Monday’s Muse: Bernice Bing

“I do believe that one of the reasons she was able to garner a one-woman show at the Batman Gallery was because of her fearless large-scale canvases, similar to what her male-counterparts were producing. Bing was a fierce painter and she could hold her own. In this bohemian milieu, the masculine world of the literati and the male subjectivity of Abstract Expressionism dominated….

…A woman’s success and visibility as an artist was no doubt heightened by the partnerships she formed. Bernice Bing, as a lesbian and a woman of color, was outside of this world.”

—Jen Banta, Asian American Women Artist Association, Cultural Activist and Writer.

Chinese American-born painter Bernice Bing, or “Bingo” as she was known to her peers, was a part of the San Francisco bohemian and activist landscape right throughout her life. With her studio over in the iconic Old Spaghetti Factory during the late fifties /early sixties, Bernice had her first exhibition at the Batman Gallery, a notorious beat art space named by the poet Michael McClure.

{Editor’s note: Looking for that next film to watch? I’d suggest ‘The Worlds of Bernice Bing’. Find out more [here]}