Shoshanna Weinberger Caribbean-American, b. 1973

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Shoshanna Weinberger received her MFA from Yale School of Art in 2003 and BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995. Living and working in Newark, NJ, since 2006, Weinberger’s work references her Caribbean-American background, which explores the complexity of heritage and the psychology of peripheral identity. She considers herself a visual anthropologist, cataloguing and surveying these experiences that ultimately question notions of assumed beauty norms and identity through ongoing serial works that result in abstract paintings, drawings, collage, mixed media, and  culptural installations.

Originally from Jamaica, Weinberger moved to Montclair with her family in the 1970s. Her mother was an artist and her father a craftsman; creativity was  therefore an essential part of her upbringing. She moved to Bed-Stuy in  Brooklyn after college and relocated to Newark about 12 years ago. Since then, she has helped bring attention to the resurgent arts community by displaying  her work in nearby galleries and museums.

Weinberger works in a grid format using gouache and India ink, which she claims are unforgiving materials. Her work is inspired by a range of topics from political tension and social discourse to beauty, fashion and pop art. Weinberger has held a two-year appointment as the 2019-2021 McMillan Stewart Endowed Chair in Painting at Maryland Institute College of Art; in 2022, Weinberger was invited to teach by the Department of Art, Culture and Media, as Adjunct Professor, Rutgers University-Newark Campus. Also, invited as a Visiting Artist at University of Colorado – Boulder, this February 2023; and invited as a Visiting Artist at Anderson Ranch Art Center, Snowmass Village, CO, forthcoming July 2023. Public collections include: New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ; The Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ; The Sagamore Collection, Miami, FL; Girls Club Collection, Fort Lauderdale, FL; The Margulies Collection, Miami; Davidson College, Davidson, NC; The AC Kingston Collection, Kingston, JA; Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE.