Hannah Eve Rothbard
Hannah Eve Rothbard is a multimedia artist, curator, and writer from South Florida, based primarily in New York. She is currently a Fulbright scholar in Berlin, Germany, for the 2024-2025 academic year, working on a painting project exploring the contemporary regeneration of the German Jewish community. She holds a BFA in Studio Art from New York University with a minor in Urban Design and Architecture Studies. Rothbard has exhibited at venues including 80 Washington Square East Gallery (NY), High Line Nine Galleries (NY), the New York City Poetry Festival (NY), Soft Times Gallery (CA), the Jerusalem Biennale (IL), and she has held residency at the Materia Prima Foundation (Italy).
Collect Bean: Where are you currently finding inspiration?
Hannah Eve Rothbard: I am currently thinking a lot about Jewish femininity. Nearly every time I see them these days, both of my grandmothers take out piles of their old costume jewelry for me and my cousins to pick from. I’m very drawn to Jewish food as a subject because food is culture, but lately, I’ve also been thinking a lot about jewelry, lipstick, and other hand-me-downs that pass between generations of women.
Collect Bean: Are there any recurring themes or motifs in your art, and if so, what do they represent to you?
Hannah Eve Rothbard: Some of the recurring motifs in my work refer to places tied to my family’s history and the larger story of American Jewry. I have used palm trees for Florida and bricks for New York, the two places with the most significance in my life. I am especially interested in how collaging with these subjects can embed stories within our surroundings and histories within places.
Collect Bean: What role does color play in your practice?
Hannah Eve Rothbard: I like to use somewhat exaggerated or more saturated naturalistic colors. In this piece for Collect Bean, I incorporated pops of bright color in the sand, something subtle but fun for a playful piece. I am curious how my use of color might change this next year while I am in Germany. My Fulbright project will focus on the contemporary regeneration of the Jewish community in Berlin, which is, in fact, the fastest-growing Jewish community in the world despite a dark history. I think color might lend itself to depicting this tension.
Collect Bean: What does growth mean to you?
Hannah Eve Rothbard: Growth, to me, is what happens between milestones or accomplishments. Sometimes, it happens when you stop working towards something and just work. I’ve been thinking about that lately, as I’ve started hand-making paper and have so much to learn.
Collect Bean: How do you think your work has evolved?
Hannah Eve Rothbard: My work has evolved since I started hand-making paper. I have been experimenting with embedding materials and even collages I made into paper pulp. Some of this has become work on its own or been collaged into larger paintings. Working with a new medium always changes my thinking a bit, and even when I am not making paper, the language of papermaking informs my ideas, processes, and materials.
Collect Bean: What does your painting process look like from start to finish?
Hannah Eve Rothbard: I classify my work as “mixed media painting.” It starts with a collection: catalogs from my Grandma, Playbills from friends, Architectural Digest from neighbors, etc. I pull specific colors and patterns from magazines and work them into collages on paper, combined with materials like oil pastel and acrylic paint. These collages on paper get cut into smaller textured pieces and worked into paintings on canvas. I also often incorporate thin, textured papers that I dye with watered-down acrylic paint, metallic foils, and flat magazine clippings.
Collect Bean: What is one of your current goals as an artist?
Hannah Eve Rothbard: My current goal is to continue learning and working with paper-making methods and processes. I am interested in learning paper-casting, embossing, debossing, and other ways of creating dimensionality.
Collect Bean: Tell us about a time when you felt you found your groove as an artist.
Hannah Eve Rothbard: I’m still finding a groove, but it feels right when I achieve a balance of freedom and control. Over the past few years, I have realized that working from memory and imagination rather than reference photos is much more freeing for me and makes my work more interesting. I’m very type-A and detail-oriented. I love following lines with an X-acto knife as much as I love making a mess and beginning without a plan. So, balancing that in my work is where I find my groove.
Collect Bean: Do you have a saying that you live by?
Hannah Eve Rothbard: Trust the process. Cliché? I don’t think so.
