Pauline Bern

Pauline Bern (born 1952) is a New Zealand jeweller.

Pauline Bern
Born	Pauline Bern 1952 (age 72–73) Auckland, New Zealand
Known for	Jewellery

Early life

Bern was born in Auckland in 1952.

Career

Bern is a self-taught jeweller who began making jewellery while living in the United States in the 1970s.^[1] She has exhibited consistently in New Zealand since the mid 1980s.^[2] In 1988 she became a lecturer in craft design at Carrington Polytechnic in Auckland (now Unitec Institute of Technology).^[3] In 1992 Bern became Head of Jewellery, and continued to teach at Unitec until 2012, working with a number of students who went on to become significant artists in their own right, including Areta Wilkinson, Octavia Cook, Jane Dodd and Joe Sheehan.^[2]

Work

Bern's work often references domestic activity.^[4] A necklace of silver strands woven to resemble small steel wool pot scrubbers won her the Thomas Foundation Gold Award in 2000,^[5] and the piece she created as a result, made from 80 metres of 18ct gold wire, is in the collection of the Dowse Art Museum.^[5]

Recognition

In 2003 Bern was awarded the Creative New Zealand Craft/Object Art Residency, giving her the opportunity to spend two months working with other jewellers at the Gray Street Workshop in Adelaide.^[6] Major exhibitions include 'Strain, Grate, Whisk, Scrub' which toured New Zealand galleries in 2000–01 and 'Colonial Goose' at Objectspace, Auckland, in 2011.^[6][7]