Leo Bersamina works in painting, photography, and sculpture, sometimes incorporating several disciplines within one work. With a strong sense of materiality, he often brings found objects into his sculptural and wall installations, using their volume and elemental presence to address the most basic formal properties of his art. Making keen use of his own life experiences, his works are layered with memory, markers of his mixed ethnic identity and spirituality. Bersamina often reflects on experiences that hold special meaning with his journey as an artist.
"I look for patterns and color that we encounter through our daily living: relationships with forces of nature, and models created through encounters with other people, experiences, travel, shelter, struggle, habit, and with our own genetic makeup."
-Leo Bersamina
Leo Bersamina is a visual artist from the Bay Area who received his MFA from Yale School of Art in Painting and Printmaking. In addition to his art practice, he has served on curatorial committees and panels at Southern Exposure (San Francisco), SFMOMA Artists Gallery, and the Berkeley Art Center. His work can be found in the public and private collections of The Oakland Museum of California, Adobe, Stanford University, and Google. He has taught studio art at UC Berkeley, Stanford, and RISD. He currently teaches Studio Art as a tenured Professor at Duablo Valley College. Bersamina is represented by Anglim-Trimble Gallery in San Francisco, and has been placed in collections by Artsource Consulting, Heather Marx Art Advisory, and other select art consultants nationally.
Education
Yale School of Art, MFA Painting/Printmaking
San Francisco State University, BA Fine Arts, Cum Laude
Solo Exhibitions
2024 Just Eying It as I Go, Anglim Trimble, San Francisco, CA
2023 Sabbatical: Projects 2022-2023, DVC Art Gallery
2022 Community, Adobe Inc. Headquarters Gallery, San Jose, CA
2018 Pieced Together, Motospace, Brooklyn, NY
2018 Zoloft in the Fog, The Great Highway Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2018 Capture and Flow, Dominican University, San Rafael, CA
2016 Flow, Anglim Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2015 The Land Scorched, Bilpen International Ground for Creative Incentives, NSW, Australia
2013 Sea Within Me, D.I.G., New York, New York
2011 Recent Works, Galleria Pillazo RINALDI, Noepoli, Italy
2010 Sunshiny Day: Finding Optimism in Bits and Pieces, GPA, San Francisco, CA
2008 It’s Kind of Complicated, GALLERY PAULE ANGLIM, San Francisco, CA
2008 Working Through Something, DVC ART GALLERY, Pleasant Hill, CA
2006 Lining Up, MOLLUSK, San Francisco, CA
2006 Recent Work, GALLERY PAULE ANGLIM, San Francisco, CA
2003 Recent Work, GALLERY PAULE ANGLIM, San Francisco, CA
2001 Blue Room, GALLERY PAULE ANGLIM, San Francisco, CA
1997 Next to Nature, WEINTRAUB/THOMAS GALLERY, Sacramento, CA
1995 New Work, TERRAIN, San Francisco, CA
Selected Exhibitions
2024 2074, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
2023 There is Magic Here, Marin MOCA, CA
Holy Inventions, Addison Ripley Gallery, Washington, DC
Art Kala 2023, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA
Abstraction, Anglim Trimble Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2022 Power On!, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
Selected Berkeley Art Center Artists, Mills Building (Artsource), San Francisco, CA
2021 Gallery Artists, Anglim Trimble Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Drought Resistant, Ground, Tiburon, CA
2020 California People, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
This Must Be the Place, Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2019 Small Works, SFMOMA Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Sabbatical, Diablo Valley College Art Gallery, Pleasant Hill, CA
2018 The DNA of Painting, Anglim Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Untitled Art Fair, The Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA
Generation, Worth Ryder Gallery, UC Berkeley, CA
Strange Forest, The Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
2017 Detritus, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Arts, San Jose, CA
We Can Be Heroes, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
Private Collections, Bretbart/Simon Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
Benefit Art, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
Spectral Hues, Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto, CA
2016 Untitled, Miami Art Fair, Anglim Gilbert Gallery, Miami, FLA
I Look for Clues in Your Dreams, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
We will All Live Under the Sea, The Great Highway Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Botanica, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA
2015 Retrospective, Paule Anglim, GALLERY PAULE ANGLIM, San Francisco, CA
Coastal Wood II, OCEANA GALLERY, Pacifica, CA
Grand Slam, The General Store, Mill Valley, CA
Equlux, SOUTHERN EXPOSURE, San Francisco, CA
2014 Everybody’s Ocean, SANTA CRUZ MUSEUM OF ART&ART HISTORY, Santa Cruz, CA
Coastal Wood, OCEANA GALLERY, Pacifica, CA
2013 Lure, SFMOMA ARTIST’S GALLERY, San Francisco, CA
Faculty Exhibition, STANFORD UNIVERSITY
BOP, OCEANA GALLERY, Two-person exhibition (with Terry Hoff)
Pulse Miami, GALLERY PAULE ANGLIM, San Francisco, CA
2012 Group Show, GALLERY PLACE BRUGMANN, Brussels, Belgium
BOTTLECAP, San Francisco, CA
2011 Walking On Thin Ice, AMPERSAND INTERNATIONAL ARTS, San Francisco, CA
Faculty Exhibition, DIABLO VALLEY COLLEGE, Pleasant Hill, CA
2010 Space Odyssey, SOUTHERN EXPOSURE, San Francisco, CA
Armory Show, New York, NY
2009 Pipeline, SFMOMA ARTISTS GALLERY, San Francisco, CA
Faculty Exhibition, DIABLO VALLEY COLLEGE, Pleasant Hill, CA
2008 Faculty Exhibition, DIABLO VALLEY COLLEGE, Pleasant Hill, CA
Chicago Art Fair, Chicago, IL
Optic Illusion, SOUTHERN EXPOSURE, San Francisco, CA
2007 Faculty Exhibition, PONT-AVEN SCHOOL OF CONTEMPORARY ART, Pont-Aven, France
Soex Marks the Spot, San Francisco, CA
Overmapped, USF ART GALLERY, San Francisco, CA
Faculty Exhibition, WORTH RIDER GALLERY, UC BERKELEY, Berkeley, CA
2006 Momentum, SOUTHERN EXPOSURE, San Francisco, CA
Artists in the Trades, Y2Y GALLERY, San Francisco, CA
Nature/Art, FOLCRUM ART INTERNATIONAL, CA
2005 Beautiful Things, SOULARCH, San Francisco, CA
Group Show, NICHOTTA GALLERY, New York, NY
Artifactual Fictions, URBAN ART, Berkeley, CA
Faculty Exhibition, UC BERKELEY, Berkeley, CA
2004 2 1/2, SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY, San Francisco, CA
Nuit Blanche, Lost in Translation, AMPERSAND INTERNATIONAL ARTS, Paris, France
Rebus, GALLERY PAULE ANGLIM, San Francisco, CA
Place, Yoo Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2003 Cut, Copy, and Paste, DE SAISSET MUSEUM, Santa Clara, CA
Surf Culture, SAN JOSE MUSEUM OF ART, San Jose, CA
Close Calls, HEADLANDS CENTER FOR THE ARTS, Sausalito, CA
Artists on the Edge, SANTA CRUZ MUSEUM OF ART AND HISTORY, Santa Cruz, CA
Solid Gold, SOUTHERN EXPOSURE GALLERY, San Francisco, CA
2002 Attack: Attraction, MARCEL SITCOSKE GALLERY, San Francisco, CA
Looming Large, LESHER CENTER FOR THE ARTS, Walnut Creek, CA
California Dreamin’, DAVIS-KEIL FINE ART, Naples, FLA
Selected Collections
Adobe Inc
Google
Stanford University
Banana Republic
The Oakland Museum of California
Microsoft
San Francisco General Hospital
JP Morgan Chase
United States Department of State
The City of Walnut Creek
Mill Creek Trust
Piazza Hospitality
Capital One Bank
San Francisco Public Works
San Francisco Arts Commission
Swiss RE Bank
Marin Health
Birkenstock