Rebecca Haseltine

My work is an experiment in translation: from the somatic experience of being in a body into something that we can see. So my work isn’t image-based, nor is it idea-driven exactly, but it leaves marks that make an image, and it causes me, and hopefully others, to think. So it’s kind of backwards-conceptual. The work is inquiry-based, which means that I really don’t know what I’m going to end up with.

Our brains and our hands are designed for communication, and art is a direct, if not linear, form of communication. My questions are existential: what is it to be human? And my source is concrete: the stuff of the body. Where this leads is out into nature, which is the larger body. And it also leads back into our species history, our anthropological development. It also leads into the spaces between the structures, which leads back out into the universe.

Building: 101 - Studio: 2118

Phone: 415-385-2233

Email: info@rebeccahaseltine.com

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Artist Bio

I was a hyperactive kid running around climbing trees, swinging on monkey bars and tumbling over the couch. I drew pretty much constantly, designing clothes and shoes until 6^th grade. In high school I swam competitively and made my own clothes. In college I studied everything I could get my hands on and settled on a special major including dance, art, science and education. That is still my focus. My art career has always been paralleled by my work in Somatics, which is the study of the body as a living phenomenon. I was a professional dancer for years before I began moving on huge pieces of paper, drawing with both hands, creating what I called kinetic drawings. My studies in Body-Mind Centering began around the same time I got my first art studio on the Hunters Point Shipyard in San Francisco, so the dance between embodied physiology and drawing began in earnest.

From 2004 – 2007 I worked on an extended series of projects inspired by estuaries. I explored by boat and on foot, worked with salt water, mud, and sand in my pieces, and began to develop my long term fascination with water as an art material. I did a series of estuary installations and began creating kinetic sculpture, returning to my movement roots.

The ‘pourings’ – using water and ink on mylar -- have continued to dominate my work in the last 15 years. The nature of water is the crucial element in our cellular biology, and in all other living forms. Water can change into 4 distinct structures: ice, fluid, vapor, and a gel state – the latter is what makes cellular-based physiology possible. Nothing in the body happens without fluid in its liquid or gel forms.

In my work, water creates uncontrollable shapes, and my control over the material is immaterial. This is what I am after: some raw remnant of the nature of being. The drawn marks in my work are often either with both hands and/ or eyes closed, or I’m following movement. The question of language – the language of life, the language of movement – is a subtext in the work.

I’ve been on the Shipyard for over 30 years, where the water in the Bay and the light over the water have seeped into my work and into my brain, changing both.

Exhibitions

Solo Shows

2020-21 Nido Living, San Francisco, CA

2019 MiXX Atelier, Shift, solo show, Telluride, CO

2017 Think Round, Inc, The Body is Not a Figure, solo show, SF, CA

2015 San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art solo show, San Jose, CA

2014 Hardin Studios Ground Water, Solo show, SF, CA

Radio Africa Estuary Phase II and IV, Solo show, SF, CA

Spirit Unfolding, solo show, Santa Fe, NM

1996 Sight and Insight Gallery Curated solo show; Mill Valley, CA

1870 Art Center solo show; Belmont, CA

1994 Hampshire College Main Gallery Solo show; Amherst, MA

1992 Footwork Gallery Bone Work Solo show; San Francisco, CA

Collaborative Installations

2019 MiXX Atelier; Art and Achitecture Expo, Telluride, CO

2018 Adobe Books Gallery Storybody; Mixed Media installation with Belle Beuti and Claire Frost, San Francisco, CA

2007 Hunters Point Shipyard Mud and Tides: Estuary / Phase V; Mixed media installation, collaboration with Cheryl E. Leonard, composer; San Francisco, CA

2006 Gallery Route One Estuary / Phase III; Collaborative installation with composer Joan Jeanrenaud, and filmmaker Barbara Klutinis; Point Reyes, CA

2005 Crissy Field Center Estuary / Phase II; Collaborative installation, with filmmaker Barbara Klutinis; San Francisco, CA

2004 Hunters Point Shipyard Estuary / Phase I Collaborative installation with composer Joan Jeanrenaud and filmmaker Barbara Klutinis; San Francisco, CA

Collaborative Performances

2018 BodyCartography at SFMOMA, Action Movie, San Francisco, CA

2015 Re:Sound Sun, collaboration with Cheryl Leonard, Mare Island, Vallejo

2015 Shapeshifters Cinema, collaboration with Cheryl Leonard, Temescal Art Center, Oakland

2014 Erasure, KJ Holmes and Co., Governor’s Island, NY, NY

2009 Illuminated Corridor Shallow Tide; Commissioned piece for outdoor public art event; in collaboration with composer Cheryl E. Leonard; Oakland, CA

Curated Shows

2022 Abrams Claghorn: Shimmer Curated group show, Albany, CA

2022 Nido Living Curated group show, San Francisco, CA

2020 Nido Living Curated group show, San Francisco, CA

2020 Abrams Claghorn: Northern California Women’s Caucus for the Arts; The Ground Upon Which We Stand, Curated group show, Albany, CA

2017 Barba Contemporary Art Inaugural Group Show; Palm Springs, CA

New Museum of Los Gatos: Waterlines, video with Cheryl Leonard’s music; Los Gatos, CA

2015 American Steel Bay Area Abstract Curated group show, Oakland, CA

2014 Dogpatch Gallery Curated group show, SF, CA

Mountain Sage Standing with the Watershed Curated group show Groveland, CA

Sherwood Gallery Standing with the Watershed Curated group show SF, CA

2013 Wire Monkey Dance Theater Knew Werk Curated set for performance piece,

Hadley, MA

Three Girls Theater Peeling Back the Layers Curated group show; SF, CA

2011 Thick House Gallery Compost; Curated group show; San Francisco, CA

2009 Art at the Cheese Factory Shaping Matter; Curated work for outdoor space; Petaluma

Metropolitan Transportation Commission Fluid Transport; Curated show; Oakland

2008 Thoreau Center Gallery The Water Project; Curated group show; SF, CA

a.Muse Gallery Water, the Essence of Life;; Curated group show; SF, CA

2005 UN World Environment Day/ Natural World Museum Estuary Excerpts; Curated show; San Francisco, CA

2003 Michael Martin Gallery Curated show; San Francisco, CA

Rogue Gallery Curated three-person show; Medford, OR

2002 Michael Martin Gallery Curated show; San Francisco, CA

Shibume Curated show; San Francisco, CA

Theater Artaud Curated two-person show; San Francisco, CA

2001 Build Curated Curated three-person show; San Francisco; CA

2000 Somarts Gallery Curated show; San Francisco, CA

1999 Pence Gallery Curated two-person show; Davis, CA

University of the Pacific Curated three-person show; Stockton, CA

1990 Art Store Gallery Curated two-person show; Oakland, CA

Juried Shows

2004 Artiade, the Olympics of Visual Art Juried international exhibition; Athens, Greece

2001 SFSU Gallery Juried show; San Francisco, CA

1998 ArtSpan Selections Juried Show, Academy of Art College Gallery; San Francisco, CA

1995 ArtReach Juried show; San Francisco, CA

Gallery Route One Juried Show; Pt. Reyes Station, CA

Caged Camelian Juried show; Los Angeles, CA

1994 Gallery Route One Juried show; Pt. Reyes Station, CA

Awards

Awards, Publications and Documentation

2021 Bay Area Women Artists' Legacy Project: The 70's Our second book.

2020 Bay Area Women Artists’ Legacy Project Book of 29 local women artsts.

2018 KH Messen, Art Residency with collaborator Cheryl Leonard in Alvik, Norway

2017 Center for Cultural Innovation, Quick Grant for Individual Artists

2007 – 2010 Drawing Center Online Viewing Program

2009 Shipyard Artists, Honored Artist by peer review

2008 East Bay Community Fund, Artist grant for Illuminated Corridor project

Illuminated Corridor, Commission for Oakland Inner Harbor Park project

2007 Robert M. MacNamara Foundation, Art Residency

2001 – 2007 Drawing Center Slide Registry

2005 Standing with Trees, by Karin Spitfire; illustrations for book of poetry

2002 Pollack-Krasner Foundation, Grant to Individual Artist

2001 Ashes to Ashes... the Art of Rebecca Haseltine, Documentary video by Barbara Klutinis

Currents, a Journal of the Body-Mind Centering Association, Cover Art

2000 Currents, a Journal of the Body-Mind Centering Association, Cover Art

1999 Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, Grant to Individual Artist

1995 ACCI Gallery, Best of Show

1992 Cummington Community of the Arts, Art Residency

click an image below to see a larger view

Rebecca Haseltine "Living in the Ground #1 36"X55" ink on mylar

Rebecca Haseltine "Living in the Ground #4 36"X55" ink on mylar

Rebecca Haseltine "Living in the Ground #6 36"X55" ink on mylar

Rebecca Haseltine "Range Red #3" 24"X60" 2017

Rebecca Haseltine "Sluice #8" 24"X66" 2017

Rebecca Haseltine "Upwell #4" 36"x48" 2018

Rebecca Haseltine "Shift #1" 24"X65" Ink on Mylar 2018

Rebecca Haseltine "Upwell #3" 36"X48" Ink on Mylar

Rebecca Haseltine "Understory #11" 63"X24" Mixed Media on Mylar 2015

Rebecca Haseltine "Bend #5" 22"X42" 2016

Rebecca Haseltine "Bend #6" 22"X42" 2016

Rebecca Haseltine "Glial #3" 31"X49" Ink on Mylar 2016

Rebecca Haseltine "Glial #5" 32"X50" Ink on Mylar 2016

Rebecca Haseltine "Sluice #7" 30"X42" Ink on Mylar 2017

Rebecca Haseltine "Conjure #5" 55"X36" 2019

Rebecca Haseltine "Conjure #3" 55"X36" Ink on Mylar 2019 (Currently in D.C.)

Rebecca Haseltine "Glial #2" 31"X51" 2016

Rebecca Haseltine "Coalesce 6" 64"X37" 2020

Rebecca Haseltine "Coalesce 3" 64"X36" 2020

Rebecca Haseltine "Coalesce 5" 64"X36" 2020

Rebecca Haseltine "Coalesce 4" 64"X36" 2020

Rebecca Haseltine Sluice #4 65"X24" Ink on Mylar

Rebecca Haseltine "Understory #10" 63"X24" Mixed Media on Mylar 2015 (Currently on display at Nido in SF)

Rebecca Haseltine Sluice #5 65"X24" Ink on Mylar

Rebecca Haseltine

Shipyard Trust for the Arts

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Shipyard Trust for the Arts

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