Visual artist, Joseph Bernard was born in Port Chester, NY and educated as a painter at the University of Hartford Art School and School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where for two years, he also studied independent film history with Stan Brakhage.
For 35 years, Professor Emeritus Bernard taught fine arts at Detroit’s College for Creative Studies. Experimental collage sensibilites are evident in his paintings, films and photographs. Contemporary poetry and music remain as influences. His work is informed by travels to Provincetown, Southern California, Austin, Nashville and other locales.
His films have been exhibited at Toronto’s Funnel Theatre, Detroit Institute of Arts, Chicago Filmmakers, Rutgers University, The San Francisco Cinematheque, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Dartmouth College, Indiana University Cinema, Third Man Records in both Nashville & Detroit, Spektrum in Berlin, Dublin's Irish Film Institute, Cineinfinito in Barcelona and NYC’s Museum of Modern Art, among others.
An ongoing project is the restoration and archiving of his over 100 silent, Super-8 films made from 1977 to 1985. Slowly, they are being scanned to digital files. Joseph Bernard and his wife, MariaLuisa Belmonte, live in Troy, Michigan.
