Imagine an artist: Chinese American, lesbian, and a Californian, her work overlooked in the mostly male and East Coast–dominated field of abstract expressionism. And now imagine that this artist had been orphaned as a little girl and shuttled back and forth between 17 white foster homes, an orphanage, and occasionally her grandma, before earning a scholarship to what is now California College of the Arts.
“Bernice Bing, in so many ways, she represents a miracle,” says Abby Chen, a contemporary art curator at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. “Orphaned at such a young age and with [such] undeniable talent that she was able to get into California College of the Arts. It’s so rare to find an Asian in a prestigious art school [at that time].”
Chen has put together Into View: Bernice Bing, on display at the Asian Art Museum through May 1, 2023. This lively exhibition is the first in a series that features the work of underrecognized modern and contemporary artists.
“I think for Bernice, who some knew as Bingo, her story was obscured,” says artist Lenore Chinn, a friend
