Today we’d like to introduce you to Jud Bergeron
Hi Jud, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Making art was always very important growing up. I come from 7 generations of artists on my father’s side of the family, my grandmother, who never graduated high school, ended up getting a degree from RISD when she was 65, my father had a degree in fine art and architecture, my grandfather was an engraver and on and on it goes. I attended high school in Guilford Connecticut and I was lucky enough to have a teacher (Charolette Earhart) who was a sculptor and she introduced me to stone carving. After high school I attended The Old Lyme Academy of Fine Art which was (and still is) a strictly classical school where I studied figure and portrait sculpture and anatomy. It was at Old Lyme that I was introduced to plaster casting and ultimately bronze casting. I spent years working at bronze foundries all over the country ultimately landing at Artworks Foundry in Berkeley California an 1995 where I had the great fortune to work alongside some of the greatest sculptors like Peter Voulkos, Ruth Asawa and Stephen DeSteabler to name a few. In 1996 I had my first show in San Francisco at 111 Minna Street Gallery. By 1999 I had quit working at foundries and was focusing solely on my sculpture career, I took on fabrication jobs here and there to pay the bills and opened a gallery in San Francisco for a brief period. I began showing my work all over the world and in 2004 had my first solo show in New York. In 2006 my wife and I moved to New York and lived and worked in Manhattan for 5 years, our son was born there. In early 2011 we moved back to San Francisco and my daughter was born. At this point I had been showing regularly at galleries in Copenhagen and San Francisco and had a pretty full schedule of art fairs associated with the galleries and I began to make public art. It was through public art and specifically works created for The Grand Hyatt in San Francisco that I met Jacob Pritzker who would become my business partner and dear friend. With the help of Jacob’s brother Issac and my old friend Emily Lakin, Jacob and I founded The Space Program SF which is an artist in residency program located in The Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco. So now I get to spend my days working with incredibly talented artists realizing projects in mediums or scale that otherwise would not be available to them. It’s the most rewarding thing I’ve done in my long career, not only is giving back good for the soul but community building through the arts has been a gift and a joy.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There are no smooth roads no matter what you do. I often jokingly tell my kids that the only worse career choice (from a financial perspective) of deciding to be a sculptor would be to become a poet, although I guess a poet has a lot less equipment to move and store. As for struggles, honestly, I’ve been really lucky, hard work pays off. The only real struggles were of a personal nature, most of which I’ve overcome with age, the rest I’m diligently working on.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am primarily a sculptor however I draw, paint and make prints as well.
I specialize in bronze casting and it’s probably what I’m best known for.
I am most proud of my wife and kids, they are tremendously funny and interesting and talented. A close second would be the residency program I co-founded. And last would be my art career, I put it last because it’s a constantly moving target, there are huge wins and utter failures. Such is life.
I think what sets me apart is my ability to work with others and build community. I love connecting people and taking on huge projects. I also like to think that I’m an inherently kind person and pretty funny.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
I spoke earlier about my art career being a moving target. This is also how I would define success. Sometimes you are on top of the world and making work that is interesting to you and sometimes you are a shit Midas. While I don’t necessarily define success in terms of financial gain it plays a huge role in what I do because making sculpture is a very expensive practice so when there is no financial gain the work suffers. To put it in simple terms, I feel incredibly successful just to be able to make art every day. Oh, and the kids, can’t forget the kids.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Judbergeron.com
- Instagram: @judbergeron
