Babs Reingold (born in

Caracas, Venezuela Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

) is an American contemporary interdisciplinary artist working with sculpture,

installation Installation may refer to: * Installation (computer programs) * Installation, work of installation art * Installation, military base * Installation, into an office, especially a religious (Installation (Christianity) Installation is a Christian l ...

, video, painting and drawing. She currently lives and works in

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...

and maintains a studio in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Art

Reingold is best known as a visual and

conceptual artist Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called instal ...

for creating alternate ambiguities with her wall art and installations as they relate to the environment, poverty and beauty. She draws on her early experiences of hardship to create elaborate installations using domestic objects and natural materials like clotheslines, threads, human hair, animal skins,

organza Organza is a thin, plain weave, sheer fabric traditionally made from silk. Many modern organzas are woven with synthetic filament fibers such as polyester or nylon. Silk organza is woven by a number of mills along the Yangtze River and in the pr ...

fabric structures, rust and tea staining, and encaustic. The dynamics of the environment, power, technology, and the manipulation and destruction of nature are recurring themes in her art. Her installation ''The Last Tree'' portrays the world's 193 countries with fabricated silk organza tree stumps stuffed with human hair in pails. This elaborate installation, curated by Midori Yoshimoto at the ISE Cultural Foundation in New York, illuminates

Jared Diamond Jared Mason Diamond (born September 10, 1937) is an American geographer, historian, ornithologist, and author best known for his popular science books ''The Third Chimpanzee'' (1991); ''Guns, Germs, and Steel'' (1997, awarded a Pulitzer Prize); ...

's question ''What was the Easter Islander thinking when he chopped down the last tree?'' resulting in a culture that demolished the entire wealth of its natural resources. A second show of the traveling exhibit was at the

Burchfield Penney Art Center The Burchfield Penney Art Center, or just the Burchfield Penney, is an arts and educational institution part of Buffalo State College, located adjacent to the main campus in Buffalo, New York, United States. Dedicated to the art and vision of ...

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

in 2016-2017. Recent museum showings were at the

Museum of Fine Arts (St. Petersburg, Florida) History The MFA was founded by art collector and philanthropist Margaret Acheson Stuart (1896–1980). The Margaret Acheson Stuart Society, the Museum's independent support organization, is named in her honor. The city provided the four-a ...

in 2015-2016.

Personal life

After spending her childhood in Caracas, and youth in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

, Reingold endured grinding poverty as an adolescent in Woodhill, a public housing complex in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

with her mother and four siblings after her photographer father became ill with

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

and her mother was unable to cope,.Babs Reingold and the illusion of reality
/ref> Reingold later escaped the cycle of poverty to become a successful artist. She graduated with a

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachelor ...

(BFA) degree from the

Cleveland Institute of Art The Cleveland Institute of Art, previously Cleveland School of Art, is a private college focused on art and design and located in Cleveland, Ohio. History The college was founded in 1882 as the Western Reserve School of Design for Women, at firs ...

, and obtained a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

(MFA) degree from the

University at Buffalo, The State University of New York The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

Museum collections

Reingold's works of art can be found in numerous public and private collections around the world, and are included in the permanent collections of the

Newark Museum of Art The Newark Museum of Art (formerly known as the Newark Museum), in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States, is the state's largest museum. It holds major collections of American art, decorative arts, contemporary art, and arts of Asia, Af ...

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Museum of Fine Arts (St. Petersburg, Florida) History The MFA was founded by art collector and philanthropist Margaret Acheson Stuart (1896–1980). The Margaret Acheson Stuart Society, the Museum's independent support organization, is named in her honor. The city provided the four-a ...

; and the

Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is a private nonprofit art school with locations in Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; and Lacoste, France. Founded in 1978 to provide degrees in programs not yet offered in the southeast of the Unit ...

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...

, among others.

References

External links

Babs Reingold Home Page
Retrieved 2017-04-02.
Brendan Scott interview with Babs Reingolf
Retrieved 2013-03-15.
Babs Reingold’s drawings for her installation The Last Tree
Retrieved 2013-05-26.
Babs Reingold/Artist Interview at Ragazine with Dr. Midori Yoshimoto
retrieved 2013-05-26. {{DEFAULTSORT:Reingold, Babs Living people American contemporary artists Interdisciplinary artists Sculptors from Florida Artists from New Jersey American sculptors Contemporary sculptors Jewish American artists Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American Jews Cleveland Institute of Art alumni University at Buffalo alumni