madake and moso chiku) and rattan, selected techniques: bamboo rhizome handle, unsplit bamboo culms, bamboo node base. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Lloyd Cotsen Japanese Bamboo Basket Collection, 2006.3.686. © Estate of Kadota Niko. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
Shimmering of Heated Air (Kagero), approx. 1969, by Shono Shounsai (Japanese, 1904–1974). Bamboo, rattan, and copper alloy. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Lloyd Cotsen Japanese Bamboo Basket Collection, 2006.3.836. © Shono Shounsai. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
Flower basket, approx. 1925–1975, by Yufu Shohaku (Japanese, b. 1941). Bamboo (madake), selected techniques: bamboo rope, unsplit bamboo culms, bamboo rhizome, irregular plaiting, bundled plaiting. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Lloyd Cotsen Japanese Bamboo Basket Collection, 2006.3.721. © Estate of Yufu Shohaku. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
Gere Kavanaugh
Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection T-1155, T-1132, T-0193.088, courtesy of the George Washington University Museum, Photography by Bruce M. White.