MARCIE JAN BRONSTEIN
  • HOME
  • CERAMICS
    • LOCARNO
    • TENEREZZA
    • PLAY DATE
    • TRAVELER
    • EARTHSCAPES
    • SEASONS
    • ARTIFACTS
    • NEW DAY
    • MARRIAGE
    • CONCENTRIC
    • MY PROCESS
  • PAINTINGS
    • IMPERMANENCE . 2020-21
    • STILL POINT . 2021
    • KARMA / CHOICE . 2020
    • BEGINNER'S MIND . 2019-20
    • OASIS . 2019
    • MOURNING, MORNING . 2019
    • SEEKING, FINDING . 2018-19
    • FOLLOWING SEAS . 2014-18
    • CIRCUMNAVIGATING . 2018
    • COMMITMENT . 2017
    • TRAVELING HOME . 2017
    • PRIMAL SEA . 2017
    • LOVE . 2015-16
    • ODE TO BELFAST . 2015
    • SWIMMING . 2014-15
  • NEWS
  • ABOUT
    • BIO / CV
    • JOURNALS
    • PUBLICATIONS
  • CONTACT
Art (making, studying, traveling-to-see, teaching) has been at the center of my life for more than thirty years. After all of this time, what fascinates and compels me hasn't really changed. I make art to slow down and take a deep breath, to try to see the world more clearly and to find what's beautiful. 

A graduate of The Fashion Institute of Technology and Hampshire College, my work has been exhibited, published, and commissioned for three decades. I'm the author of three books and the creator of a number of large-scale public works. Early exhibitions of note: An invitational, 5 woman show in Milan, Foto Colorate, curated by Lanfranco Colombo (1994); solo exhibition at Casa Italiana in New York (1994); solo exhibition at Creative Photographic Arts in Maine (1997); Parallax Women's Photography (invitational 2012); New England Biennial (invitational 2013); Flash Forward Photo Festival (invitational 2014)
.

From 2011-2014, I was the lead art educator at the Center For Maine Contemporary Art, and the creator of the ArtLab For All Ages program. An insatiable traveler with a great love for the sea, in 2014 I began working for Celebrity Cruises, designing itinerary-based projects to teach creative watercolor painting aboard the ships. I spent five years traveling the world, painting and teaching all along the way. Traveling -especially by sea, crossing oceans, moving from port to port- has been a great joy, an education, and a constant source of inspiration.  

In 2018, my paintings were selected for the Biennial at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, and I was awarded a residency at the Millay Colony of the Arts. In 2020, a solo exhibition of paintings was on view at the Zillman Art Museum, accompanied by a 58 page catalog. In 2021, my work was featured in a three person watercolor exhibition at Cove Street Arts in Portland, Maine. 

In 2021 during the pandemic, (and after 30 years of making mostly two dimensional work) I turned toward ceramics full-time*. This sea change was the alchemical gift I had been searching for. 
I worked intuitively, immediately, as if in a trance. My first pieces came out of the kiln as fully formed extensions of all of my previous work, especially my paintings. The first works I glazed were painterly and animated. It felt (and continues to feel) like an easy love affair. My interest is in making pieces that can be held by human hands, works that are both sculptural and potentially useful. I love making vessels. I love making sensual, tactile work that creates intimacy, where marks of making are visible. My ceramics, like my watercolors, are process-driven, created in the spirit of play and discovery. 

In the summer of 2022, I was selected for the Material Intersections residency at the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, to explore "painterly approaches to working with clay." In the winter of 2023, I was in residence at Momento Ceramics in Locarno, Switzerland, continuing to focus on my series Tenerezza.

My ceramic work can be found at Gallery B in Castine, Maine, the Center For Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland, Maine, and Carver Hill Gallery in Camden, Maine. 

*I'm grateful for the Belfast Clay Studio.

MARCIE JAN BRONSTEIN  .  Belfast, Maine USA 

EDUCATION
1992    Lorenzo de Medici: Diploma Magister Linguae: Italian language, Florence, Italy  
1988    Hampshire College: BFA, Amherst, MA
1986    Fashion Institute of Technology: AAS, Magna Cum Laude, New York, NY

 
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2023     Maine Jewish Museum: Play Date, Portland, ME 
 (2 person)
2022    Thrown Contemporary: Winter Exhibition, London UK  (invitational)
               Carver Hill Gallery: Winterlude, Camden, ME  (invitational)
​               Gallery B: Breaking Bread and SWS22, Castine, ME  (invitational)
               Penobscot Marine Museum: Penobscot Bay as Muse, Searsport, ME  (invitational)

2021   ​ Cove Street Arts: Eaux the Water, Portland, ME  (3 person show)
              Clifford Gallery, Waterfall Arts: Photographing Belfast's Waterfront, Belfast, ME  (invitational)
2020    Zillman Art Museum: Being Here, Bangor, ME  (solo)

2018    Center for Maine Contemporary Art: Biennial Exhibition, Rockland, ME  (juried)
2017    The Annex Art Center, Castine, ME  (invitational) 

2014    Photographic Resource Center: Flash Forward Festival, Boston, MA (invitational) 
               Slocumb Gallery: Positive/Negative: Pages, Johnson City, TN  (juried) 
2013    New England Photography Biennial,Framingham, MA  (invitational) 
               Aarhus Gallery: Infinite Horizons, Belfast, ME  (invitational)  
2012    Parallax, The Women’s Photography Exhibition , Notre Dame U, MD  (invitational) 
2009    ME Museum of Photographic Art: Capture: 50 Photographic Artists, Falmouth, ME    
2007    Center for Maine Contemporary Art: Altered Nature, Rockport, ME 
 (invitational)
              Elan Fine Arts: gallery artist, Rockport, ME 
2006    Photomedia Center: Illuminating the Negative, Erie, PA  (solo)

2005    Elan Fine Arts: gallery artist, Rockport, ME 
              Blum Gallery, College of the Atlantic: Portrait/Self Portrait , Bar Harbor, ME 
(juried)
              Center for Maine Contemporary Art: Winter in Maine, Rockport, ME  (juried)
2002    Center for Maine Contemporary Art: Plugged In, Rockport, ME  (juried)
2002    Elements Gallery: gallery artist, Rockland, ME
2001    LSU: Works On Paper 2001, Baton Rouge, LA  (prize Winner- juried)
1999    Elements Gallery: The Doll Series, Rockland, ME  (solo)
               Elements Gallery: Dogs In Cars, Rockland, ME  (solo)
               Maine Coast Artists: After Dark, Rockport, ME
              The Frankfurt Airport: First Designer’s Avenue, Frankfurt, Germany

1997    Creative Photographic Arts Center: Photographs 1992-1997, Lewiston, ME  (solo)
              A.I.R. Gallery Invitational: Generations , New York, NY
              Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen, Hamilton: Emerging Artists, New York, NY
  (2 person)
1996    Sylvia White Gallery:  The Horse Show ,  Los Angeles, CA (juried)
              Danforth Gallery: Visions of the Mind,  Portland, ME  (juried)
1995    Gallery 2/20:  Work in Progress, New York, NY 
1994    Casa Italiana/NYU :The Italian Series , NYC,NY (solo)
               Galleria Il Diaframma/ Kodak Cultura : Foto Colorate, Milan, Italy  (5 person)
1993    Nuova Libreria Galileo & Studio Poletto, Mestre, Italy  (solo)
​1992    Artemare 1992:  L’uomo e il Mare, Riposto, Italy
1990    Michael Thompson Gallery, San Francisco, CA

              UC Medical Center, San Francisco, CA
1987    Hampshire College, Amherst, MA  (solo)

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2021     Portland Press Herald: exhibition review, Portland, ME
                Working Waterfront, Island Institute: feature article, August, Rockport, ME

                Maine Arts Journal: feature essay and paintings, Summer
2020     Being Here: Marcie Jan Bronstein, Watercolor Paintings, catalog, Zillman Art Museum
2019    ArtMaze ​Contemporary Art: featured artist, Summer, Issue 13
2018    Decor Maine: featured artist

              Your Impossible Voice ​Literary Journal: cover painting, Winter Issue
2017    Portland Press Herald: feature article, Portland, ME

              Yale University, Perch Arts & Literary Journal: 2 paintings, New Haven, CT
              New England Review: cover painting, Middlebury, VT
              Maine Home and Design: Maine Artists To Watch, Portland, ME

              Princeton Art Brushes: Artist Spotlight         
2016    Art Revealed Magazine: portfolio and interview, London, UK
2015    After The Pause Poetry Journal: featured portfolio of paintings     

2008    The Maine Sunday Telegram: featured author, Portland, ME
2004    Exploring Color Photography: feature • McGraw Hill Publishers, New York, NY
2003    Non Satis Scire: Hampshire College Magazine: cover + portfolio feature, Amherst, MA
2001    Object Lessons: Beauty and Meaning in Art, Madison, WI
1998    The Free Press: Two Artists in a Barn..., Rockland, ME
1997    The Maine Sunday Telegram: review of solo exhibition, Portland, ME
1994    Creativity:  And then there was NON..., New York, NY
               ZOOM:  Al Diaframma, Milan, Italy
1993    Il Gazzetino: Un’americana che dipinge le foto (review), Venice, Italy
               Il Gazzetino: Musica & fotografia (review), Mestre, Italy 
               Progresso Fotografico (portfolio), Milan, Italy 
1992    La Nazione, Florence, Italy


PUBLIC ART / COMMISSIONS / GRANTS 
2021     Our Town Belfast/ME Community Foundation: Crosswalk Design: Flow To The Sea, Belfast, ME

2005    Bellevue Hospital: 250 photographs for new hospital wing, New York, NY
2005    ME Arts Commission: Good Idea Grant, Augusta, Maine
2004    Public Percent-for-Art Program: 30’ x 15’ installation, Belfast, ME
2002    Public Percent-for-Art Program: 24 works, Denver, CO
1994    Saks Fifth Avenue: art in Fifth Avenue windows, New York, NY
1990    Neiman Marcus: art in windows, San Francisco, CA

RESIDENCIES
​2023     Momento Ceramics, Locarno, Switzerland
2022     Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Newcastle, ME

2018    Millay Colony, (Full Fellowship), Austerlitz, NY

1986    Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY
1985    Vermont Studio School, Johnson, VT










​Since 1996, I've lived and worked
in this 180 year old converted barn,
​with my studio on the ground floor.


Picture








MARCIE JAN BRONSTEIN © 2023
  • HOME
  • CERAMICS
    • LOCARNO
    • TENEREZZA
    • PLAY DATE
    • TRAVELER
    • EARTHSCAPES
    • SEASONS
    • ARTIFACTS
    • NEW DAY
    • MARRIAGE
    • CONCENTRIC
    • MY PROCESS
  • PAINTINGS
    • IMPERMANENCE . 2020-21
    • STILL POINT . 2021
    • KARMA / CHOICE . 2020
    • BEGINNER'S MIND . 2019-20
    • OASIS . 2019
    • MOURNING, MORNING . 2019
    • SEEKING, FINDING . 2018-19
    • FOLLOWING SEAS . 2014-18
    • CIRCUMNAVIGATING . 2018
    • COMMITMENT . 2017
    • TRAVELING HOME . 2017
    • PRIMAL SEA . 2017
    • LOVE . 2015-16
    • ODE TO BELFAST . 2015
    • SWIMMING . 2014-15
  • NEWS
  • ABOUT
    • BIO / CV
    • JOURNALS
    • PUBLICATIONS
  • CONTACT