Bernice Bing
1936 – 1998, San Francisco, CA
"Once upon a time it was rare to find any Asians in prestigious art schools. When I was an art student, I came to the realization that a brush felt more comfortable and familiar in my hand than a pencil. Dexterity with a brush led me to the fine arts–painting.
Bernice Bing (1936–1998) was a groundbreaking Chinese American painter whose work bridged Abstract Expressionism, Bay Area Figuration, and traditional Chinese calligraphy. Orphaned at a young age and raised in foster care, Bing went on to study at the California College of Arts and Crafts and later at the San Francisco Art Institute, where she worked with influential figures such as Richard Diebenkorn, Nathan Oliveira, and Elmer Bischoff.
Immersed in the San Francisco Beat scene of the 1960s, Bing became an active participant in the city’s cultural and political life, engaging with feminist, queer, and Asian American movements. Her large-scale canvases fused gestural abstraction with Eastern brushwork, reflecting her study of Zen Buddhism and Chinese philosophy.
Bing also played a key role in arts administration and community building, directing the South of Market Cultural Center (SOMArts) in San Francisco and championing accessibility in the arts. Despite systemic marginalization, her contributions as a queer Asian American woman painter are now recognized as central to the story of postwar American art.
Since her passing in 1998, Bing’s legacy has been celebrated through major exhibitions and scholarly reassessments, cementing her as a vital voice in 20th-century art whose work continues to resonate across cultural and artistic boundaries.
IN THE ARTIST'S WORDS
“At that time I knew almost nothing about Eastern art or thought. I was totally naive about my own cultural heritage. I was living in and reacting to parallel worlds–one, the rational, conscious world of the West; the other, the intuitive, unconscious world of the East. This duality caused me to explore the differences and samenesses in art forms."