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Below are thumbnail biographies of many of the artists
who have worked on Artmakers projects over the years. Photographs
of representative work of each artist will appear on the web site
at a later date.
RIKKI ASHER
A muralist since 1984, Rikki Asher painted with Artmakers co-founder
Eva Cockroft on La Lucha Continua murals: the collective
wall and her individual wall, For the Women of South Africa,
Central America and the Lower East Side. In 1984 and 1985, Ashers
painted murals in Nicaragua through Arts for a New Nicaragua, and
she has painted murals in Seattle (WA) and throughout New York City.
A principal artist on When Women Pursue Justice, she painted
the portrait of Margaret Sanger. An art teacher in New York City
for 18 years, Asher is the Director of Art Education at Queens College.She
holds an MFA in painting from CUNY Lehman College and a doctorate
in Art Education from Columbia University’s Teachers College. Asher
is also a print maker and has worked as a teaching artist at Lincoln
Center Institute.
KARIN BATTEN
Born in Hamburg, Germany, Karin Batten studied painting and sculpture
at Central School and St. Martins in London and received her MFA
from CUNY Hunter College. Batten has shown extensively in the United
States and Europe, and her work is in many permanent collections
including Pfizer, Inc., the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and
NYC’s Hotel Millennium. She has received grants for public art from
the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority and the New York
State Council on the Arts. Most
recently she was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Grant and an Artists'
Fellowship in Painting from the New York Foundation for the Arts.
Batten has participated in many Artmakers projects including
La Lucha Continua (on the collective mural and an individual wall),
The Changing Face of Soho, Stars of the Bronx (James
Baldwin panel) and La Lucha Continua: Homage to Eva. In 1993,
she painted Jungle, a mural Door for Children's Underground
Day Care Center in Manhattan.
LESLIE BENDER
A co-founder of Artmakers, Leslie Bender has been creating art for
30 years, since graduating college. Her work includes figures and
abstraction, and expresses mighty amounts of movement. The paintings
involve the many aspects of humanity, often mythical. She uses the
themes of circus, restaurant and the beach for these pieces. She
has painted murals since 1979 for government programs, public places,
and private commissions. Her website is http://www.lesliebender.com/
LEOLA BERMANZOHN
Leola Bermanzohn has painted murals in San Francisco and in four
of NYC’s five boroughs. She won her first commission at the age
of 24 – Sister Outsider, a 12’ x 36' history of women warriors
in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. The mural is featured in reggae artist
Sizzla Kalonji's new music video. A principal artist on When
Women Pursue Justice, Bermanzohn painted the portrait of Emma
Goldman. She received her BA in painting from Hunter College in
2001 and has exhibited and sold work since 1999. Self-taught in
portraiture, Bermanzohn uses observation and a discerning eye to
develop her dynamic style of recording people’s expressions. She
has worked as a teaching artist for Henry Street Settlement and
freelances as a designer and muralist.
THERESE BIMKA
A former member of Artmakers’ board, Therese Bimka participated
as artist and fundraiser for La Lucha Continua (working on
the collective mural and painting an individual wall) and The
Changing Face of Soho (ceramic mural). During this time, she
pursued a Masters Degree in mural art history and worked with Eva
Cockcroft, one of her several mentors. A LCSW, Bimka is currently
a psychotherapist in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Working with children
and adults, she utilizes the arts and symbolic imagery as healing
modalities, alongside verbal psychotherapy and Jungian Sandplay
Therapy. She continues to play with her own artwork in the studio
she shares with her 7 year old son. Her website is http://www.theresebimka.com/
JANET BRAUN-REINITZ
The current president of Artmakers and the designer
and lead artist for When Women Pursue Justice, Janet Braun-Reinitz
has painted more than 50 community murals, primarily in New York
City. She has also painted murals in Savannah, Pensacola and Greenfield
(MA) as well as Azerbaijan, England, Georgia and Nicaragua, and
has exhibited her studio work nationally. From 1988 to 2003, Braun-Reinitz
painted 12 murals with the United Community Centers in East New
York, Brooklyn. In 2004, she traveled to San Francisco’s Balmy Alley
to paint Things Fall Apart about HIV/AIDS in Africa. For
the 2001 Freedom Riders reunion (Jackson, MS), Braun-Reinitz painted
a traveling “signature” banner, and she is featured in the documentary
film Freedom Riders: The Children Shall Lead. Braun-Reinitz
is co-author, with Rochelle Shicoff, of The Mural Book: A Practical
Guide for Educators (Crystal Productions, 2001).She is co-author,
with Jane Weissman, of Community Consensus and the Protest Mural
(Public Art Review, Fall 2005) and the forthcoming cultural history
On the Wall: Four Decades of Community Murals in New York City
(University Press of Mississippi, Fall 2007).
DINA BURSZTYN
A member of Artmakers’ board, Dina Bursztyn makes sculptures, works
on paper, artist's books and public art. Her work has been commissioned
by the Public Art Fund, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs’ Percent
for Art Program, and the Metropolitan Transit Authority. She has
participated in La Lucha Continua and The Changing Face
of Soho (ceramic mural) and has produced artwork for the streets
of New York City such as Gargoyles to Scare Developers. Bursztyn
has participated in numerous solo and group shows locally as well
as abroad. She is co-owner of Open Studio, an art gallery in Catskill,
NY. Her web site www.potatospirit.com/
EVA COCKCROFT
Muralist, painter, arts activist, writer and educator, Eva Cockcroft
was co-founder of Artmakers Inc. and its executive director until
she moved to California in 1989. Cockcroft directed the 26-mural
cycle La Lucha Continua/The Struggle Continues in 1985, also
directing the large collective mural and painting, with Joe Stephenson,
one of the smaller walls. Cockcroft earned a reputation as a prominent
visual artist during the activist era of the late 1960s, and her
large-scale murals in New York, New Jersey, California, Germany
and Nicaragua reflected her commitment to human rights. Cockcroft
was an organizer of Artists Call Against U.S. Intervention in Central
America, was active in Art Against Apartheid, and participated in
numerous stencil and billboard projects with political and community
themes. Homage to Sigueiros, her last mural prior to her
untimely death in 1999, was a reconstruction in Los Angeles of David
Sigueiros’ lost mural America Tropical, whitewashed in 1938.
Cockcroft widely exhibited her studio work and the book Towards
a People’s Art: The Contemporary Mural Movement (1977, reissued
1998), which she co-authored with James Cockcroft and John Pitman
Weber, remains a seminal analysis of the movement’s early years.
CATHARINA COSIN
Catharina Cosin painted her first mural in 1979 for the State College
of Educators in Berlin, Germany. In New York, she joined Artmakers
in 1986 and collaborated on The Changing Face of Soho and
Stars of the Bronx (Duke Ellington). She designed and directed
Artmakers' MAAD mural Don't Drink and Drive. Most recently,
in 2002, she completed a series of large scale indoor wall drawings
for the Santa Fe Art Institute. Cosin holds an MFA in painting and
art education. She has shown her work extensively here and abroad
and is currently teaching at The New School University/Parsons School
of Design.
MARIA DOMINGUEZ
A co-founder of Artmakers, Maria Dominguez created her first murals
for Cityarts Workshop in the early 1980s. Her participation in La
Lucha Continua led to her directing the independent collaboration
Peace in Paradise and an award-winning career of public art,
community murals and private commissions. It is through a series
of dialogues, ideas and photographic images that her efforts capture
the true spirit of the chosen community. In 2002, Dominguez was
commissioned by the Metropolitan Transit Authority Arts in Transit
program to create El-Views for the Chauncey Street station
(J/Z lines). Rendered in stained glass, the series of 16 paintings
depicts the local community – its residents and its vitality – and
in 2003 it received an Excellence in Design award from NYC’s Municipal
Art Society. Dominguez also works as a teaching artist and has exhibited
widely. A principal artist on When Women Pursue Justice,
Dominguez painted the portrait of Dolores Huerta. Her web site is
www.mariadominguez.com/.
WONG DOWLING
A member of Artmakers’ board, Wong Dowling has worked as a muralist
since the age 15. He was an intern on Artmaker’s Dream on Jerome,
an assistant/collaborator on the East New York Women’s Wall
and as an artist on La Lucha Continua: Homage to Eva. He
has also painted murals with Groundswell Community Mural Project
and independently for community based organizations.
A freelance artist specializing in portraits, Dowling teaches
art in Brooklyn and regularly shows his work in New York galleries.
He has created two on-going comic series, The Misadventures of
the ‘3’ Train and Chronicles of a Hip Hop Legend. His
work can be seen on http://www.2sides1nation.com/
NOAH JEMISIN
A member of Artmakers board, Noah Jemisin has participated in many
Artmakers projects: La Lucha Continua, Stars of the Bronx
(as project director), Venceremos and Don’t Drink and
Drive. Jemisin is a teaching artist in NYC’s public schools
and, most recently, he worked with El Puente Muralistas, painting
El Puente Leadership Mural Against Violence in Bushwick,
Brooklyn. For the past dozen years, Jemisin has been working on
a series of large paintings that convey his impressions of the world’s
situation and the human condition at the end of the twentieth century.
The paintings are informed by his travels to Europe, North Africa
and the West Indies. The project will continue into the foreseeable
future with trips planned to China, Scandinavia and the Middle East.
LADY PINK
Born in Ecuador and raised in NYC, Lady Pink started writing graffiti
at the age of 15 and was soon known as the only female capable of
competing with the boys in the graffiti subculture. Painting subway
trains from 1979 to 1985, Pink became a cult figure in the hip-hop
subculture with the release of the 1982 independent film Wild
Style in which she had a starring role. Today, she is a community
activist, creating grand scale murals throughout the city, holding
mural workshops with students, and encouraging artists to donate
public art in culturally neglected communities. Pink lectures in
universities throughout the United States and has exhibited nationally
and internationally. Her graffiti-based art is in the collections
of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum, Brooklyn Museum,
Museum of the City of New York and Groningen Museum (Holland). Lady
Pink often collaborates with her husband Smith; they are one of
the few professional mural teams to arise from the graffiti subculture.
A principal artist on When Women Pursue Justice, Pink spray
painted the portrait of Alice Paul. Her web site is http://www.pinksmith.com/
NINA C. LASKY
Nina Lasky is Assistant Principal of Art and Fashion Design at the
High School of Fashion Industries, supervisor of the NYC Department
of Education Adult Learning School, and executive board member of
the School Art League. An illustrator, Lasky was visual director
of the Blue Note Jazz Club and French Connection Clothing Company.
Her work has been exhibited at the Washington Square Outdoor Art
Exhibit, Teachers College, International Center of Photography,
cafes and alternative spaces. A principal artist on When Women
Pursue Justice, Lasky painted the portrait of Angela Davis.
She also coordinated the mural's five paid interns, students at
Fashion where she has created murals with teenaged students for
nine years. Lasky has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Parsons
School of Design and a MA degree in art and art education from Teachers
College, Columbia University, where she is currently a Doctoral
candidate.
LUCY MAHLER
Creator of Let a People, Loving Freedom, Come to Growth (1973),
Lucy Mahler was a principal artist on When Women Pursue Justice
and painted the portrait of Audre Lorde.
CAMILLE PERROTTET
A member of Artmakers’ board, Camille Perrottet is a muralist and
painter who has widely exhibited nationally and abroad. From 1983-91,
Perrottet collaborated on several Artmakers projects in Brooklyn,
Bronx, Manhattan and Queens including La Lucha Continue (collective
mural and her individual wall Freedom, Equality, Solidarity).
In 1984 she painted The Wild Animals, a series of large paintings
commissioned by Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn. Living in the
Basque region of France (1992-95), Perrottet worked with Abbadiako
Adixkideak, an organization dedicated to cultural and environmental
projects, directing several mural projects with grants More recently,
she participated in Artmakers’ La
Lucha Continua: Homage to Eva and When Women Pursue Justice.
KRISTI PFISTER
Kristi Pfister has received numerous grants and commissions to create
public murals and mosaics. Some of her funders include, New York
State Council on the Arts, NYC Department of Parks and Recreation,
the Percent for Art Program, Metropolitan Transit Authority Arts
for Transit, NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation and GreenThumb/Artists
in the Gardens. Her public work can be seen on walls in Coney Island,
at the Children's Museum at Snug Harbor, the Staten Island Zoo and
many public schools. A principal artist on When Women Pursue
Justice, Pfister painted the portrait of Dorothy Day and the
face of Shirley Chisholm. She is an art educator in NYC’s public
schools and an experienced facilitator of children's murals and
mosaics.
KRISTIN REED
Creator of projected images for the theater and a graphic designer,
Kristin Reed joined Artmakers in 1985 and served as the organization’s
president in 1989. Reed collaborated with artist Robin Michals on
the La Lucha Continua mural Last Judgment, which pictured
a jury of six community members and six world leaders, and the following
year, she and Michals painted Enchanted Garden, featuring
portraits of neighborhood kids. Reed directed The Changing Face
of Soho, a six-month mixed-media installation the Bleecker/Lafayette
subway station and, with Eva Cockcroft, designed and painted an
Earth Day mural for the Tilles Art Center, C.W. Post College. In
1991, the Erie Art Museum commissioned Reed to paint the 75’ x 40’
Strength Through People, which featured portraits of respected
community members. The creation of the mural was the subject of
a documentary film made by a local cable channel. A principal artist
on When Women Pursue Justice, Reed painted the portrait of
Fannie Lou Hamer.
ROCHELLE SHICOFF
Rochelle Shicoff has painted murals since l980. With the Hestia
Art Collective, she created The History of Women in Northampton,
l600-l980. She has painted murals in New York City, California,
Florida, Georgia and Mexico. A principal artist on When Women
Pursue Justice, Shicoff painted the portrait of the Guerrilla
Girls. Shicoff is co-author, with Janet Braun-Reinitz, of The
Mural Book: A Practical Guide for Educators (Crystal Productions,
2001).She teaches Visual Arts to teachers at Hunter College (NYC)
and is a teaching artist, working with public school students in
New York City’s five boroughs.
PAMELA SHOEMAKER
Pamela Shoemaker is a figurative
painter whose work has been primarily narrative and concerned with
historical, political, and sometimes psychological themes. She has
a BA is art history from Vassar College and a Diploma in Painting
and Drawing from Cooper Union. During the 1980s, she produced a
number of public art projects, including a large mural in Queens,
Tango U.S.A. In the early 1990s, affected by the "medieval" quality
of crime-ridden New York, she enrolled at Fordham University and
received a MA in Medieval Studies, specializing in art and theology.
She also painted a series of works in egg-tempera on parchment,
influenced by Italian "miracle" paintings, though her narratives
showed the opposite of miracles. A series of nudes wearing hats
made in the early 2000s were inspired by Mary Shoemaker, her eccentric
aunt painted by Alice Neel in 1965. When Mary died, her many flamboyant
hats passed to Pamela, who painted the nudes as a memento mori.
Her web site is http://www.pamshoemaker.net/
A. G. JOE STEPHENSON
A co-founder of Artmakers, Joe Stephenson recalls, “We each put
in $50 to get the organization registered as a not for profit. Eva
Cockcroft was executive director and I was president. Eva thought
up the name and I designed the original logo.” Born in Jamaica,
West Indies, Stephenson earned a degree in Industrial Design from
Michigan State University. A scenic artist since the mid-1960s and
a community muralist since the mid-1970s, he has worked in both
disciplines in Jamaica, New York (for Cityarts Workshop prior to
Artmakers), Los Angeles and Berkeley before settling in Albuquerque
in 1987. There he has painted murals for the New Mexico Arts Artists-in-Residence
Program, VSA Arts NM, Working Classroom Inc., the Mayor’s Arts Summer
Institute, New Mexico Youth Authority, Sequoyah Adolescent Treatment
Center, Albuquerque Public Schools and Gallup-McKinley Schools.
A resident scenic painter with Music Theatre Southwest from 1987
through 2000, Stephenson continues to work as a freelance scenic
painter.
TOVA SNYDER
Born in Greenwich Village (NYC), Tova Snyder grew up on a kibbutz
in Israel, Provincetown, MA and Rye, NY. She earned a BA from Yale
University and an MFA from Temple University's Tyler School of Art,
where she did a year of study in Rome, Italy. Since then she has
traveled and worked abroad, creating murals, restoration, ceiling
paintings, trompe l'oeil, and public art in various European countries
and Brazil as well as the United States. She lives with her husband
part-time in Pigna, Liguria, Italy where she initiated her “roofscapes”
series. She also works as an artist-in-residence and her work as
an artist and educator was honored in 2005. A principal artist on
When Women Pursue Justice, Snyder painted the portrait of
Wilma Mankiller. Her only other New York City mural is The Secret
Garden (1992) in the South Bronx. Her web site is http://www.tovasnyd
er.com/
NINA TABOT
A painter working primarily in oil, Nina Talbot creates series of
community theme-based paintings. Her recent series Generations
of Brooklyn was exhibited at the Brooklyn Public Library and
Danny Simmons’ Corridor Gallery and was reviewed in NYC’s Daily
News. Talbot’s one-person exhibitions include the Ingber Gallery
(Long Island University), Williamsburg Historical Center, and Shelter
Rock Gallery (NYC). She has participated in group shows at Bronx
Museum of Art and Brooklyn Museum of Art, and in the Smithsonian
Institute’s traveling exhibition Three Brooklyn Artists.
In 1995, Talbot was one of a group of artists selected to create
“unity” murals in Crown Heights, following racial incidents in the
community. Her mural, We Are, on President Street, incorporates
symbols of unity. Another mural, Faces in the Crowd, commissioned
by the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas in NYC, hangs in the theatre lobby.
A principal artist on When Women Pursue Justice, Talbot painted
the double portrait of Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem.
SUSAN TOGUT
A a public artist since 1980, creates indoor/outdoor installations,
inner city and rural murals and mixed-media gallery works that focus
on the cycles of life and the regeneration of individuals and communities.
Her work often includes simulated stained glass-painted components.
An educator/ facilitator/ art therapist, Togut works with groups
of all ages, backgrounds and abilities. Nine years ago, she segued
into arts and wellness, conducting programs for those touched by
cancer, mental illness, old age and other disabilities. In 1997,
she created the permanent Healing Arbor on the Kingston,
NY, waterfront. A Living With Uncertainty Sanctuary will
be built on the grounds of the Northeast Center for Special Care
in Kingston, which serves traumatic brain injured people and where
Togut is Director of Fine and Performing Arts. She is recipient
of numerous grants including a NYFA Fellowship and a Pollack Krasner
Grant. A principal artist on When Women Pursue Justice, Togut
painted the portrait of Clara Lemlich.
JANE WEISSMAN
A member of Artmakers’ board, Jane Weissman joined the community
mural movement in 1985, installing 18 community murals in GreenThumb
community gardens which she directed (1984-98). Through Artists
in the Gardens and Gardens/Arts/Kids, she commissioned murals from
Artmakers artists Janet Braun-Reinitz, Eva Cockcroft, Noah Jemisin,
Kristi Pfister, Joe Stephenson, Rochelle Shicoff and Susan Togut.
Weissman joined Artmakers in 1991 and has been a participating artist
on several collective murals beginning with Venceremos. She
was project director for La Lucha Continua: Homage to Eva,
Ousmane Zongo Memorial Mural and When Women Pursue Justice.
She is a co-author, with Janet Braun-Reinitz, of Community, Consensus
and the Protest Mural (Public Art Review, Fall 2005)
and the forthcoming cultural history On the Wall: Four Decades
of Community Murals in New York City (University Press of Mississippi,
Fall 2007). Professionally, Weissman runs Urban Arts & Ecology,
which provides public relations, program development, and events
planning services to the environmental and arts communities.
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