Who Is She?—Terry Braunstein

Named after Long Beach artist Terry Braunstein’s eponymous 2013 installation, Who Is She?—Terry Braunstein presents for the first time her original collage work, exhibited to date mostly in photographical reproductions. The exhibition highlights the artist’s process of culling and clipping, selecting and fusing what is separate and incongruous, the show lays bare the roots of Braunstein’s art, which include early 20th century European modernism and mid-century American assemblage. It also conveys a new appreciation for her exquisitely skillful and delicate technique in an age of easy digital manipulation. Additionally, the exhibition features original copies of Braunstein’s celebrated artists books, new assemblage sculptures, as well as models and photographic prints created in conjunction with the dance set Who Is She?

Curated by Claudia Bohn-Spector and Sam Mellon, the exhibition will feature nearly 100 pieces and it is her first major museum career-spanning retrospective. It will also feature a small catalogue with essays by Bohn-Spector and by writer/poet Tosh Berman, and published by the Long Beach Museum of Art and Thistle & Weed Press. In her near forty-year career, Braunstein has engaged a breathtaking array of artistic media and settings—photography, painting, mosaic, printmaking, stone, steel, brass, public art, performance, site-specific sculpture, and even video—revealing layers of hidden meaning beneath the seemingly mundane and obvious. Engaging and provocative, with deep roots in the art of Surrealism, Braunstein examines life’s passages and other human experiences by creating a compelling visual syntax that is dreamlike, paradoxical, and highly poetic.