Derek Bernstein is a painter, currently living and working in Wrightstown, Pennsylvania.
A native of London, Bernstein attended Goldsmiths College where he earned his BFA, and attended Yale/Norfolk on a full scholarship. While at Goldsmith’s he received several prestigious awards, including the Stowell’s Trophy in 1975. In 1976 he won first prize in both the Windsor and Newton Annual and the New Contemporaries at the Mall Gallery.
His work has been exhibited at many venues over the years, including solo shows at Katz & Brown, Griffin McGear, and the DTW Gallery, Manhattan, and the Kentler Drawing Center in Brooklyn. He has also participated in numerous group shows, including the Elgin Gallery, Brooklyn, and the Silvermine Gallery, New Canaan, CT. Since moving to Bucks County (after thirty years in New York), he has had two one-man shows at the Prallsville Mill, as well as exhibiting at Kings Oaks, the Morristown Art Around the Park and the New Hope Art Center.
During the ‘80s and ‘90s Bernstein collaborated with his choreographer wife as co-creator/set designer for the Amy Sue Rosen/Derek Bernstein Dance Projects. They produced over thirty works, including commissions for the American Dance Festival, the Waschhaus in Potsdam, Germany, and the Ashkenaz Festival of New Yiddish Culture in Toronto. In New York, their work was produced by Dance Theatre Workshop, Dancing in the Streets, Danspace Project, DIA Center for the Arts, the Kitchen, La MaMa, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, 92nd Street Y, PS 1, and the Whitney Museum, and was shown on the television programs Eye on Dance and City Arts. They received the Bessie Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2003. Due to a grant from the Jerome Foundation, several of their pieces can be seen online through the Performance Library at Lincoln Center.
Bernstein has been a Visiting Lecturer at Haverford, Muhlenberg and Lafayette Colleges in Pennsylvania, and Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. In addition, he worked in art conservation, restoring many WPA murals.
derekbernstein646@gmail.com