NAME: Bernadette Jiyong Frank
BIRTH PLACE: Tokyo, Japan
BIOGRAPHY
Born in Tokyo, Japan, Bernadette devoted her childhood to art and music. Raised in a culture where visual art was dominated by realism and pop art at the time, Bernadette has developed her drawing skills in her earlier age that reflected these styles. At the age of 12, she has earned the rank of first Kyu in the traditional Japanese calligraphy, Shuji.
As a teenager, her family immigrated to Northern California where Bernadette was exposed to American contemporary art. Later, she studied illustration at Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles. Since that time, she has worked in the marketing and design profession.
During the 1990's, she has won a public art competition during her travel in New Zealand, and received a commission work for a mural project at Anna Kolleg boarding school during her residency in Germany. Now living in San Francisco, Bernadette has been experimenting with abstract painting since two years. She is particularly interested in the color, light and space, and how these elements manifest themselves in her paintings that ultimately create energetically charged yet contemplative spaces. She has been recently selected for New Visions 2008, a juried exhibition at Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland, California, and is currently featured in the Volume 3 of Studio Visit Magazine, an international juried art publication. In addition to the current issue, she has been selected to be included in the next Spring 2009 issue of Studio Visit. Her work has been increasingly recognized among the art enthusiasts nationally and internationally, and her collector base is expanding.
