Portals, Pathways, and the Space Between Us: Bernheim

Located in Clermont, Kentucky, Bernheim Forest and Arboretum offers visitors from across the U.S. and internationally, the experience of a 16,322-acre forest. Bigger than the size of Manhattan Island in New York City, these acres are home to over forty miles of hiking trails, a 620-acre arboretum, a robust public art collection, a 45-year established and internationally renowned Artist-in-Residence program, an edible garden, and unique nature-based programming for all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. The diverse landscapes provide for a multitude of plants and animals, existing across habitats of mature forest, grasslands, glades, caves, and streams. This variety provides an ideal location to achieve Bernheim’s mission of connecting people with nature while expertly managing biodiversity and resiliency through focused conservation efforts.

Katinka Bock has a predilection for modest and natural materials like terracotta, wood, plaster, ceramic, leather and fabric. With a sort of delicate simplicity, she often associates these materials to found objects. For the artist, used materials hold a sense of something beyond their materiality. They are provocative because of the way in which they evoke deep, immediate emotions that precede conceptualisation. In her practice, Bock invests in the exhibition spaces and conceives her works in resonance. Just the same, she crafts a mental space in her work to subtly invite the spectator to reflect. Katinka Bock has been selected for artist residencies in France, USA, Germany and Italy at the Villa Medici, Rome in 2012-2013. In 2012 she was winner of the prestigious Fondation d’entreprise Ricard prize, France. In 2015 she received the Visual Arts Grant of the Fondacion Botin, Spain. She was nominated for the Prix Marcel Duchamp, France, and won the Prix de production 1% Marché de l’art, France.

Sora Kim is among Korea’s avant-garde artists portraying modern life conditions. She has been involved in many projects that are the result of collaborations with the socially dispossessed or through the participation of observers. By introducing personal relationships into her art, Kim proposes a new model and alternative to existing organizations and systems in our society. Sora Kim’s installations offer provocative and necessary explorations of the subjectivity of value and consumption. Sora Kim has exhibited her work internationally including the Mattress Factory (Pittsburgh), Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, ArtSonje Center, Rodin Gallery (Seoul), BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, REDCAT Gallery (Los Angeles), Atelier Hermès (Seoul), Istanbul Biennial (2007), Busan Biennale (2006), Venice Biennale (2003, 2005) and Yokohama Triennale (2005) and Espai d’Art Contemporani de Castelló in Spain.

Britni Bicknaver received a BFA in 2005 from Art Academy of Cincinnati and an MFA in 2017 from University of Cincinnati, both located in Cincinnati, OH. Her work has been featured in many exhibitions including Third Annual Red Square Film and Video Show, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH (2003); The History of the Universe Part One: In The Beginning, Museum Gallery/ Gallery Museum, Cincinnati, OH (2012); The Nothing That Is: A Drawing Show in Five Parts, The Carnegie, Covington, KY (2017); and City Under Exposure, The Main Branch of the Public Library of Hamilton County, Cincinnati, OH (2022). Bicknaver currently lives and works in Cincinnati, OH.

Brianna Kelly is a multi-media artist, musician, community song leader, and puppet apprentice living in Cincinnati, OH with her spouse and dog named Slam Dunk. She has spent the last decade in various roles exploring the intersection of the arts, contemplative spirituality, and community building, while performing and touring in many bands in the Cincinnati music scene. She is currently finishing her debut solo album to be released in 2025.