Who is Rebecca?
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Rebecca Wallerstein is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist who constructs a vibrant bridge between the physical and spiritual, fusing 1980s and 1990’s pop-culture nostalgia with the raw energy of contemporary abstraction. Her "untethered" artistic voice is the result of a lifelong academic and global odyssey. Her foundation began with training in watercolor by her artist great-aunt. She then ventured to Florence, Italy, where she immersed herself in classic and contemporary art as well as art history, followed by rigorous technical training in charcoal, figure drawing, and acrylics at the California College of the Arts (CCA). Building on this foundation, she is currently deepening her mastery of form through advanced ceramics and sculptural studies, exploring the technical interplay between clay and metal.
“The positive transformation of one person can have a tremendous impact on the total.” — RBW
After a 25-year career in graphic design, Wallerstein returned to academia to study psychology at Dominican University of California. While she initially intended to transition from research psychology to art therapy, the curriculum instead sparked a personal "soul’s transformation." This pivot allowed her to merge a designer’s precision with deep psychological insight, transforming the canvas into a sacred site for healing.
Her aesthetic pays homage to the bold, graphic lines of icons like Patrick Nagel and Roy Lichtenstein, yet she deliberately breaks from commercial rigidity through a textural, multidisciplinary approach. By building "layers upon layers" of acrylics, spray paint, and ink, she translates complex streams of consciousness into palpable forms that are simultaneously intellectually rigorous and spiritually free. Her work often echoes the uninhibited energy of street and outsider art, capturing the movement of the human psyche.
“It is my wish that, through my work, I may touch another’s soul through my art. I hope to move the audience in such a way that the love I put into my work will ripple out into the world, helping to heal all those it encounters and who they encounter.” — RBW
Her award-winning ceramics and sculptures continue this theme in bridging her background in psychology and design with a tactile and visual multidisciplinary art. It is through the intersection of these disciplines that inform and inspire her to further pursue how her mind and hands connect through form. Through the use of ceramics and metal she translates complex cognitive concepts into physical, three-dimensional reality, earning recognition for its raw, industrial elegance and the visceral way it mirrors the human experience.
Guided by a childhood mandate from her great-aunt to "paint the spaces in between" and the Japanese philosophy of Wabi-Sabi, Wallerstein prioritizes the essence of perception over literal representation. For Wallerstein, art is a mission of service. She views her evocative compositions as sanctuaries for introspection, intended to spark a "ripple effect" of positive change. By inviting viewers to explore their own "innerverse," she hopes to inspire a collective shift toward joy, healing, and self-love.
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