[bio]

As a visual artist, Roberta Fineberg (RF) focuses on the themes of serendipity, inventiveness, the development of ideas and color fields for her mixed media works. Drawn to experimentation, she explores diverse mediums and concepts such as the ephemeral (Butterfly Series), stolen moments (documentary), play, timelessness, the enduring, and the significance of matter.

Selected exhibitions include: Women of Spirit Zurcher Gallery New York (2025); Sojourner Gallery New York (2022); Phyllis Harriman Gallery New York studio shows (2020, 2022); CADAF online art fair (2020); Gallery122 New York pop-up group show (2018); Curate NY online group show (2013); Paris Photo: Photos, Femmes, Feminisme group show (2010); and private and public collections, including portraits of women writers at the Bibliothèque Nationale and Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand in Paris, France. She was awarded 15 laurels (2020-2023) from independent film festivals worldwide for her experimental smartphone camera video made during the pandemic, You Will Never Beat New York (2020). 

Other highlights include, in 2023 RF created in the public space an interactive installation, works on paper on the subject of the female body. In July 2022, RF’s Double Helix was included and exhibited at Sotheby’s preview show Contemporary Discoveries in New York City as part of the summer auction events.

Backstory:

RF was an editorial photographer while studying French in Paris in the 1980s. In France she contributed both photography and writing to publications, landing a column (photos and text) in The Saturday Review. Later, her freelance photography appeared in numerous publications, including American Girl, Le Monde, Jeune Afrique, Paris Match, L’Officiel Femme, Ms, Weltwoche, Vanguardia, among others with images licensed through stock agencies. RF’s photographs were selected for cover art by many publishers, including W.W. Norton, St. Martin’s Press, Harcourt, Bookspan, Simon & Schuster. In 1997 Macmillan published City Riders: A Story of Riding and Friendship with black-and-white photographs and text by RF on three teenage girls who ride horses at the oldest horse stable in New York City, Claremont Riding Academy. In 2003, Print Regional Design Annual New York awarded RF for book jacket photography for If Wishes Were Horses.