Cynthia Beth Rubin

Sensing Connections: A Retrospective Exhibition

The BEKI Art Gallery is pleased to present a retrospective exhibition by Cynthia Beth Rubin entitled Sensing Connections. In works spanning decades of explorations, Rubin depicts imagined sensations of the unseeable yet essential aspects of our world. Collaborating with the Menden-Deuer Oceanography lab at the University of Rhode Island, recent work explores the question of how we bring empathy, awareness, and curiosity to the unseen or rarely seen microscopic life of the ocean. This work often intertwines plankton with medieval Hebrew manuscripts, drawing on research she undertook in the late 1980s exploring motifs of cultural distinction in a tradition of ongoing commentary, reinterpretation, and embellishment. Rubin considers how the unknown meanings implied in the layered text interrelate with the unknown in science, while exploring the similarities in pattern and form between microscopic life and decorative patterns developed centuries ago.

Earlier works by Rubin, including paintings on canvas and a pioneering digital image from 1984, provide context to the more recent works. The exhibition also includes selections from the ongoing artist’s collaborative project with Yona Verwer and Kris Tonski, Zodiacs on the Lower East Side, as well as still images from Layered Histories, her collaborative interactive work with Bob Gluck,.

Rubin’s work has been recognized internationally through exhibitions and film festivals, including Creative Tech Week in New York City, the Jerusalem Biennial, the Siberia State Art Museum, the Kyrgyzstan State Museum, and in cities such as Paris, New York, Toronto, Montréal and elsewhere around the world. Rubin’s videos, and interactive works have been shown on the ICC tower facade in Hong Kong, the Jewish Museum in Prague, the Cotton Club screen in Harlem, the ICA in London, and numerous international festivals featuring digital art. Her video les affinités recouvrées (Recovered Affinities) was featured opening night of multiple Jewish Film Festivals (San Francisco, Boston) and other venues around the world.

A three-time recipient of grants from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, Rubin has been awarded international artist residencies and grants from sources as diverse as Vidéochroniques (Marseilles) and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture.

For this special exhibition, the artist, who is also a BEKI member, will donate 100% of the sales to BEKI for many of the works in the exhibition. Non-members may designate the donations from their sales to BEKI Tikkun Olum projects that are non-denominational in nature, such as providing meals for Columbus House. Sales to BEKI members will contribute to promoting art at BEKI.

Click here for a list of sale prices

On view since early January, the exhibition continues through April 4.

Videos of the artist discussing her work:
Artist Talk, Mayim Chaiyim: A Watershed – video online
excerpted from group online talks, curated by Amy Levine-Kennedy at the Koslow Gallery 2022

Techspressionist Salon #21– video online
artist presentation, Cynthia Beth Rubin & Renata Janiszewska
July 06, 2021

More information and additional links at:
CBRubin.net