Lady Liberty: A Bonnie Lautenberg Retrospective features more than 30 works by Lautenberg, and premieres several new works created especially for this museum show which are being exhibited for the first time.
Bonnie Lautenberg is an artist, photographer and writer based in New York and Palm Beach. Her works have been featured in gallery shows, museums and art fairs throughout the country.
In 2022, Lautenberg was appointed by the White House to the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts (PACA) which sustains and guides the Kennedy Center, the National Cultural Center of the United States.
“Our museum is thrilled to premiere this retrospective of Bonnie Lautenberg’s images of women shining a light on liberty,” says Susan Gladstone Pasternack, the Executive Director of the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. “In capturing the independent spark of these women through her art, Bonnie Lautenberg reminds us we should never take our freedoms for granted.”
The Museum is located in South Beach at 301 Washington Avenue, in the historic Art Deco District and is the State of Florida’s official museum dedicated to telling the story of more than 250 years of Florida Jewish history, arts and culture.
“I am so honored to be selected by the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU during, especially at this time when women’s issues are at the forefront,” says Bonnie Lautenberg.
Another new work by Lautenberg is titled Wanted, honouring the historical icon Harriet Tubman who bravely led enslaved Black people to freedom in the 1800s without ever getting caught.
This diptych features one of the notorious “Wanted” posters from that era that slave owners used in the 1800s to try to capture Tubman. Lautenberg juxtaposes historic images of the American abolitionist next to actress Cynthia Erivo who portrayed the freedom fighter in the 2019 film Harriet. In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the movement for women’s suffrage. 
The Pop Rocks series of photos by Bonnie Lautenberg
The museum retrospective also includes Lautenberg’s concert photos of Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry from her series Pop Rocks, alongside images from her other series of works she photographed in New York, Miami, Washington, Italy, California, and Asia.
Art Meets Hollywood Series by Bonnie Lautenberg
In her Art Meets Hollywood series of digital collages, Lautenberg recognizes femme fatales for breaking through barriers in male-dominated times.
In each diptych, Lautenberg pairs scenes from their famous films with iconic works of art that were created in the same year as each movie.
The artist channels the creative zeitgeist these women might have inspired between filmmakers and visual artists during each year she intuitively chronicles.
To Lautenberg, these stars inspired our popular culture with their own singular nods to freedom, including Barbra Streisand, Viola Davis, Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, Octavia Spencer, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, Olivia Newton-John, and more.
Artistic Projects Brimming at the National Level
Bonnie Lautenberg is an esteemed artist, producer, writer and photographer with multiple projects currently brimming at the national level.
Her work is in several private and museum collections, including the permanent collections of The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture; the Boca Raton Museum of Art; the Collection of Norman and Irma Braman; New York Historical Society Museum; the Broad Museum in Los Angeles; The Newark Museum of Art; Portland Museum of Art; and Stillman College Art Gallery in Alabama, among others.
Lautenberg’s work has been shown at galleries, art fairs and venues across the country: the Jean Albano Gallery in Chicago; the 92nd Street Y in New York; Monika Olko Gallery in Sag Harbor; Sponder Gallery; the Art Miami fair during Art Basel Miami Beach; the Palm Beach Modern and Contemporary fair; C. Parker Gallery in Greenwich; Vertu Fine Art; the Turkish Embassy at the United Nations; the U.S. Embassies in Madrid and Berlin; Art Market Hamptons; The White Room Gallery in Bridgehampton, NY; and Art Southampton fair.
Her work was featured in the recent gallery show at David Benrimon Fine Art in New York, titled Rethinking America, alongside works by Warhol, Lichtenstein, Longo, Kass, and Ed Ruscha.
These artworks are especially trending during Women’s History Month, and the months of March and April are peak tourism months when millions of travellers visit South Beach.
Bonnie Lautenberg is the widow of the late Senator Frank Lautenberg, one of Washington’s longest-serving Senators (from 1982 to 2001, then again from 2003 until his death in 2013).
Her series of portraits of U.S. Senators How They Changed Our Lives: Senators As Working People is in the Library of Congress online in perpetuity, and was exhibited at Mana Contemporary in New Jersey.
She has been described as “having enough Washington insider stories to fill a book” (her new book will be released by Rutgers University Press next year, about the life of her late husband Senator Frank Lautenberg, including her photography).
With her current partner Steve Leber, Lautenberg is co-producing a new Broadway musical about the life of Andy Warhol, approved by the Warhol Foundation.
Slated to debut in London next year before coming to the U.S., the new musical will be directed by Sir Trevor Nunn, with a book by Rupert Holmes.
The Lady Liberty Series by Bonnie Lautenberg
The exhibition includes her portrayals of the Statue of Liberty confronting some of today’s most challenging issues.
One of her Lady Liberty works is currently on view at the New York Historical Society Museum’s Center for the Study of American Culture, in an exhibition about how New York artists found original ways to express their appreciation for healthcare workers during the pandemic.
Another artwork in the Lady Liberty series by Lautenberg is her response to the recent Supreme Court vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade. It is titled Tears of Roe, a large-scale lightbox with tears running down the Statue of Liberty’s cheeks and the word Roe added to her crown, lamenting the current challenges to women’s freedoms making headlines today.
The artist created a new work titled Tears of Roe, especially for this new solo museum exhibition during Art Basel Miami Beach. The artwork is capturing attention nationwide. “I hope that grandmothers, mothers, daughters and granddaughters look upon Tears of Roe as a reminder of the freedom of choice women had for 50 years,” adds Lautenberg.
One of her new works in the Lady Liberty series is Guns Kill and benefits the Gabby Giffords Foundation to save lives from gun violence.
The non-profit organization Giffords.org selected Lautenberg’s artwork as part of its 10th anniversary and is joining forces with the artist Bonnie Lautenberg at this link for donations – giffords.org/miamiexhibit. Contributors will receive a first-edition, fine art print of Guns Kill, signed by Lautenberg. All 100% of the proceeds will benefit the organization’s mission to protect Americans from gun violence.
Powerful Images of Women Championing Freedom
Lady Liberty – A Bonnie Lautenberg Retrospective
These artworks are especially trending during Women’s History Month . . . millions of travellers visit South Beach during the peak tourism months of March and April.
Extended by popular demand for an additional month! On view through April 30th at the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU, located in South Beach at 301 Washington Avenue.
Edited by: Administrator
