Rita Bard ’02
Bard was raised in Kentucky, lived in Germany and various US states
before moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2004. She holds a BFA from
Maine College of Art and Certificate of Apprenticeship of Art Glass Design,
Theory and Praxis of Stained Glass Window Manufacturing Staatliche
Glasfachschule, Hadamar, Germany.
Rita Bard has shown at the Center for Contemporary Art (CCA), Box
Gallery, Eight Modern, Launch Projects and many other galleries
throughout the US. In 2014, as part of her community art practice she
founded freeform art space as a venue for guest curators and artists to
showcase challenging and/or under appreciated artists’ work.
In 2015, Bard initiated the first “Art’s Birthday” Santa Fe event, based on
Fluxus member Robert Fillious’ 1963 original concept of “Art’s Birthday”.
On this project she collaborated with art writer Kathryn M. Davis, Axle
Contemporary, The New Mexico Museum of Art, and the Eternal Network:
Arts Birthday Global Network Exchange. The original “Art’s Birthday” is an
ongoing event that occurs throughout the globe every January 17.
Rita Bard’s sculptural assemblages initiate discovery of our human nature
and our relationships to our world. Within an aesthetic of secreted away
mementos, flea market finds—the remains of decades of contemporary
mass consumption—carefully considered formal relationships create
scenes that call out to be explored. The viewer feels a sense of the
unknown yet deeply familiar, and recognizes bits and pieces from their own
experiences.
Featuring figurines acting as characters in a tableau, Bard attracts the
viewer with bursts of the hilarity of everyday life, and draws them further in
with references to the sadness that likewise suffuses our reality. The pieces
hold humor and tragedy in equal parts, just as our days and years are filled
with gleeful joy and mundane as well as tragic injuries. Bard’s pieces seek
to highlight the wondrous beauty, the unpredictable, t imperfect nature of
life and art: the ups and downs, a bright palette along with the worn grays
and browns.
Bard maintains a very active studio practice at her studio located in the
midtown area of Santa Fe, NM. More information and reviews of her work
can be found at https://ritabard.com