Gloria Bornstein

Bornstein, one of three sisters, was born in 1937 in the Bronx.{{Cite web |last=Gallaher |first=Rachel |date=2024-10-15 |title=Gloria Bornstein, Seattle artist and teacher, dies at 87 |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/visual-arts/gloria-bornstein-seattle-artist-and-teacher-dies-at-87/ |access-date=2024-10-16 |website=The Seattle Times}} Her parents, immigrants from Poland, operated a clothing store in the city. One of her sisters was Ida Applebroog, who also became an artist.{{Cite web |last=Heinrich |first=Will |date=2023-11-01 |title=Ida Applebroog, Whose Art Confronted Relationships, Dies at 93 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/27/arts/ida-applebroog-dead.html |access-date=2024-10-16 |website=The New York Times}} Bornstein graduated from Hunter College with a bachelor's degree in art in 1959. She graduated from Antioch University with a master's degree in psychology in 1981.

Bornstein moved to Paris in 1962 with her husband, where she worked with Krishna Reddy at Atelier 17. Upon moving to Seattle in 1968, Bornstein integrated herself into the local art scene. She taught art at several schools in Seattle, including the Bush School, Cornish College of the Arts, and the University of Washington. In 1984, Bornstein exhibited a work called "Maids in a Row – Pretty as a Picture" in the window of a Seattle bookstore. The piece, which was inspired by the Green River killer, featured flower pots scattered atop an earth mound.{{Cite news |date=1984-07-03 |title=Green River killer inspires artwork |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/anchorage-daily-news-green-river-killer/157235413/ |access-date=2024-10-16 |newspaper=Anchorage Daily News |location=Anchorage, Alaska |page=18 |via=Newspapers.com |agency=Associated Press}} In 1991, artwork by Bornstein was exhibited in the Security Pacific Gallery alongside work by Kay WalkingStick and Maxine Martell.{{Cite news |date=1991-02-27 |title=Exhibit in Seattle has its flaws, but it's still interesting |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-oregonian-exhibit-in-seattle-has-its/157235579/ |access-date=2024-10-16 |newspaper=The Oregonian |location=Portland, Oregon |page=42 |via=Newspapers.com}} When the city of Seattle rebuilt the International Fountain in 1995, Bornstein was selected as the lead artist. Her sculpture at the site, titled "Neototems," features cast-bronze whale forms rising out of the ground.{{Cite news |date=1994-08-11 |title=Seattle puts portable public art on display at several sites |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-news-tribune-seattle-puts-portable-p/157235648/ |access-date=2024-10-16 |newspaper=The News Tribune |location=Tacoma, Washington |page=54 |via=Newspapers.com}} The two forms depict a mother whale and a calf and they are positioned as though they are breaching the surface of the water. Bornstein was inspired by the oral tradition of the Coast Salish people, which states that whales used to swim under the ground between Seattle's Elliott Bay and Lake Union.{{Cite journal |last=Mays |first=Vernon |date=June 1996 |title=Fountain of Youth |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44672238 |journal=Landscape Architecture Magazine |volume=86 |issue=6 |pages=34–35 |jstor=44672238 }} The sculpture, originally placed on grass, was eventually surrounded by a concrete paved area decorated like water.{{Cite journal |last=Ross |first=Wendy |date=1998 |title=Going public in Seattle |journal=De Arte |volume=33 |issue=57 |pages=17–27 |doi=10.1080/00043389.1998.11761265}}

In 1996, Bornstein was one of several artists chosen by the Seattle Art Commission to create a temporary work of public art in downtown Seattle. Bornstein created a series of markers, collectively entitled "Shore View Points," along the city's Central Waterfront highlighting the "alternative history" of the region.{{Cite book |last=Kaufman |first=Ned |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rLWSAgAAQBAJ&q=%22gloria%20bornstein%22 |title=Place, Race, and Story: Essays on the Past and Future of Historic Preservation |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2009 |isbn=9781135889715 |via=Google Books}}{{Cite journal |last=Brook |first=Isis |date=2018 |title=Restoring or Re-storying the Lake District: Applying Responsive Cohesion to a Current Problem Situation |journal=Environmental Values |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=430 |doi=10.3197/096327118X15251686827750}} Some markers highlighted conflicts between settlers and Indigenous tribes while others presented stories of Seattle's homeless. Along with the signs, Bornstein created a "Voice Library" for residents to leave messages with their reactions.{{Cite book |last1=Potteiger |first1=Matthew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z_MunOqKJ_UC&dq=%22gloria+bornstein%22&pg=PA199 |title=Landscape Narratives: Design Practices for Telling Stories |last2=Purinton |first2=Jamie |publisher=Wiley |year=1998 |isbn=9780471124863 |pages=199 |via=Google Books}} An article in Environmental Values noted that the installation was unique in that it created a "flow of conversation" between the artwork and the viewer. In 1998, Bornstein installed a fountain featuring stepping stones inspired by early human language outside Eastern Washington University's Kennedy Library.{{Cite news |date=1998-09-28 |title=Ceremony to mark EWU library upgrade |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-spokesman-review-ceremony-to-mark-ew/157235680/ |access-date=2024-10-16 |newspaper=The Spokesman-Review |location=Spokane, Washington |page=9 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1998-10-08 |title=Renovation, expansion open new chapter for EWU library |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-spokesman-review-renovation-expansi/157235700/ |access-date=2024-10-16 |newspaper=The Spokesman-Review |location=Spokane, Washington |page=65 |via=Newspapers.com}} In 2000, she created a set of animal sculptures for Celebration Park in Federal Way, Washington.{{Cite news |date=2000-09-26 |title=Federal Way celebrates its local bounty of the arts |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-news-tribune-federal-way-celebrates/157235726/ |access-date=2024-10-16 |newspaper=The News Tribune |location=Tacoma, Washington |page=14 |via=Newspapers.com}} The Seattle Art Museum hosted her exhibit "Still Life" in 2002, consisting of items reflecting on her family's relationship to The Holocaust.{{Cite news |last=Josslin |first=Victoria |date=2022-03-29 |title=Traveling Between Grief and History on Gloria Bornstein's Train Video |work=Seattle Post-Intelligencer |pages=17 |id={{ProQuest|385577391}}}}

She installed a series of archways depicting Puyallup's history at their Link station in 2006.{{Cite news |date=2006-05-18 |title=Don't leave public out of public art process |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-news-tribune-dont-leave-public-out/157235745/ |access-date=2024-10-16 |newspaper=The News Tribune |location=Tacoma, Washington |page=B0 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Bornstein's first husband was Paul Bornstein, a scientist, professor and Yale-trained doctor specializing in heart surgery who worked at Paris' Pasteur Institute and the University of Washington. They had three daughters. The two divorced in 1979. She married her second husband, Yasuo Mori, in 1981.

Gloria Bornstein died in Seattle on September 16, 2024, at the age of 87.

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