Year in Review 2020
Greetings to a hopeful new year of 2021!
Looking back at 2020, I wanted to take this time to thank all of you for your endless support and love throughout the pandemic. It was a rough year for all creatives across the globe, and the situation seems endless as all artist opportunities are backlogged by years.
Despite the lockdowns and cancellations of opportunities, I continued to produce and exhibit new work - both painting and fine art photography.
New work: Developing my ideas about fate and chance
I am so grateful to have started off 2020 at an artist residency at La Napoule in the South of France. I miss my days there painting in a quaint studio overlooking the sea, and my nights sleeping in a princess’s bedroom in a gothic-style French Chateau. I also miss the companionship and mentoring of the other artists in residence. A prolonged period of time stuck in the French Riviera was certainly a blessing for me, yet the pandemic was just starting.
I was deeply inspired by the scenery surrounding the Chateau, as well as readings from the spiritual texts from the Kabbalah, which was the primary influence for the oldest deck of tarot cards. From this, I have begun to create my own deck of hand-drawn Tarot cards as well as two photography series titled, “Isolation Portraits” and “Self-Reflections”. The photographic series have been exhibited by Gallery 1202 at the Hamptons Art Fair, the Artsy Virtual Solo Online Gallery and will be displayed on metal and acrylic in a physical show called “Looking back in 2020” at Gallery 1202 this coming February.
See Artwork from La Napoule Here
Two other artist residencies, at Lassen National Park in California and Montezuma National Monument in Arizona were unfortunately postponed because of the pandemic. But the wilderness is never far away in California! After returning to Los Angeles from France, I relocated to Mammoth Lakes to get away from the crowded city. There, I spent my days exploring and hiking, inspired by the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountainscapes. I produced small paintings and drawings that encompassed the spiritual elements of nature, reflecting back to my previous themes of fate, chance and self-reflection.
The time in Mammoth had an unfortunate impact on my painting. After a severe case of High Altitude Sickness mid-Summer left me with unresolved pulmonary hypertension, I had to re-learn how to paint with acrylics, since the fumes from oil paints were now detrimental to my health. My painting style transformed back to abstract techniques from a couple years back, and I found a new passion for this old way of painting. I felt more free, and was able to release expressions and emotions that I was withholding in the previous oil painting style.
Being in isolation has allowed my work to transform, from color palettes to stylistic brush strokes. I have had a number of commissions since September, including paintings for the recently renovated “Edition” hotel. I hope commissions keep coming and I am so thankful to everyone who has reached out in support, whether for a commission or just shared something of mine on the internet.
Additionally, I have been working hard since September on a new photography series called “Modern Mystics: Psychics of Los Angeles”. With this project, I aim to inform and inspire the audience about this spiritual form of therapy, while using interview snippets from the psychics to help describe their specific field of work. Any type of healing during this pandemic should be embraced, and I hope to give these small psychic businesses more clients during this tough time. The photography series is almost complete, and I will be making a book available for purchase through Gallery 1202, ending with a physical show of the work in 2021.
2020 started out well, with my Fairfax Royalty photography series being exhibited at the LA Art Fair with Gallery 1202. I was the artist-in-residence at a luxury streetwear fashion store in Beverly Hills called Zensai, where I displayed paintings and customized fashion pieces with my own artwork. My solo painting show, called “Playing with Fate”, is still hanging at the Whitney Library in Las Vegas. After being closed for a month, it is now back open to the public until January 24th. I received some wonderful press from the show:
I am so thankful to those who have purchased work from this collection.
I also held a number of pop-up shows in West Hollywood to display work that was supposed to be at the cancelled shows and art fairs.
In 2020, I was featured in a few artist interviews, with one of my favorites from an International Art Magazine called “Burnt Orange City”. You can see the interview here: https://burntorangecity.com/2020/10/25/rachel-berkowitz-a-spiritual-journey/
What’s next?
Currently, I am spending my days painting new work as well as commissions, and searching for new psychics to photograph whilst doing fashion photoshoots for various companies. I am looking forward to the artist residencies at Lassen Volcanic National Park and at Montezuma National Monument later this year. I hope to keep you all informed when new opportunities arise this 2021.
Most importantly, I hope to see you in person in 2021!