Marianne Bernstein
Marianne Bernstein is an artist and independent curator. Dark Side of the Moon, published in 2026, is her third book of photographs, following Theatre of the Everyday (2024), an artist's book spanning 40 years that explores the poetics of everyday life, and Tatted (2009), an exploration of South Street, Philadelphia’s tattoo community.Her photographs have been exhibited nationally, and her film, From Philadelphia to the Front (2005), which she co-directed and produced with Judy Gelles, has traveled to 15 festivals worldwide.Due South, a project and exchange based in Sicily involving 32 American and International artists, was exhibited in 2017 at The Delaware Contemporary in their three main galleries and was her second curatorial project in a quartet: Due North, Due South, Due East, and Due West.In 2011, The Play House, a nomadic version of The Welcome House, premiered in an installation on Broad Street titled “Not a Vacant Lot”, drawing attention to the 40,000 vacant lots in Philadelphia. The cube traveled in 2012 to Artspace in New Haven for an installation titled "Beyond What Was" in partnership with Liberty Safe Haven, exploring homelessness and drug addiction, funded by an ArtWorks grant from the NEA. Over time, the cube has become more minimal and was re-titled Nomadicube, with five interventions produced on the South, North, East, and West sides of Chicago (2019 – 2020) in collaboration with local artists and communities.That same year, Bernstein was a finalist for the Pew Fellowship in the Arts. She completed two artist residencies in Iceland, both in small fishing villages. Work from these residencies was included in the exhibition Due North, which brought together 30 American and Icelandic artists. She was awarded a 2013 Fellowship by the Independence Foundation in the Arts for this work.In 2009, she conceived and produced The Welcome House in Love Park, Philadelphia, in a 10' transparent cube (an artist residency by day and video installation at night) and Shelter at the Painted Bride which paired 18 artists with families on the verge of homelessness. In 2010, she conceived and curated The Philadelphia Underground, a site-specific video installation featuring six Philadelphia filmmakers who produced work inside the neglected subway concourse underneath Broad Street and City Hall—calling attention to conditions there.In the 1990s in New Haven, CT, she founded untitled(space) and The Lot, and co-founded Citywide Open Studios, which incorporated “alternative (empty) spaces” as a call to broaden art practices beyond the traditional studio setting. These programs merged into ArtSpace continuing well into the 2020s—long after her departure in 2000 to return to her hometown of Philadelphia where she worked for 17 years. Bernstein currently lives and works in Chicago and Paris.
“These are extraordinarily difficult times requiring creative minds to solve big problems. Cities are waking up to the fact that art/design is not only essential to a healthy community, it may even save our cities. It’s not just a commodity—at best, it’s a flexible, engaging process giving form to fresh ideas, which in turn creates something new. And that creates excitement, which creates new energy, which in turn creates positive change.”—Marianne Bernstein
My practice began with photography as a means of paying attention—to people, to places, to moments that hover between the ordinary and the charged. From the beginning, the camera was not a tool for documentation but a way of entering relationships. Over time, photography expanded into film, installation, curatorial projects, books, and nomadic spaces for encounter. What connects these forms is an ongoing interest in how meaning is shaped through framing, proximity, duration, and movement.Photography remains central to my work, not as isolated images but as sequences. I am deeply influenced by film editing and montage, where meaning emerges between images rather than within a single frame. My books, particularly Theatre of the Everyday and Dark Side of the Moon, function as visual autobiographies—not chronological records, but accumulations of looking over decades. They bring together portraits, landscapes, bodies, and events across geographies, allowing personal history, collective history, and imagination to overlap. These books acknowledge photography’s artifice and subjectivity: the photographer is always present, always choosing.Travel and long-term immersion are foundational to my practice. I resist tourism in favor of immersion, living simply, allowing contradictions to surface. Projects such as Due North, Due South, Due East, and Nomadicube grew from sustained engagement with specific places and communities. Volcanic islands and temporary structures became frameworks for inquiry—sites where geology, culture, pride, fear, hospitality, and isolation coexist. Working with both local and visiting artists, I bring insider and outsider perspectives into dialogue, encouraging process, risk, and relationship over fixed outcomes.My curatorial work collapses the boundary between artist and curator. I see curation as a form of space-making—social, physical, emotional, and conceptual. Projects like The Cube, The Playhouse, The Welcome House, Shelter, and The Philadelphia Underground transformed public space into stages for encounter. These open-ended structures invite participation and shared authorship, often in marginalized or overlooked sites, emphasizing presence over spectacle and listening over resolution.Across all of this work—photographs, projects, exhibitions, books, and temporary architectures—I return to the same questions: How do we shape, moment to moment, our understanding of the world? What falls away when we cross borders—geographic, cultural, psychological—and remain long enough to be changed? My work does not seek conclusions. It creates conditions for attention, where the everyday becomes strange, the unknown is held rather than explained, and new ways of seeing can quietly emerge.—Marianne Bernstein
Dark Side of the Moon
Artist Photobook
2026
“Dark Side of the Moon is a poetic journey exploring connections between inner and outer worlds, reason and emotion, the known and the unknown. Scientifically, the dark, or far, side of the moon is the view we cannot see from Earth. In this book of photographs, astronomical images from the far side of the Moon are interwoven with dream self-portraits, medical imaging of the artist’s interior body, and craters from nuclear test sites.Under the microscope, the body becomes a galaxy. Scientific evidence suggests that the building blocks of life originated in outer space: all four components of DNA and RNA, which encode our genes, have been found in meteorites. These molecules carry the blueprint of who we are. Facts and reason, science and intuition, mystery and emotion revolve around an interconnected axis of knowing. This work calls for deeper connections to other realities and to ourselves.Dreams light the dark continent of the unconscious, deconstructing ourselves and our beliefs. Facing our shadow and self-sabotaging selves, we uncover repressed memories that are essential to becoming more empathetic, loving humans.We are all parts of systems and networks forever flowing, changing, and fragmenting our capacity for connection. How can we explore the outskirts of our reality to dream a new world into being? For all its beauty, life’s dark side remains beyond our reach and understanding, residing in the realm of both possibility and destruction. To thrive in darkness is to live in awe.”— Marianne Bernstein, Dark Side of the Moon
Theatre of the Everyday
Artist Photobook
2024
“Each morning, our eyes, like curtains, open to an endless stream of people, objects, animals, and landscapes. How can we try to make sense of the fleeting worlds of perception and experience? Holding up a mirror, we discover we are all reflections of each other.A camera is a dynamic portal for heightened engagement with the world. Theatre of the Everyday is a call to imbue photography with its real power; careful observation, crossing boundaries, attention to elusive matters of perception, memory, and the wavering borderline between art and life.”—Marianne Bernstein, Theatre of the Everyday
Nomadicube
Roving participatory site
2010 – 22
Nomadicube is a participatory and collaborative project by Marianne Bernstein. A 10' cube becomes a roving satellite, living room, radio station, studio, performance space, movie theatre; collecting stories and bringing people together in surprising new ways. The geometry of the cube frames space into a creative free zone; the practice inside is unpredictable, allowing for spontaneous and intimate interactions, often around social justice issues.Past cubes include: The Welcome House, Love Park (2010) Not a Vacant Lot, Philadelphia, PA (2011), Beyond What Was in New Haven, CT (2012); and in Skagastrond, a small fishing village in Northern Iceland (2014). Over the years the cube has become increasingly minimal and lightweight to facilitate travel but its original function remains the same.
Due
North — Iceland
South — Sicily
East — Taiwan
West — TBD2013 – Ongoing
The Due projects are a long-term curatorial inquiry into how place, perception, and cultural identity are shaped through sustained encounter rather than distance. Conceived by Marianne Bernstein, Due North, Due South, and the interrupted (by COVID-19) and forthcoming Due East, and Due West use cardinal directions not as fixed coordinates, but as relative and culturally loaded ideas onto which desire, fear, and myth are projected.Each project centers on a geographically and historically complex island landscape. Volcanic islands were chosen for their heightened intensity—places where isolation, pride, independence, and attachment coexist with distrust, volatility, and resistance to change. These environments act not as backdrops, but as active forces shaping artistic response.The Due projects reject the logic of cultural tourism. Artists are asked to remain, live simply, and engage daily life over time. Meaning emerges from proximity and duration rather than spectacle, allowing stereotypes to dissolve while contradictions remain visible. Rather than offering conclusions, the Due series proposes curation as listening, dwelling, and unlearning.
Project Blogs:
Interviews
Invisible Activity Podcast: Episode 5 Marianne Bernstein on Curating Space Itself hosted by Gabriel Soto 2020·07·20
Photographer and Curator Marianne Bernstein on Photography Podcast interview on creative journey, photography as social catalyst, and curatorial projects. 2020·07·15
Artblog Interview with Marianne Bernstein: Part 1 Interview on projects in Philadelphia, Iceland, and Sicily. 2017·08·01
Artblog Interview with Marianne Bernstein: Part 2 Conversation focused on curating art in public spaces. 2017·08·01
Due South — Marianne Bernstein Interview Interview focused on Due South and related work. 2017·04·03
Theatre of the Everyday
Sidwell Friends · Art Off the Shelf: Self-Portrait The photographer Marianne Bernstein ’74 reveals four decades spent capturing decisive moments in Theatre of the Everyday. 2025·01·22
Artblog Marianne Bernstein’s ‘Theatre of the Everyday’ stages the human comedy in photographs. 2024·07·01
Due South
“Each of the works in Due South raises compelling questions about who defines history. Is it artists, because they offer intriguing images of the landscapes and people of Sicily? Do the aristocrats have the ultimate authority because they have the money and land? Or is it the migrants, illegal and legal, who have always come and gone on this island...an exhibition such as this neutralizes the idea of an original people and single authority.”
—Stan Mir, Hyperallergic
Hyperallergic: The More Things Change Review of Due South at The Delaware Contemporary. 2017·03·01
Title Magazine: There’s Always Room for One More — Due South Exhibition review of Due South. 2017·04·01
Philadelphia Inquirer: Sicilian Interlude Coverage of Bernstein’s work moving from Philadelphia to Sicily. 2017·03·19
Global Philadelphia Interview with Marianne Bernstein Interview on international exchange and Due South. 2017·03·01
WHYY First Experience: Due South (clip) Broadcast segment featuring Due South (clip at 24:10). 2017·03·31
Hyperallergic: Currents Pull Artists ‘Due South’ to Sicily Overview of artists participating in Due South. 2016·12·01
We the Italians: IT and US, An International First for Sicily — Due South Feature on US–Italy cultural exchange through Due South. 2016·12·18
Delaware Today: From Sicily to Wilmington Preview of Due South arriving in Delaware. 2016·10·21
La Voce di New York: Due South — Sicily as You’ve Never Seen It Italian-language coverage of Due South. 2016·06·15
Sicilia & Donna: Three Americans in Sicily in Search of Artists Interview on research and artist discovery in Sicily. 2016·06·08
Scuola Fuori Norma: A Project Between Sicily and Philadelphia Presentation of Due South as a transnational project. 2016·06·05
Times of Sicily: All Eyes Are Pointing Due South to Sicily International attention on Due South in Sicily. 2016·03·24
Due North
Warmer Than You Think: Due North at Icebox Project Space Review of Due North at Icebox Project Space. 2014·01·28
Due North Provides a Little Slice of Iceland for North Philly Coverage of Due North connecting Icelandic artists and Philadelphia. 2014·01·01
Visions of Iceland, the Moon, and Playtime Philadelphia Inquirer review of Due North. 2014·01·19
Form Review: Due North Critical review of Due North. 2014·02·01
Philagrafika Projects Due North Art Exhibition Overview of the Due North exhibition. 2014·01·16
Philagrafika Brings Art Focus “Due North” Feature on Philagrafika and Due North. 2014·01·01
NextFab Studio Points “Due North” Pairing Print Artists from Iceland and Philly Coverage of collaborative printmaking through Due North. 2014·01·01
Due North at the Icebox Project Space to Celebrate Iceland Through Art Event preview of Due North. 2014·01·01
These Icelandic Artists Are Studying Digital Fabrication at NextFab Feature on Icelandic artists participating in Due North. 2013·12·11
Due North: The Future of Digital Printmaking Discussion of digital printmaking in Due North. 2013·12·09
Suddenly the Whole Philly/Iceland Connection Doesn’t Seem So Strange Cultural context for the Philadelphia–Iceland exchange. 2014·01·21
Philagrafika Projects Receives the “Phoenix Award” for Due North Announcement of the Phoenix Award for Due North. 2013·12·01
Nomadicube
Nomadicube Blog The Cube is a nomadic experiment evolving out of artist-curator Marianne Bernstein’s previous projects involving architectural cubes, The Welcome House (Love Park, 2009) and The Play House (Not a Vacant Lot, 2011 and Beyond What Was, 2012). For those installations, artists were invited to explore marginalized spaces and people through interventions and short films. During the day, the cube’s interior became a stage. At night, the cube was wrapped and functioned as a four-sided projection screen. The geometry of the cube frames space as an artistic realm; the practice inside is unpredictable, allowing for spontaneous and intimate interactions. 2012 – 2019
The Play House
The Play HouseTumblr Blog The Play House, a multi-purpose aluminum 8' cube, is a nomadic version of artist-curator Marianne’s previous project, The Welcome House (Love Park, 2009). During Design Philadelphia 2011, The Play House debuted in the University of the Arts Lot on Broad Street. Twelve artist teams were invited to activate vacant lots throughout Philadelphia and document them through short films. At night, these films were projected onto the exterior of The Play House; during the day, aspiring musicians performed in the cube. 2013
Education
Bachelor of Arts in English and Film Vassar College and University of Michigan
Books
Dark Side of the Moon Artist book and photographs. Printed in Milan, Italy 2026
Theatre of the Everyday Artist book and photographs. Printed in Milan, Italy 2024
Tatted Monograph published by GritCity, Inc 2009
Projects
Nomadicube Participatory roving cube functioning as satellite, living room, radio station, studio, performance space, and cinema 2019 – 22
Nari’s Garden Collaboration with Jalisa Ford and Cabrini Green mothers addressing gun violence at Mana Contemporary 2022
Interwoven Large scale weaving installation with Julia Blake 2020
The Cube Public art installations in Chicago neighborhoods, including: Here, Sovereign, and Rumor 2019
Due South Volcanic island exploration exhibited at The Delaware Contemporary 2017
Due North International exhibition and residency exchange between Philadelphia and Iceland 2014
The Playhouse: Beyond What Was NEA supported nomadic installation exploring homelessness and addiction 2012
The Playhouse: Not a Vacant Lot Public art and video project activating vacant lots in Philadelphia 2011
The Philadelphia Underground Site-specific video installation activating underground public space beneath Dilworth Plaza 2010
The Welcome House Transparent cube residency and video installation in Love Park, Philadelphia 2009
Shelter Bi-level installation pairing artists with families facing eviction 2009
Tatted Photographic series documenting Philiadelphia’s South Street tattoo culture 2006 – 08
Film
The Earthquake Producer. Directed by Danielle Lessovitz. Official selection at Torino International Film Festival, Fusion Film Festival, Kansas City Film Festival, and Milan Film Festival 2011
From Philadelphia to the Front Co-director and producer. Distributed by the National Center for Jewish Film. Documentary traveled to 15 film festivals worldwide 2005
Curatorial & Social Practice
Nomadicube Participatory roving cube functioning as satellite, living room, radio station, studio, performance space, and cinema 2019 – 22
Due Series of exhibitions (East, West, South, North) centered around volcanic islands 2014 – Ongoing
Head of Visual Arts and Curator Artspace Founded and developed programming including Citywide Open Studios, untitled(space), and The Lot 1997 – 2000
Foreign Bodies: art, medicine, technology Exhibition at untitled(space) featuring 36 works by 17 artists 2000
Citywide Open Studios “An exhibition the size of a city”, one of the first open studio programs activating alternative studio spaces (such as vacant buildings and empty lots) for artists across disciplnes and career stages from Yale MFA candidates onward. Co-founded with Helen Kauder and Linn Meyers, New Haven, CT 1998 – Ongoing
untitled(space) An artist run non-profit gallery presenting new work by emerging and mid-career artists with an emphasis on works in progress, interactive, and site-specific work. Ran until it was merged with Artspace, New Haven, CT 1998 – 2000
Postmark International Invited twenty international artists to create mailed works; exhibited during the International Festival of Art and Ideas, New Haven, CT 1998
Solo Exhibitions
The Cube Public art installation, Skagastrond, Iceland 2013
Tatted Exhibition and book launch, Pure Gold Gallery, Philadelphia 2009
Dream Series RJ Julia, Madison, CT 1999
5 Portraits / The Crown Heights History Project The Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Brooklyn, NY 1993
A Silver Thread Small Space Gallery, New Haven, CT 1992
Summer 92’ Rotunda Gallery, New Haven, CT 1992
Veterans New Haven Foundation, New Haven, CT 1985
Selected Group Exhibitions
Le Salon de Septembre GSL Gallery, Paris, France 2024
Long Time No See Chicago Art Department, Chicago, IL 2020
Polaris: Northern Explorations in Contemporary Art Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA 2018
Due South The Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington, DE 2017
Due North Icebox Project Space, Philadelphia, PA 2014
Due North Philagrafika Portfolio, Philadelphia, PA 2014
Dionysia Residency Exhibition Thingeyri, Iceland 2011
Philagrafika Invitational Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 2010
Into Your Head Hopkins House Gallery of Contemporary Art, Haddon Township, NJ 2009
101 Dresses Artspace, New Haven, CT 2003
The Cave Installation at untitled(space), featuring audio, wall drawings, and projected portraits, New Haven, CT 2000
Artists in Residence Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven, CT 1999
Raw Pieces PABA Gallery, New Haven, CT 1999
The Harbor of the Red Mountains New Haven Historical Society, New Haven, CT 1999
Trans-Form Zoon Gallery, New Haven, CT 1997
Kiasma untitled(space), New Haven, CT 1998
Barriers and Enclosures Artspace Gallery, New Haven, CT 1996
The Virtual Self The Mill Gallery, Guilford, CT 1996
Reframing Tradition Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven, CT 1996
Group Show Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, Boston, MA 1996
Images ’96 The Mill Gallery, Guilford, CT 1996
The Connecticut Open Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT 1995
About Face Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT 1994
Reprographics and the Visual Artist Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven, CT 1992
Connecticut Women Photographers Artspace Gallery, New Haven, CT 1998
Awards & Residencies
Artist in Residence Chicago Art Department 2020
Iceland Naturally Exhibition Sponsorship Exhibition sponsorship 2014
Pennsylvania Council on the Arts PPA Project Stream Grant Grant award 2014
PECO Exhibition Sponsorship Exhibition sponsorship 2014
Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts Fellowship award 2013
Nes Artist Residency Skagastrond, Iceland 2013
I.C.E. (International Curatorial Exchange) Icebox Project Space 2013
NEA Artworks Support Grant Support grant for The Playhouse: Beyond What Was 2012
PEW Center for Arts & Heritage Fellowship Finalist Finalist 2011
Dionysia Residency Iceland 2011
Mother Teresa Award Award 2010
Honickman Foundation Grant Grant Award 2004
Leeway Window of Opportunity Grant Grant award 2003
Honored by John DeStefano Jr. Mayor of New Haven Civic recognition for founding 98NH2000, Citywide Open Studios, untitled(space), and The Lot, New Haven, CT 2001
Andy Warhol Grant Awarded for Foreign Bodies exhibition, untitled (space) gallery, New Haven, CT 2000
Best Arts Visionary Voted by the New Haven Advocate 1998
Opening Doors Opening Minds Award New Haven Arts Council, New Haven, CT 1998
Award for Excellence Women in the Visual Arts, Erector Square Gallery, New Haven, CT 1996
Publications / Artist Talks / Interviews
Theatre of the Everyday Book Signing AIPAD 2025
20/20 Photo Festival Theatre of the Everyday, Philadelphia, PA 2024
Photo Book Fair Theatre of the Everyday, Artist Talk, ECOCA, New Haven, CT 2024
The Red Wheelbarrow Bookstore Theatre of the Everyday European Book Launch Paris, France 2024
China-US Women’s Foundation Appearance / Talk 2022
Philadelphia Film Festival Appearance and Screening, philadelphia, PA 2020
Invisible Activity Podcast Interview 2020
China-US Women’s Foundation Gen Z Forum Facilitator, Online Forum 2020
Tumbling the Jewel Symposium Organizer and presenter for Due South at The Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington, DE 2017
Islensk Grafik Artist Talk Reykjavik, Iceland 2013
Chit, Chat, Change AIGA Talk, Philadelphia, PA 2010
Yale University Art Gallery Artist Talk Artist talk, New Haven, CT 1999
Creative Arts Workshop Artist Talk Artist talk, New Haven, CT 1990
American Sculpture at Yale University Photographer, Yale University Press 1992
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