Born in 1935 in Ferrum, Virginia, Bernard Martin received his BFA from Richmond Professional Institute (now Virginia Commonwealth University) in 1959, and his MFA from Hunter College in New York City in 1962. He’s been a professor emeritus of art at VCU since 1992, where he was the first chair of the Department of Painting and Printmaking from 1966-1999. Martin has had numerous solo exhibitions throughout his decades long career, including three separate traveling exhibitions with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Since 1965, Martin has exhibited in over 200 national and international group exhibitions. He has been the recipient of two Fellowships with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship, as well as the Pollak Lifetime Achievement Award. Martin’s work is part of several major public collections including – The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., the Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA. Martrin created two novel covers of esteemed writer, Tom Robbins and is part of many private collections.