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Featured Artist Robin L Bergman

Robin Bergman wearing stripe cloche and fingerless gloves.

Upcoming Events:

  1. Robin will have new accessories in the Artful Home catalogue for the Annual Scarf & Accessories Boutique launching the week of October 11. Click here to view her pieces.
  2. Her creations will be part of a virtual show at SA+C (the Society of Arts and Crafts), in place of the Craft Boston Holiday Show, for 7 weeks from November 12 to December 31.
  3. Beginning in Mid-October, Robin’s work will be available at Clever Hand Gallery in Wellesley (52 Center Street).
  4. In December, Robin will be showing (virtually) with the NY Crafts at the Cathedral Show.
To find Robin’s work online:
Award-winning Arlington artist and designer Robin Bergman uses luxury yarns and natural fibers to create hand-loomed knitted clothing and accessories. Loom knitting is a manual process like weaving, using a knitting machine. Robin’s inspirations include oriental rugs, vintage and antique garments, and textiles. All of her designs and fabrics are original and hand-finished in her West Concord studio.
Robin graduated with an MFA in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD. While there, artist Grace Hartigan saw that her true love was fiber, and encouraged her to bring textiles into the studio. After graduate school, her aesthetic sensibilities were further refined by experience as a textile conservator at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston (1980-1984).
Drawing on her training as a painter, emphasis is on treating the sweater surface more like a canvas, experimenting with surface design and unusual juxtapositions of color, texture, pattern and scale—in effect, painting with yarns. Fibers include silk, rayon, cotton, hand-dyed cashmere, bamboo, and rayon chenille. Most garments have between ten and thirty colors.
The making of knitted pieces is particularly challenging because the fabric, patterning and shaped garment pieces are created simultaneously. Fit and comfort are also important; these are not just ceremonial pieces that cannot be worn. Pattern shapings are deceptively simple using short rowing and subtle shaping detail to achieve a total integration of the garment shape with the graphic and painterly surface, allowing the wearer to become the artwork. Robin also explores similar surface design, color, and patterning in quilts and seed beads.
Robin has received much press acclaim with feature articles and covers in publications including Ornament Magazine, American Craft Magazine, Surface Design Journal, Fiber Art Now, The New York Times & The Boston Globe, and is featured in many books including The Art of Beadwork, 2005, The Fiberarts Book of Wearable Art, 2002, and in the Surface Design Journal in Spring 2002 and 1999. Her work has appeared in Hollywood films “The Night Listener” and “Soul Food”, and is in the private collections of Carly Simon, Stephen Tyler, Sweet Honey & The Rock, and others.
“The runway did not do Robin Bergman’s line justice. Her pointillism-like knitting becomes even more fascinating when touched and seen up close. Her craftsmanship [is] raised to the level of couture in an area that defies the very category. Her use of color and texture has become her hallmark.”
—Robert Rowe, Maverick Magazine, Fall 1993″
Receiving 11 Awards from Niche Magazine for craft excellence, Robin also won the 1998 “Clothing the Muse” Award at the Muse of the Millennium invitational Fiber Arts exhibition, which is sponsored by the Seattle Weavers’ Guild. She received awards in 1991 and in 1988 from the Arlington Arts Council, and the 1988 Moxie Award for Young Designers from the Fashion Group of Boston. Robin has also taught workshops and served as a juror for many nationally acclaimed shows. Her work appears regularly at high-caliber shows around the country such as the American Craft Council shows and Craft Boston, and her work is sold in galleries, boutiques, and museum shops nationally and abroad, under the Robin Originals label. Robin has been an Arlington resident since 1980, homeowner since 1984, and business owner since 1984. This year she celebrates 36 years in business.

 

Chenille Woodblock Pleat Tunic & Scarf Manually loom knit, sewn & hand-finished to emphasize contrast pattern blocking. Inspired by woodblock prints. Rayon Chenille, silk, viscose. Circa 1998. 

Peluche Butterfly Coat & Accessories Manually loom Knit, sewn, hand-finished of Viscose/Rayon Chenille with vintage Czech glass beads and handmade tassels on hat and scarf. Fur-like pile fabric of Coat and Accessories is knit of Italian pile yarn with Rayon Chenille contrast border designs, texture changes and color gradation. 2005-2007

Boiled Cashmere Gingko Coat & Scarf Loom-knit of hand-dyed 4-ply cashmere/rayon chenille/bamboo/silk/merino washed & felted. Emphasis on bias shaping, contrast patterns, and textures. Changes between the matte surface of soft cashmere and the sheen & drape of the chenille and other yarns gives the pattern an embossed look and feel. 2015

Brocatto Surcoat in Boysenberry Manually loom Knit, sewn, hand-finished of Bamboo/Viscose. Emphasis on embossed texture contrast, pattern & color gradation, shaping. Inspired by antique Brocade and velvet fabrics and Medieval garments. (Brocatto means brocade in Italian.) Vintage button. 2018

Robin in her West Concord Studio with her dog, Pommery.

Are you a local artist? If you would like to join other artists of all disciplines for support, mentoring, and camaraderie, please reach out to ArtLinks Arlington!