Erika Rothenberg

Rothenberg works in many media, including paintings, prints, installations, and sculptures; she frequently combines text with images to create politically and socially charged conceptual works that satirize the ironies of our society. For instance, her work Sorry My Country Bombed Your Country (1982) is a greeting card that apologizes for bombing the recipient’s country as if a greeting card could possibly compensate for the gravity of war. She has completed two large-scale public art projects–The Road to Hollywood (1999-2001) in Los Angeles, CA and Freedom of Expression National Monument (1984) in New York City. The latter project, a collaboration with architect Laurie Hawkinson and performer John Malpede, was sited in Foley Square in lower Manhattan and consists of a ramp leading up to an oversized megaphone, through which the public may exercise their right to free expression. In part, this work addresses the public’s frustration to be heard and acknowledged. In 2004 Rothenberg erected Monument to a Bear, a permanent installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego Sculpture Garden. This work is a memorial to a black bear cub that had its paws burned, honoring nature the way we do our war heroes. 

Rothenberg’s works have been widely exhibited, including exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, both in New York City; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; the Centre for Contemporary Art in Glasgow, Scotland; Gallerie Im, Munich, Germany and many others. She has had five solo exhibitions at Zolla/Liebermann in Chicago, including its inaugural exhibition at a new gallery space in 2015.

Courtesy of the Jewish Museum