by David Bernabo
The following is an artist statement for 0000 by David Bernabo, a solo exhibition opening April 2 at Union Hall (2216 Penn Avenue).
Sometime in 2025, I became interested in old things. I found myself in the Musée Le Secq des Tournelles in Rouen, France, surrounded by centuries-old keys, chests, door knockers, and barber’s scissors, all fashioned in wrought iron. These items dated back to the 14th and 15th and 16th centuries.
They hinted at mysteries—for example, the secret key of the Duke Christian Louis II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin could be dismantled and reshaped into a tool. Superficial understandings were not the whole story. Understanding was near, but still hidden. But more than that, these items provided proof that an idea and its physical embodiment could exist for centuries.
This idea of sustained existence is quite appealing these days, what with life in America resembling a waking nightmare. Basic necessities—food, shelter, autonomy—feel at risk, temporary. Government-driven violence, exacted with an uneven volatility, most directly targeted at the backbone of America (immigrants), especially those with black and brown skin, churns constantly. And the fangs of an omnicidal, white power administration have been set on any system (food, health, air, water) that allows for sustained life.
As such, in these times, we cling to community. In the summer of 2025, artist Natalia Gomez and I met regularly to talk about art and encourage each other to make new works. While the letterpress works in this show were completed with the assistance of Haylee Ebersole at Meshwork Press in 2023 and 2024, the large paintings were a direct result of the encouragement that grew from our meetings.
Our efforts culminated in an art dinner with friends, where we both showed and discussed our new works. During a between course dinner break, our group collected in my studio to discuss two of the long paintings. Soon after this show came together.
These paintings suggest scenes of permanence and adaptation. Evidence of human-made structures, often rendered in an anti-perspective manner, are embedded into formations of mountains, waterfalls, and volcanos. There is a common language among the works, alluding to a shared world—a fantasy with unreal physics, pockets of mystery, and a general quietness.
0000 opens April 2 at Union Hall (above Bar Marco) from 6PM-9PM).
David Bernabo is an artist, musician, and independent filmmaker. He has exhibited solo and collaborative work at SPACE, 707 Penn, and Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. He performs in the bands Watererer, How Things Are Made, and How Things Are. His film work documents western Pennsylvania food systems, climate change, the studio practices of composers and artists, and the histories of iconic arts institutions like the Mattress Factory. He is most noted for Moundsville, a documentary co-directed with former Wall Street Journal writer John W. Miller, which screened on PBS for three years, and the biographical documentary Just For The Record about avant-garde composer “Blue” Gene Tyranny.
He is a founding partner at Bright Archives. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon University. His work is preserved in the Mattress Factory Archives, UbuWeb, and The Thomas & Katherine Detre Library & Archives at the Senator John Heinz History Center.
This month’s articles are generously supported by Lewis Hine Pictures America at the Frick. Discover photography’s radical capacity through May 17. Tickets now on sale.
PETRICHOR 
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