About The Artist
Cheselyn Amato is an interdisciplinary visual artist, global citizen and lightworker for justice and social transformation. She works across the disciplines – 2D, 3D and 4D – with an emphasis on enacting circumstances for the experience of sublimity, awe, wonder and delight in the midst of uncertainty and suffering in the world via the orchestration of visual props and cues, colored light phenomena, video projection, vocalization/sounding, and choreographies of gesture and movement. The work is made as instigator of experience, of presence, of all that is revealed when we pay close attention: look and see, listen and hear. Cheselyn’s work reflects and chronicles her lifelong spiritual, aesthetic and humanitarian journey. She has been teaching art students for decades and has recently added spiritual care and bereavement counseling to her toolkit as light worker and doula for personal, social, societal and global transformation and for the triumph of justice, love, beauty and abundance.
Cheselyn is a New Jersey girl with NYC at her core. She spent 20 years in Chicago where she lived and taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and in 2006, Cheselyn moved to Davis in Northern California for fifteen years until moving to San Rafael outside of San Francisco in 2021. Cheselyn has taught at American River and Sierra Community Colleges as well as AiCASAC and CCA. She earned her BA in studio art and comparative religious studies at Brown University, an MFA in drawing, painting and new genres at Tyler School of Art of Temple University, and an MTS at GTU/PSR in Berkeley in Interfaith Chaplaincy and Justice & Social Transformation. Cheselyn is currently serving as Spiritual Support Counselor at By The Bay Health. Her work is exhibited nationally and has been included in exhibitions at the Jewish Museum in NYC, the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, and Spertus Institute of Judaica in Chicago with works in the permanent collections.
Oil Paint, Drawing, Digital Art, Photography, Mixed Media, Sculpture
Studio Information
Osher Marin Jewish Community Center
Contact Information
847-840-6587
Exhibitions & Press
2025
Marin Open Studios 2025, Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, San Rafael, CA, May 3-4/May 10-11, 2025
The Queen’s Table and Mystical Presentments, Chochmat Halev, Berkeley, CA, 1/26/2025 and continuing
2024
Artist-in-Residence, Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts, Charleston, SC, 9.16.2024-10.26.2024 – https://fsa.art/residencies/artist-in-residence-fall-2024-cheselyn-amato/ – Open Studio Exhibition & Performance, 10.17.2024; Bereshit Drash & Artist Talk at Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, Charleston, 10.25.2024
Bereshit Drash & Artist Presentation, Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, Charleston, SC, October 25, 2024 – Shabbat Evening Service with Guest Artist Cheselyn Amato (Bereshit Drash (21:37-27:27); Artist Presentation in conjunction with Parsha Bereshit (56:50-1:12:12) – https://vimeo.com/kkbe
Cheselyn Amato, Artist-in-Residence, Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts, Charleston, SC – Open Studio Exhibition, Beacons for Interconnectivity and Connection, 10.17.2024 – https://youtu.be/RGH-MKE55kA
The California Jewish Open, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA (through December 15, 2024) – https://www.thecjm.org/exhibitions/234
“Cheselyn Amato and Ruth J. Gendler in Conversation,” The California Jewish Open, Contemporary Jewish Museum, SF, 7.21.2024 – https://youtu.be/-6PIZ1-S7Bk
ART FWD, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Novato, CA
Megillah Esther, Performance (3.23.2024), joint event Chochmat HaLev and Urban Adamah, Berkeley, CA
Celestial Presentments, Marin Open Studios, Crome Architecture, San Rafael, CA
Radiant Fields Series, Post Montgomery Center, San Francisco, SLATE Art Consulting, Oakland, CA
Illuminating Perspectives: Exploring Light in Innovative Art, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, CA
2023
Genesis: The Beginning of Creativity, Curators: Richard McBee, Joel Silverstein and Goldie Gross, NYC
Ingenium Creatives, Think Tank Symposium, organized by Cathy Allen and Suzie Khalil, Las Vegas, NV
Altered Realities, MarinMOCA, curated by Chester Arnold, Novato, CA
2022
JADA Miami / JADA Paris, Online Exhibitions in in conjunction with live exhibitions in both locations
Chochmat Halev Community Exhibition, Berkeley, CA
Conney Project Online Exhibition in conjunction with the 2022 Conney Conference, Madison, Wisconsin
2021
Jerusalem Biennale: Four Cubits, #Take Me Home, “World Shadow: Four Kinds of Cubit – Personal, Social, Public, Divine, 2021, Radiant Film/Silhouettes/Disk/Light
Hanukkah Lamp (in honor of Susan L. Braunstein, curator Emeritus, the Jewish Museum, NYC), acquired by the JM, June 15, 2021, Radiant Film/Silhouettes/Acrylic Disk/Light
Welcome Lantern, Chochmat Halev Community: Home for the Jewish Heart, Berkeley, CA, installation in conjunction with High Holidays 2021 presented via ZOOM, Radiant Film/Silhouettes/Acrylic Disk/Light
2020
JADA In Paris, Panel Discussion: The Death of Irony and the Birth of New Sincerity, October 24, 2020
Creativity in an Uncertain Time, JAS Open Studios Session presentation, October 13, 2020. Covid19.The Art of Isolation, Curator’s Voice Art Project, Online Exhibitions
Thriving in Place: The Art of Resilience and the Twin Pandemics of COVID19 and Racism, Abrams Claghorn Gallery, Albany, CA
Sacramento Open Studios, sponsored by Verge Center for the Arts, Sacramento, CA
2019
Contingent Upon, Ridley Gallery, Sierra College, Rocklin, CA
2018
Big Issues: Time’s Up, JayJay Gallery, Sacramento, CA
Visions of the Chevra Kadisha, Chochmat Halev, Berkeley, CA
2017
The Golem Show, Brooklyn Jewish Art Gallery/CHL, Brooklyn, NY
The Speak Listen Milagros Project, organized by Roma Devanbu, AXIS Gallery, Sac, CA
Through the Lens of The Cured Romantic’s Telescope to Heaven, AXIS Gallery, Sac,
Love Life Chaya Chesed Codex: A Mini-Retrospective 1987-2017, AXIS Gallery, Sac, CA
2016
All The Love, AXIS East Gallery, Sacramento, CA
Sacramento Open Studios, Verge Center for the Arts, Sacramento, CA
Flat File Show, AXIS East Gallery, Sacramento, C
Uncontrollable Beauty|An Odyssey|Everything We Need Is Always With Us, AXIS Gallery, Sacramento, CA
2015
The Art Auction, benefitting Verge Center for the Arts, Sacramento, CA
The Jerusalem Biennale: Women of the Book Project, International Women’s Visual Torah, First Station Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel
The Preview Show, Sacramento Open Studios, Verge Center for the Arts, Sac, CA
Flat File Show, East Gallery, AXIS Gallery, Sacramento, CA
Swag with Love, AXIS East Gallery, Sacramento, CA
2013
The Pink Show, Contemporary Center for the Arts, Sacramento, CA
(Extra)ordinary Evidence, Chochmat Halev Gallery, Berkeley, CA
Visual Discourses on the Abrahamic Religions, Trio Interfaith Project, Islamic Cultural Ctr, Oakland, CA
2012
Flatlanders on the Slant, Nelson Gallery, UC Davis, CA
The End, Tangent Gallery, Sacramento, CA
Diverse Visions of Harmony, Islamic Cultural Center, Oakland, CA
2011
Women of the Book, International Visual Torah Project, currently online
Discourses in Color, Geometry, Swags & Swoons, Gallery A, Sierra College, Rocklin, CA
Sanctuaries in Time, JWAN, Kraft Center, Columbia University, NYC
2010
Dura Europos Project, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Reinventing Ritual, The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA (travel from the JM, NYC)
The Fear Show, Tangent Gallery, Sacramento, CA
Generation D: Identities, Flomenhaft Gallery, NYC, 12/14/2010
Seduced by the Sacred. JCC/Charter Oak, Hartford, CT
Emanating Stars, Friedman Gala Tribute Event, Sacramento, CA
Group Show, Rockridge Library, Oakland, CA
Liberation Garden: Healing and Redemption After Slavery, Afikomen Judaica, Berkeley
2009
Reinventing Ritual, The Jewish Museum, NY, NY
What Does It Say To You?, Spertus Museum, Chicago, IL
Faculty Exhibition, American River College, Sacramento, CA
Faculty Exhibition, Sierra College, Rocklin, CA
Old Story New Work: 80 Artists at the Passover Table, The Dorothy Saxe Invitational, The Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM), San Francisco, CA
2008
Sierra College Faculty Show, Union Hall Gallery, Sacramento, CA
Flatlanders: Regional Roundup II, Nelson Gallery, UC Davis, Summer 2008
American River College Faculty Show, Union Hall, Sacramento, CA
2007
The New Authentics, Spertus Museum, Chicago, IL
Books, Reviews, Journals, Catalogs, and Cover Art
2023 Genesis: The Beginning of Creativity, edited by Goldie Gross, exhibition organized by Joel Silverstein, Richard McBee, and Goldie Gross with Abigail H. Meyer and Susan Maishlish, Interchurch Center/Riverside Church/Jewish Theological Seminary, NYC
2023 The Space Between, curated by Karen M. Gutfreund, The Project Gallery at ARC, San Francisco, CA
2023 Our Fractured Planet: Reflections on Climate Change and the Environment, edited by Rabbi Debra Smith, Hineni Press
2020 Every Woman Artist Exhibited at the Jewish Museum, – In honor of International Women’s Day, explore our master list of every woman artist exhibited at the Jewish Museum 1947–2020, March 8, 2020 – Every Woman Artist Exhibited at the Jewish Museum 1947-2020 – 3.8.2020 and https://stories.thejewishmuseum.org/every-woman-artist-exhibited-at-the-jewish-museum-1947-2020-84b2875419c3
Shoshana Gugenheim, Women of the Book, ongoing project
Z. Soltes, Tradition and Transformation, Three Millennia of Jewish Art and Architecture, 2016
Rami Ozeri, The Jerusalem Biennale, catalog, 2015
Elana Maryles Sztokman, The Men’s Section, Brandeis University Press, 2011, cover art
Sanctuaries in Time, exhibition catalog, 2011
The Dura Europos Project: An Ancient Site Revisited, exhibition catalog, 2010
Seduced by the Sacred: Forging A New Jewish Art, exhibition catalog, 2010
Promised Lands: New Jewish American Fiction on Longing and Belonging, Edited by Derek Rubin, Brandeis University Press, 2010, cover art
500 Judaica, Lark Books, 2010
Richard McBee, Reinventing Ritual, The Jewish Press, 10/7/2009
Daniel Belasco, Reinventing Ritual, Yale University Press, 2009
New Works/Old Story: 80 Artists at the Passover Table, The Dorothy Saxe Invitational, organized by the Contemporary Jewish Museum, SF, 2009
Flatlanders 2: Regional Roundup, UC Davis, The Richard L. Nelson Gallery, 2008
Diane Chin Lui, Dreamers and their Visions, The Davis Enterprise, August 11, 2008, A9
Sharon Cohen, The Arts: A Museum of Great Reflection, Hadassah Magazine, April 2008
Menachem Wecker, Post-Jewish Painting and Its Discontents, The Jewish Press, Jan. 23, 2008
Gloria Orenstein, Jewish Contemporary Women Artists, Nashim, Fall, Number 14, 2007
Alan Artner, New exhibit gives modern focus to Spertus tradition, Chicago Tribune, Dec. 5, 2007
Blair Kamin, Blades of Glass, Chicago Tribune, Arts and Entertainment, November 25, 2007
Kevin Nance, The 2007 Fall Preview: Visual Arts, Chicago Sun-Times, Sunday, Sept. 16, 2007
Staci Boris, New Authentics, catalog published in association with exhibition, 2007
Leslie Kaufman, On the Metaphysical in Art, Inside Magazine, Winter 2005, pp.50-53.
Harriet Goodheart, The True Mysteries, Not Celebrities, of Kabbalah, The Jewish Exponent, Vol. 219/No.13, 12/22/05
Miriam Seidel, The Hidden Garden: Three Artists Explore Kabbalah, exhibition catalog, 2005
Gloria Orenstein, Contemporary Jewish Women Artists Visualize the Invisible, FEMSPEC, 2005
Dan Bischoff, The Star Ledger, October 1, 2004, p. 52.
NEWS-RECORD of South Orange and Maplewood, NJ, September 9, 2004, p. 3.
Tina Wasserman, Dialogue, Arts in the Midwest, Sept/Oct 1996
James Yood, New Art Examiner, 23, 10 (Summer 1996), pp. 41-42.
Lisa Stein, New City, May 16-22, 1996, p. 22.
Lori Gray, The Chicago Tribune, February 24, 1995
Contemporary Art Workshop 1949-1989, designed & written by Alex Nelson, Chicago, IL
Garrett Holg, Departures from Architecture, New Art Examiner, 16,10 (June, 1989), pp. 45-46.
Cara Glatt, Leopold Bloom ate with relish…,Hyde Park Herald, 3/15/89, pp. 10, 20.
Michael Bonesteel, Pioneer Press, Evanston, IL, 3/19/89
Larry Lundy, Interiors, New Art Examiner, 15,4, (December, 1987), pp. 48-49.
Education
MTS, Art, Spirituality, Spiritual Care and Social Justice/Transformation, PSR/GTU
CPE, Clinical Pastoral Education, UC Davis/UC San Francisco Medical Centers
MFA, Painting & Drawing and New Genres, Tyler School of Art of Temple University, Elkins Park, PA
BA, Visual Art, emphasis Painting & Drawing, Brown University, Providence, RI
