A Pattern Language: Michelle Grabner, Angie Wilson and Lena Wolff

June 20 - August 2, 2014
Artist Reception: Friday, June 20, 2014 7- 9 pm


"To repeat is to begin again: to affirm the power of the new and the unforeseeable." -Gilles Deleuze


CULT | Aimee Friberg Exhibitions is pleased to present A Pattern Language, an exhibition of works by Chicago based Michelle Grabner and Bay Area based Angie Wilson and Lena Wolff, which opens on June 20, 2014 and runs through August 2, 2014. The gallery, located at 3191 Mission Street in San Francisco, will host a reception for the artists on June 20 from 7:00 - 9:00pm.

A Pattern Language explores repetition and systems of pattern making, influenced by the non-linear language of quilting. The artists in this exhibit utilize different media and processes that reference a break from hierarchical structures, devising an alternative narrative to the constructs of gender, home, labor and community.  Taking its cues (and title) from Christopher Alexander’s seminal book on DIY architecture, this exhibition reflects and investigates, through recognizable patterns that are both political and intimate, the ways we occupy and relate to space, in a city that continues to expand and redefine itself.

Lena Wolff makes work deeply rooted in the labor, craft and democratic language of quilt-making. Her new cut paper constructions and sculpture are an extension of the geometric abstraction that reference star patterns in traditional quilts with new paper experiments. Drawing attention to the crisis facing artists and cultural organization in San Francisco, O San Francisco is an homage and entreaty for healing-- lifting up existing and disappeared sites and the movements and rebels that shape our city.  Angie Wilson utilizes traditional weaving methods—on a loom and by hand—that, through the use of craft, imply larger political conversations surrounding labor and consumerism in relation to the handmade.  Michelle Grabner’s abstract silverpoint works and paintings and photographs of textile patterns, bring mundane domesticity into conversation with criticality. Rearticulating found compositions including gingham patterns, crocheted blankets and abstract radiant geometry, Grabner engages a pragmatic view of home as site of living, working and making art- a nexus of ideas and doing. Each of these artists are driven by a common thread and as David Norr writes of Grabner in the introduction to her exhibition at MoCA, Cleveland, they “are driven by distinctive values and ideas: working outside of dominant systems, working tirelessly, working across platforms and towards community.”

 

BIOGRAPHIES

Wisconsin-born, Michelle Grabner works in variety of mediums including drawing, painting, video and sculpture. She is most widely known for her abstract metalpoint works and her paintings of textile patterns appropriated from everyday domestic fabric. Incorporating writing, curating and teaching with a studio practice grounded in process and productivity she has created a multi-faceted and dynamic career. Grabner holds an MA in Art History and a BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and an MFA in Art Theory and Practice from Northwestern University. She joined the faculty of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1996, and became Chair of its prestigious Painting and Drawing department in the fall of 2009. She is also a senior critic at Yale University in the Department of Painting and Printmaking. Her writing has been published in Artforum, Modern Painters, Frieze, Art Press, and Art-Agenda, among others. Grabner also runs The Suburban and The Poor Farm with her husband, artist Brad Killam. She co-curated the 2014 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art along with Anthony Elms and Stuart Comer and is presenting a solo show of works at Anne Mosseri-Molario in Basel Switzerland in June 2014.
 
Angie Wilson is an interdisciplinary artist working in textile-based sculpture, installation, and performance. Wilson received a BA in Russian from Reed College and an MFA in Fine Art from San Francisco State University. Her work has been exhibited at Headlands Center for the Arts, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, di Rosa Museum, among others. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies at the Headlands Center for the Arts, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and the National Institute of Art and Disabilities. Wilson has designed and/or constructed costumes for dance and theater companies including the American Conservatory Theater, Lines Ballet, California Shakespeare Theater, UC Berkeley, and the Destiny Arts Center. She lives and works in Oakland, California. 

Lena Wolff is an interdisciplinary Bay Area artist whose work is rooted in American folk art and craft traditions. Known primarily for her intricately detailed and tactile paper collages, Wolff also works in light sculpture, printmaking, social practice and public art projects. Her most recent work incorporates iconography based on geometric patterns and forms drawn from early American quilt making. Wolff's work is in the public art collections ofthe One Archive, Zuckerman Museum of Art, San Francisco Arts Commission, the Alameda County Arts Commission and the Cleveland Clinic, among others. She is an Artist-in-Residence at Kala Art Institute and a current member of the Drawing Center's Viewing Program in New York. Wolff lives with her partner, artist and teacher Miriam Klein Stahl and their daughter in Berkeley, California.

Michelle Grabner - Untitled (Black l), Archival inkjet print 40 x 30 inches, 2014
Michelle Grabner - Untitled, Silverpoint on wood 18 inch-diameter, 2014
Lena Wolff - O San Francisco, Paper quilt with hand cut and painted papers 45 x 45 inches, 2014
Michelle Grabner - Untitled, Canvas on gesso on panel 18 x 12 inches, 2011
Michelle Grabner - Untitled (white), Canvas and gesso on panel 18 x 10.5 inches, 2011
Michelle Grabner - Untitled (white/red), Gingham rubbing on gesso 12 x 12 inches, 2011
Michelle Grabner - Untitled (dot tondo), Flashe and black gesso on canvas 30 inch diameter, 2014
Lena Wolff - Connected Stars, Paper quilt with hand cut and painted papers, watercolor, gouache, 18 x 36 inches, 2014
Lena Wolff - Radiant Star, painted birch 60 x 60 inches, 2014
Lena Wolff - Black Star, Collage with hand-cut and painted papers 18 x 18 inches, 2014
Lena Wolff - White Star, Collage with hand-cut papers 18 x 18 inches, 2013
Michelle Grabner - Untitled (red), Archival inkjet print 40 x 30 inches, 2014
Angie Wilson - Entrance, Linen and wool yarn, hanging panel:38 x 72 x 3/8 inches, floor panel: 38 x 62 x 3/8 inches, 2009-2014
Lena Wolff - Blue Star (Composed of Triangles), Collage with watercolor and hand-cut paper 18 x 18 inches, 2012
Michelle Grabner - Untitled, Paint marker and gesso on panel 12 x 12 inches, 2014
Lena Wolff - This Camp, Polymer and wood type letterpress 18 x 14 inches, Produced with Kala Art Institute for Queer Communities in Print/SGCI conference in SF, 2014; porfolio curated by Corinne Teed and Jaime Knight
Lena Wolff - Broken Dahlia (black), Collage with hand-cut and painted papers, acrylic, watercolor, gouache 29 x 29 inches, 2014
Lena Wolff - White Dahlia, Collage with hand-cut paper 30 x 30 inches, 2013
Lena Wolff - One And Other, Collage with hand-cut and hole-punched papers, acrylic, watercolor, gouache 8.5 x 6.5 inches, 2014
Angie Wilson - Traditional Queer Double Wedding Ring Quilt, Repurposed garments, fabric, thread 60 x 60 inches, 2009

Upcoming

NICKI GREEN: Eye of the Fountain
September 6 - December 21, 2024

Current

AMY NATHAN: Compass Rose Hips
June 8 - September 7, 2024

Past

RUXUE ZHANG: Alien Life
May 1 - July 13, 2024

CULT TURNS 10
10 Year Anniversary Exhibition
January 18 - March 2, 2024

TERRI LOEWENTHAL
Mountain Goat Mountain

September 15 – November 18, 2023

Time is a Tangled Web: Mary Fernando Conrad, Sophronia Cook, Cross Lypka, Tyler Cross, Zhivago Duncan, Jean Isamu Nagai, Rachel Kaye, Ruth Charlotte Kneass at CULT Bureau, Oakland
September 28 - December 16, 2023

Last Light: Luz Carabaño, Sophronia Cook, Cross Lypka, and Aidan Koch
June 23 - August 26, 2023

ECHO ECHO: Rachel Bridges and Ivan Bridges at CULT Bureau, Oakland
March 2 - August 5, 2023

RHONDA HOLBERTON: Two Handfuls Of Silver Dust
April 27 - June 17, 2023

LEGACY: Binta Ayofemi, Adrian L. Burrell, Rachel Bridges, Ivan Bridges, Masako Miki, and Jean Isamu Nagai
January 18 - April 1, 2023

ZHIVAGO DUNCAN: Measuring Consciousness
September 15 - December 10, 2022

CULT Bureau: Gaze Interrupted
September 17 - November 19, 2022

AMY NATHAN: Slipknot Loophole
May 14 - August 26, 2022

REBEKAH GOLDSTEIN: Welcome Home Stranger
March 19 - May 7, 2022

Sapiens / Stories at CULT Bureau
November 10, 2021 - April 30, 2022

Physics & Fiction
January 20 - March 12, 2022

CHRIS FALLON: Irresistible Deception
October 15 - December 18, 2021

Sapiens / Stories on 8-Bridges
October 7 - November 3, 2021

MASAKO MIKI: New Mythologies
June 16 - October 12, 2021

Tales of Metamorphosis: Rebekah Goldstein, James Perkins, and Amy Nathan
June 3 - 30, 2021

Janus II - CULT's 7 Year Anniversary Exhibition
April 9 - May 20, 2021

TROY CHEW: Yadadamean
October 17 - December 12, 2020

We’re all in this together
August 14 - October 10, 2020

Beyond Words
June 26 - August 29, 2020

Ritual of Succession
January 10 - March 28, 2020

Record of Succession at fused space
January 13 - March 27, 2020

AMY NATHAN: Glyph Slipper
September 13 - December 7, 2019

FEMALE TROUBLE 2
June 28 - August 3, 2019

RUXUE ZHANG
April 20 - June 15, 2019

MASAKO MIKI: Shapeshifters
January 12 - March 23, 2019

JASKO BEGOVIC (SKO HABIBI): HUMAN_E.T.
November 30 - December 14, 2019

REBEKAH GOLDSTEIN: See You On The Flipside
September 8 - November 25, 2018

FEMALE TROUBLE
June 9 - July 28, 2018

TERRI LOEWENTHAL: Psychscapes
March 2 - May 19, 2018

VECINOS
October 27, 2017 - January 20, 2018

RHONDA HOLBERTON: Still Life
January 10 – March 4, 2017

REBEKAH GOLDSTEIN: Release Me
October 21 - December 10, 2016

NO SHOW MUSEUM: Yves Klein, Maria Eichhorn, Daniel Knorr, Etc.
One Night Only: Monday, October 17, 2016

DESIRÉE HOLMAN: Selected Works
September 17 - October 8, 2016

SHE MOONAGE DAYDREAM:
Facundo Argañaraz, Leah Guadagnoli, Desirée Holman, Kara Joslyn, Max Maslansky, Liz Robb, Tamra Seal, Emily Weiner, & Cate White

July 16 - August 20, 2016

PABLO DÁVILA: Ladies & Gentlemen,
We Are Floating In Space

May 13 - July 9, 2016

MASAKO MIKI: Conversations with Fox, Feather, and Ghost
March 4 - April 30, 2016

SUZY POLING: Total Internal Reflection
January 15 - February 27, 2016

DAN GLUIBIZZI: You Don’t Have to be Alone Tonight
November 6 – December 19, 2015

FRANCESCO IGORY DEIANA: Haptic Render
September 11- October 31, 2015

SEXXXITECTURE: Daniel Gerwin, Rebekah Goldstein, Roman Liška, Max Maslansky, May Wilson & Jake Ziemann
July 1 - August 1, 2015

ADAM SORENSEN: In Situ
May 1 - June 27, 2015

KLARA KÄLLSTRÖM & THOBIAS FÄLDT: Village / High Hills
February 27 - April 25, 2015

PRINCE RAMA: How To Live Forever
January 25 – February 21, 2015

JOSEPH DUMBACHER & JOHN DUMBACHER: Divert (Out of Line)
November 7, 2014 – January 16, 2015

REBEKAH GOLDSTEIN: Passenger
September 12 – November 1, 2014

A PATTERN LANGUAGE: Michelle Grabner, Angie Wilson & Lena Wolff
June 20 - July 19, 2014

MICHELLE BLADE: Gathering Into Being
April 25th – June 7th, 2014

MIGUEL ARZABE: /*Reject Algorithms*/
March 7 – April 19, 2014

JACQUELINE KIYOMI GORDON: Drawings
March 7 – April 19, 2014

FRITZ CHESNUT: Purr Valley
& Rhonda Holberton

January 10 - February 22, 2014

UNSEEN: Miya Ando, Miguel Arzabe, Chris Duncan, Klea Mckenna & Dean Smith
November 10 - December 21, 2013

Past Off-Site Exhibitions

RHONDA HOLBERTON: Still Life 2
April 7 - May 26, 2018

LAS COSAS QUE PINTAN / PAINTING IN AN EXPANSIVE FIELD
Works by Miguel Arzabe & Juan Sorrentino

April 9 – May 17, 2015

EBB: Gina Borg and Chris Russell at Loczi Design
December 10, 2014