Thea Berman
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Thea Berman (b. 2002, New York City) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She received a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 2024 and is a self-taught painter. Her academic and social science background greatly influences her artistic process– which begins with a great deal of research– and the content of her paintings, broadly focusing on women and their understanding of female cultural mythology.
Berman’s recent work examines women’s tenuous relationship to violence and fantasy. So rarely do popular myths offer a violent female figure beyond a madonna/whore pushed to the extreme. In response, Berman’s paintings question how effectively these blueprints might satisfy more quotidian violent impulses. Can an ordinary woman find gratification in such spectacular examples of Ovid’s Procne or Tarantino’s “Bride”? Or, is the only solace available in popular culture a reenactment of some else’s fantasy? As technology inundates the user with images, finding one’s own resonant representation can be quite onerous. Berman’s work offers an earnest pursuit of archetypes that acknowledges the reality of women’s violent desires and offers an immanent fantasy of their expression. The paintings themselves do not seek one conclusive ideal, but rather display the tenderness of the endeavor itself.
A selection of Berman’s paintings are currently on view at Kaatsbaan Cultural Center in Tivoli, NY through November 2026. Previously, her paintings have been exhibited in group shows at the Czong Institute of Contemporary Art (2024), Santa Paula Art Museum (2024), Orange Art Foundation (2023), and at Superfine Art Fairs in San Francisco and Los Angeles through Teravarna Art Gallery (2023). Her work has also been featured in publications such as Let’s Stab Caesar volume IV (2023), and Confluence (2023).
Berman’s recent work examines women’s tenuous relationship to violence and fantasy. So rarely do popular myths offer a violent female figure beyond a madonna/whore pushed to the extreme. In response, Berman’s paintings question how effectively these blueprints might satisfy more quotidian violent impulses. Can an ordinary woman find gratification in such spectacular examples of Ovid’s Procne or Tarantino’s “Bride”? Or, is the only solace available in popular culture a reenactment of some else’s fantasy? As technology inundates the user with images, finding one’s own resonant representation can be quite onerous. Berman’s work offers an earnest pursuit of archetypes that acknowledges the reality of women’s violent desires and offers an immanent fantasy of their expression. The paintings themselves do not seek one conclusive ideal, but rather display the tenderness of the endeavor itself.
A selection of Berman’s paintings are currently on view at Kaatsbaan Cultural Center in Tivoli, NY through November 2026. Previously, her paintings have been exhibited in group shows at the Czong Institute of Contemporary Art (2024), Santa Paula Art Museum (2024), Orange Art Foundation (2023), and at Superfine Art Fairs in San Francisco and Los Angeles through Teravarna Art Gallery (2023). Her work has also been featured in publications such as Let’s Stab Caesar volume IV (2023), and Confluence (2023).