Erika Rothenberg

Erika Rothenberg was born in Manhattan, New York, in 1950. She studied art at the University of Chicago and the School of Visual Arts in New York. For seven or eight years, Rothenberg was an art director at the McCann Erickson advertising agency and her clients included Coca-Cola and the New York Times Company. With this experience, Rothenberg turned over the purpose of advertising in her work as an artist, creating social and political commentary with wit. “Erika says things that need to be said and is seldom said as clearly or strongly,” states Stuart Spence. Stuart and Judy Spence have collected several works by Rothenberg over the years. Art critic Christopher Knight has described her work as “user-friendly art,” considering that the placement of her work in store windows or on billboards has gained a wide and diverse audience.