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Time is a Tangled Web (CULT Bureau, Oakland)
Mary Fernando Conrad, Sophronia Cook, Cross Lypka, Tyler Cross, Zhivago Duncan, Jean Isamu Nagai, Rachel Kaye, Ruth Charlotte Kneass

September 28 - December 16, 2023
Artist Reception: Thursday, September 28, 2023, 6-8 PM

CULT Aimee Friberg is delighted to present Time is a Tangled Web, a group exhibition featuring work by Ruth Kneass, Mary Fernando Conrad, Sophronia Cook, Rachel Kaye, Zhivago Duncan, Jean Isamu Nagai, Cross Lypka (Tyler Cross and Kyle Lypka) and Tyler Cross at our Oakland space, CULT Bureau (482-D 49th Street in the Temescal Alley). Time is a Tangled Web opens on Thursday, September 28 and runs through November 11. The exhibition brings together works where gestures from the artists’ hands suggest a poetic dimensionality and the reverent process of craft and intentionality slows down the rampant passing of time. There will be an artist reception on September 28th, 6-8 PM.

Utilizing a range of materials and processes, the artists in Time is a Tangled Web reference the natural world, unseen energetics and the powerful role of time in the process of making. Kneass, Conrad, Cook, Kaye, Cross Lypka, Cross, Duncan, and Nagai utilize formal restraints of color, space and dimensionality to find the interstices between expansion and constriction. Time is a Tangled Web is a presentation of artists, each with a strong relationship to California, who are immersed in the physicality of their work. The passage of time is specialized within the studio, and the works selected convey how time is also a medium to be utilized for varying visual and emotional effects. The artists featured reach wide to bring the natural world to us, capturing landscape and color in their nets, preserving and reconfiguring what was once and what could be.

The two mobiles by Ruth Charlotte Kneass convey her delicate understanding of balance. The light of the driftwood mobile wavers with a breath, while the heaviness of the steel mobile turns gradually, pulled down by its inner gravity. By eliminating all extraneous elements from the medium and hanging the pieces at eye level, the viewer is swept into the hypnotic dance of each element. Observing a moving object means immersing oneself in the passage of time. Kneass’ completed works, while ever-changing, carry the kinetic and precise actions from her making process into the gallery.

Mary Fernando Conrad calls herself a solitary creature who is firmly rooted in the present, and her work is profoundly situational. Conrad based her recent book (*) making a book on artist Alan Kaprow, giving us permission to see each viewing of her work as a happening. ‘Ochre and Violet and There’s Two of Them’ is a double work, both a painting and an installation, both static and ever changing. Larry Rinder said it best when he described Mary’s work in her self-published book (*) making a book: “Nothing is the same as anything else as soon as it has the ability to trigger memory, emotion, or poetry.”

Sophronia Cook’s resin drawings are detailed condensations of her practice. She refers to her time in the studio as “extravagant time”, as within that space - physical, mental, emotional - her vast library of images can fold in on themselves. Her choice of resin as a supporting medium creates a pool of reflection while the images inside appear preserved in amber, fossils unearthed and laid bare.

Kaye’s paintings and drawings ask the eye to recognize familiar shapes and forms through her considered and repetitive mark-making and an inviting palette. Sun and Dusk play a game with each other, each a rearranging of a slanted horizon and a broken sky, sharing both bright and dark, shade and shadow.

Tyler Cross’ multi-panel paintings of acrylic and ink on linen evoke pure aesthetic rigor, the gratifying power of fields of color, and the evocative spirituality of symbolism. The works here, one dominated by blue-gray linked parenthesis layered under and over a deep umber, pink and blue, and the other with mirrored T’s in chartreuse and dark orange, oscillate off the wall in saturation.

Cross Lypka, Tyler Cross and Kyle Lypka, push the medium of ceramics beyond our expectations of how clay and glass can interact. Their collaboration takes a flat drawing, turns it into a three-dimensional piece, and then fuses the work with the elements in the kiln during the glazing process. The effort and time to create each work is visible with the pooling of glazes and crackling of surfaces, evoking the creation of a river bed or the smoothness of a limestone cliff by the ocean.

Jean Isamu Nagai, whose work is informed by the spiritual relationship between people and their landscapes, shows two paintings here that demonstrate his departure from an unadulterated repetition of pointillism to work with ethereal color and mood.

In Dopamine, Zhivago Duncan, utilizes the traditional technique of batik, laying down wax with a Tjanting (a pen-shaped tool used in batik to draw designs) directly onto his canvas, before filling in fields of color in an intensive, layered process that defies the technical impulses of oil or acrylic. The dynamic results are both surreal and primordial, heightening the dichotomy between ancient and modern.

Artist Biographies

Cross Lypka: Kyle Lypka (b. 1987 Philadelphia, PA) and Tyler Cross (b. 1992 Lancaster, CA) In 2016 they began a shared practice with the simple desire to spend time together making objects. The main objects of that desire, they explain, started out as ceramic vessels. Previously, Lypka had been pursuing figurative sculpture and Cross was studying painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. Cross Lypka have shown at Part 2 Gallery, Oakland, CA; Blunk Space in Point Reyes, CA; Anthony Meier in Mill Valley, CA; Berkeley Art Center in Berkeley, CA; Four One Nine in San Francisco, CA; Guerrero Gallery, Los Angeles; SpyProjects, Los Angeles. They live and work in Oakland, CA.

Tyler Cross (b. 1992 Lancaster, CA) studied at the San Francisco Art Institute. Outside of Tyler's solo practice, he also collaborates on sculptures with his boyfriend, Kyle Lypka. They have had solo exhibitions at pt.2 Gallery and JB Blunk Space in Point Reyes Station. They have exhibited at the MarinMOCA, de Young Museum, Berkeley Art Center, Anthony Meier, Spy Projects, CULT Aimee Friberg, and Guerrero Gallery in LA. Forthcoming exhibition at the Kadist Foundation in San Francisco. Tyler works and lives in Oakland CA.

Sophronia Cook (b. 1992, Sanger, CA) lives and works in Los Angeles, California. She received a BFA from Hampshire College and MFA/MA from San Francisco Art Institute. She has exhibited at Et Al, SOMAarts, Marin Moca, Fort Mason Center for the Arts and Spy Projects. She has been an artist in residence at Recology and Light Source in San Francisco.

Zhivago Duncan (b. 1980 in Terre Haute, Indiana) is a first-generation Syrian-American artist based in Los Angeles, California. In his work, Duncan negotiates the disconnection between physical and metaphysical consciousness through a wide range of media including elaborate large-scale paintings, drawings, raku ceramic sculptures, kinetic dioramas and immersive installations. Inspired by the evolution of human consciousness and the construction of reality through culture, Zhivago’s artistic practice coalesces into a unique story of creation drawn from imagery found in ancient texts such as the Enuma Elis, the Popol Vuh, the Dogon and Lakota myths and the Bible. By weaving elements of ancient creation myths with texts on physics, metaphysics, astronomy, artificial intelligence and contemporary philosophy, Zhivago creates fantastical worlds and his own distinctive mythology that finds its fullest expression in his paintings. Duncan received his BFA from the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London and his work has been exhibited widely at Museo Jumex (Mexico City), Pioneer Works (Brooklyn, N.Y.), Saatchi Gallery (London), CULT Aimee Friberg (San Francisco), Fredric Snitzer Gallery (Berlin), Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin) and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Querétaro (Querétaro City, Mexico), amongst others. His works are in the collections of the Perez Art Museum (Miami), the Saatchi Collection (London), the Barjeel Foundation (Sharjah, UAE), the Olbricht Collection (Berlin) and various private collections.

Rachel Kaye lives and works in San Francisco, CA. She received her BFA from California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Kaye has painted murals around the Bay Area, collaborated with her husband, artist Jay Nelson, on site-specific installations, and exhibited work in Paris, Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, Palm Beach and across the Bay Area. She recently completed a large-scale mural for the Hook Fish Restaurant in the Outer Sunset of San Francisco and has completed murals for Chandran Gallery and Facebook (Menlo Park CA). Her work has been featured in the Huffington Post, Refinery 29, Artsy & East Bay Express.

Ruth Charlotte Kneass (b. 1962 San Francisco, CA) lives and works in San Francisco, CA. She specializes in mobile sculptures created from a variety of natural materials. After studying industrial design at SF State and silversmithing at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, Ruth returned to the Bay Area in 1986 to set up her graphic design, fashion, and accessories studio, Kneass Boat Works. Kneass's mother created small-scale mobiles for years and eventually inspired Kneass to see how she might express herself through this form. Incorporating materials ranging from foraged driftwood to concrete to steel and almost everything in between, Kneass's floating mobiles seem to defy gravity, with some towering up to a lofty 14 feet tall. The interactive, serene nature of Kneass's work is nothing short of awe-inspiring and evokes a truly majestic quality that is just a pleasure to experience.

Jean Isamu Nagai (b.1979 Seattle, WA) is known for his intricate abstract landscapes inspired by the spiritual relationship between people and the natural world. Nagai’s mixed-media canvases feature a Pointillist style of dotted painting augmented with unconventional materials as correction fluid, pumice, sand, and psilocybe cyanescens. By engaging in a meditative process by which the sum of many individual dots accumulate to form a larger synergic whole, Nagai’s work both creates and explores a spiritual microcosm and macrocosm that shifts between the physical, digital and political landscape. The resulting works are hypnotic and contemplative, nodding to the transcendental and unseen. Nagia received a BA from The Evergreen State College in 2004; he lives and works on the West Coast.

Image credits: Rachel Kaye, Summer, 2020, colored pencil on paper, 23 x 18 inches

ECHO ECHO (CULT Bureau, Oakland)
Rachel Bridges and Ivan Bridges

March 2 - August 5, 2023
Artist Reception: Thursday, March 2, 6-8 PM

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CULT Aimee Friberg is pleased to present Echo Echo, a two-person exhibition of works by Los Angeles based artists Rachel Bridges and Ivan Bridges. Echo Echo opens on March 2 and runs through August 5th, 2023, with an artist reception on March 2 from 6-8 PM. Echo Echo is located at CULT’s space in Oakland’s Temescal Alley: CULT Bureau (482-D 49th Street).

Rachel and Ivan Bridges share a studio in Los Angeles, and in Echo Echo reflect on their mutual influence and support. This exhibition showcases new works on canvas by both Rachel Bridges and Ivan Bridges.

Rachel Bridges is a first generation Filipino American artist born in San Francisco, California. Her work addresses themes of collective memory, death, transcendence, and trauma. Bridges’ large scale paintings reference lesser told historical narratives and her own familial origins, especially the impact of Colonialism. She utilizes a rigorous application of dense oil paint to infuse emotion and ethos, depicting strong heroines and figures caught in challenging moments of transformation and defiance. Bridges infuses her paintings with ancient spiritualism and ideology from indigenous cultures of her matrilineal line.

Ivan Bridges makes cinematically-inspired paintings that showcase raw emotion though the least gestures possible. The paintings play on the boundary between familiar and unfamiliar, utilizing false narrative and a fictionalized appropriation of images from a variety of sources including cult cinema, literature, Instagram screenshots, AI, and fashion. Bridges seeks out the uncanny— images that elicit a strong emotional response, evoking themes of addiction, desire, memory and control.

Rachel Bridges' work has appeared in group exhibitions in Los Angeles at Sade, Tlaloc Studios, Spring Break Art Fair and at Vama Gallery at Los Angeles City College, and as a solo exhibition at Sade Gallery in 2022. Bridges earned a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2011.

Ivan Bridges was born in the Pacific Northwest, and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. His work has been exhibited at Tlaloc Studios, Spring Break Art Fair, Fun Gal, Ground Floor Contemporary and Sade, where he also had a solo exhibition in 2021. Bridges studied at the Chelsea School of Art in London in 2009 and earned a BFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 2011.

Image credits: (from left) Rachel Bridges, Concealed / Burned, 2022, Acrylic, oil, and oil pastel on canvas, 56 x 40 inches; Ivan Bridges, Lavender, 2022, Oil, acrylic, oil stick on canvas, 26 x 20 inches

Anthony Peyton Young, Girl in the Durag, 2022, graphite on paper, 11.75 x 8.25 inches

Gaze Interrupted: Shagha Ariannia, Sarah Palmer, Anthony Peyton Young, Mia Weiner, Jamil Hellu

September 17 - November 19, 2022

CULT Bureau
482-D 49th Street, Oakland CA

Artist Reception: Saturday, September 17, 6-8pm

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CULT Aimee Friberg and CULT Bureau are pleased to announce Gaze Interrupted, a group exhibition including works by Shagha Ariannia, Sarah Palmer, Anthony Peyton Young, Mia Weiner, and Jamil Hellu opening at CULT Bureau in Oakland (482-D 49th St) on September 17. The works in Gaze Interrupted deconstruct the gendered unilateral gaze typical in Western art history and invite a conversation between subject and viewer, centering a gaze beyond the binary. The exhibition will be on view from September 17 to November 19, 2022, with an opening reception on September 17, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Working across painting, illustration, weaving, mixed media, and photography, the five artists showcased in Gaze Interrupted seek to not only dismantle the conventional straight white male gaze but to take it beyond: to queer the gaze, to femme the gaze, to look at sex and desire from the perspective of Black/queer intimacy and connection rather than physical objectification of cis-gendered bodies.

"The gaze"—historically understood as one that objectifies the heteronormative female form—has long represented women as sexual objects for the male viewer. Feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey coined the term "the male gaze" to bring awareness to the heterosexual, gendered quality of this unilateral gaze. Black and queer people have encountered a public culture rejecting or othering their desire and experience.

Gaze Interrupted presents five artists that interrupt that art historical and early feminist gaze to engage a deeper exploration of the queer, Black and femme gaze, to depict themselves or whomever they choose to depict, and to be self-performative for the camera when desired.

Through painting, drawing, and collage, Anthony Peyton Young explores identity, ancestry and memorialization. From his depictions of individuals killed by police, to intimate portraits of his friends and loved ones, or works that turn the gaze on the self, Peyton renders Black life and experience with a surrealistic and ecstatic lens. Seeking ways to memorialize and honor family traditions inform both pieces in Gaze Interrupted: Young’s Tigress is a powerful tribute to his mother and Girl in the Durag reimagines the quintessential Dutch Vermeer painting Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Raised in an authoritarian regime under government control and oppression, Iran-born, Los Angeles-based artist Shagha Ariannia examines the contrast between public and private behavior, and the desires quieted by societal norms. Ariannia’s paintings in Gaze Interrupted engage questions of vulnerability, doubt, desire, shame, love and awkwardness. In her recent series, and as depicted in the work Antony Sitting with Flowers, 2022, Ariannia uses her lover as a muse, shaping an auto-fictional narrative reminiscent of Orientalist paintings of the 19th century. Ariannia paints her subject in classical odalisque poses, inserting her agency over this history, and inverting the Western art historical master/muse power structure.

San Francisco born (and New York-based) artist Sarah Palmer explores a varied terrain of human vulnerability through her collaging, photographing and re-photographing. Palmer composes these layered, textural vignettes sourced from photographic diagrams of the body, rape-prevention manuals, historical photographs of dance, Sears catalogs, and found amateur erotic photographs, resulting in a centering of the feminine figure within surreal and reimagined contexts. Here, bodies are chaotically juxtaposed with textures of rugs, clenched fists, and heavy baroque drapery, calling into question the act of looking, and of hiding.

In Jamil Hellu’s Transience series, the multidisciplinary artist turns the camera entirely on himself. Both Fairy Tale and Mythos, two works from the series featured in (They) Gaze Interrupted, present Hellu using performance, movement and photographic representation to challenge binaries around sexuality. Gifted weaver Mia Weiner also explores issues of gender and human identity. Using photography to stage tableaus of entangled bodies, Weiner foregrounds our corporal connection to observing touch and pleasure depicted. With a rich sensuality to the material, Weiner mediates the image through her weaving on a Jacquard loom, resulting in tactile tapestries that evoke connection and the shared experience of bodies in intimacy.

Artist Biographies

Shagha Ariannia (b.1984, Tehran) is an interdisciplinary visual artist born and raised in Iran. Ariannia grew up in an authoritarian regime, where public behavior was under government control. As a result, her interests lie in the contrast between public and private behavior, examining the politics of the body and its desires in relation to sexual norms. Inspired by feminist writers such as Kathy Acker or Kris Kraus, as well the poets of Iran (Forough Farokhzad), Ariannia uses auto-fiction as a strategy for image making. Her practice at large continuously engages with questions of vulnerability and doubt, intimacy and desire, shame, love and awkwardness. Her works have been exhibited at the Vincent Price Art Museum, Meliksetian Briggs Gallery, University of California Irvine; LAXART; 18th Street Art Center; Commonwealth and Council; the Torrance Art Museum, Galerie der Hochschule, Braunschweig, Germany and Gallery MOMO, Capetown. She received her MFA from CalArts and BA from the University of California, Irvine. She is a 2016 recipient for the California Community Foundation Fellowship and attended Bemis Residency in Fall 2018.

Sarah Palmer (b. 1977, San Francisco) is a photography-based artist currently living in Brooklyn, NY. Her practice, based in the studio, envisions a wide-ranging and complex conversation about the physical and psychological worlds we inhabit, exploring such disparate topics as performative eroticism, environmental calamity, and photography’s complex relationship to representation. She received her BA from Vassar College and MFA in Photography, Video, and Related Media from School of Visual Arts. She was awarded the 2011 Aperture Portfolio Prize and has had solo exhibitions at Mrs. Gallery, NADA Miami, Aperture, and The Wild Project. Her work has been exhibited in recent years at Transmitter (Brooklyn, NY), Monti 8 (Latina, Italy), Rachel Uffner Gallery (NYC), Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Brooklyn, NY), and Launch F18 (NYC). Recent commissions include The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and New Directions Press. She has been self-publishing a series of artist books since 2015, most recently including The Sweets of Pillage and Slipping Rose. She is currently the Interim Associate Director of BFA Photography at Parsons School of Design, and teaches in the Parsons BFA and MFA Photography programs.

Anthony Peyton Young (b. 1988, Charleston) is a Boston based artist born and raised in Charleston, West Virginia. Working primarily in painting, drawing, ceramics, and collage, Young’s work explore methods of memorializing, healing, family traditions, black/black queer intimacy, and the spaces we use to activate these actions. He earned his B.A. from West Virginia State University and his M.F.A. from School of the Museum of Fine Arts/ Tufts University. Young has won awards such as the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University Traveling Fellowship and the Walter Feldman Fellowship for Emerging Artists. His work is included in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Simmons University, and Juliette Art Museum. He has also been featured in publications such as Gay Letter Magazine, New American Painting, Evergreen Review, and The Boston Globe. Young has presented his work at School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, and Harvard’s Black Portraiture Conference.

Mia Weiner (b. 1991, Chicago). Responding to the historical textile, Weiner creates intimate declarations that explore identity, gender, and the psychology of human relationships. Mia received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2020) and her BFA in Fiber from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2013. Her work has been exhibited internationally including in New York, London, Berlin, LA, Miami, and Chicago. Mia is represented by Ochi Projects.

Jamil Hellu (b. 1976, Curitiba) employs a multidisciplinary art practice spanning photography, video, and site installations to explore themes of identity, visibility, cultural heritage, a shift beyond the binary. Navigating from a personal lens, his projects weave together strategies of performance and photographic representation to point to the tensions found in the evolving discourse about sexuality. Born in Brazil, Hellu holds a Masters in Fine Arts in Art Practice from Stanford University and a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute. His projects have been discussed in publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian, Artforum, and VICE. He is the recipient of the San Francisco Art Commission Artist Grant, Zellerbach Family Foundation Community Grant, Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Fellowship, and the Kala Art Institute Fellowship Award. Hellu has held art residencies at the San Francisco Recology Artist-in-Residence Program, Headlands Center for the Arts, and the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. Public collections holding his work include the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Cantor Center for Visual Arts, CA; Colorado Photographic Arts Center, CO; and Blanton Museum of Art, TX. He is a Photography Lecturer in the Department of Art & Art History at Stanford University. An active member in the San Francisco Bay Area arts community, Hellu serves as an advisory board member for Recology’s Artist-in-Residence Program. Hellu is represented by Rebecca Camacho Presents.

MIA WEINER The Serpent, 2020 Handwoven cotton and acrylic 44 x 103 in 111.8 x 261.6 cm $ 10,000.00

JAMIL HELLU Fairy tale, 2021 Digital Pigment Print 40 x 30 3/4 in 101.6 x 78.1 cm Edition of 3 plus 2 artist's proofs

JAMIL HELLU Mythos, 2021 Digital Pigment Print 44 x 30 3/4 inches Edition of 3 plus 2 artist's proofs

ANTHONY PEYTON YOUNG Girl in the Durag , 2022 Graphite on paper 11 3/4 x 8 1/4 in 15 3/4 x 12 in (framed)

ANTHONY PEYTON YOUNG Mirror, Mirror: The Black Beauty Shop, 2022 Graphite on paper

SHAGHA ARIANNIA Antony Sitting with Flowers, 2022 Acrylic on Canvas 48 x 36 in 121.9 x 91.4 cm

SHAGHA ARIANNIA Balancing Act, 2021 Acrylic and oil on canvas 20 x 20 in 50.8 x 50.8 cm

SARAH PALMER The Wind is No Home (Untitled 1), 2022 Pigmented inkjet print 26 x 22 in 66 x 55.9 cm Edition of 5

SARAH PALMER The Wind is No House (Untitled 2), 2022 Pigmented inkjet print 26 x 23 in 66 x 58.4 cm Edition of 5 plus 2 artist's proofs

SARAH PALMER Wind is No Home (Untitled 3), 2022 Pigmented inkjet print 26 x 21 in 66 x 53.3 cm Edition of 5

SARAH PALMER Red the Dilated Petals, 2021 Dye sublimation print on aluminum 12 x 8 in 30.5 x 20.3 cm Edition of 10 plus 3 artist's proofs

SARAH PALMER The Ancient Hours, 2021 Dye sublimation print on aluminum 12 x 8 in 30.5 x 20.3 cm Edition of 10 plus 3 artist's proofs

SARAH PALMER Darklight, 2021 Dye sublimation print on aluminum 10 x 8 in 25.4 x 20.3 cm Edition of 10 plus 3 artist's proofs

SARAH PALMER Blue the Day, 2021 Dye sublimation print on aluminum 8 x 10 in 20.3 x 25.4 cm Edition of 10 plus 3 artist's proofs

CULT AIMEE FRIBERG EXHIBITIONS OPENS SECOND LOCATION IN THE VIBRANT TEMESCAL NEIGHBORHOOD OF OAKLAND

482-D 49th Street Oakland CA 94609

OAKLAND, CALIF. – Aimee Friberg, curator and founding director of CULT Aimee Friberg Exhibitions, is bringing a new art project to the San Francisco Bay area for the eighth anniversary of her gallery. A second CULT location, named CULT Bureau (482 D 49th Street, Oakland, CA), is slated to open to the public on November 10, 2021 from 6-8 PM, and will build upon CULT’s distinct focus to present cutting-edge, conceptual and experimental art and design by emerging and established artists and designers. Additionally, the new space will give seasoned and emerging collectors opportunities to connect with artists and artwork in an intimate and relaxed, salon-style environment. The gallery will be open by appointment.

"I am thrilled to open CULT Bureau on the eighth anniversary of the gallery," Friberg said. "This second location will be an opportunity to continue to innovate, champion the most forward-thinking artists of our day and create personal experiences for everyone who visits." CULT Bureau will open in Temescal Alley, a grouping of former horse stables from the early 20th century, which has become a retail destination in the Bay Area. The two pedestrian alleys are known for their carefully curated selection of locally owned boutiques, specialty shops and small businesses in the vibrant and historic neighborhood of Temescal, off of Telegraph Avenue. Given Oakland’s legacy of activism and status as an artistic creative hub, this is an aligned setting for the next stage of Aimee Friberg’s near-decade-long curatorial mission amplifying artists of diverse backgrounds.

The innovative project space will function beyond your average white cube gallery—operating as a nontraditional arts space to present group exhibitions within a livable, atelier-style environment. The inaugural exhibition Sapiens/Stories will feature artists who fashion personal mythologies through an exploration of environment, history and magic including Amy Lincoln, Amy Nathan, Bruna Massadas, Chris Fallon, Curtis Talwst Santiago, Dana Harel, Marcel Pardo Ariza, Marcus Leslie Singleton, Nicki Green, Masako Miki, Rebekah Goldstein, Ruxue Zhang and Sahana Ramakrishnan.

"Opening a second space allows me to play a greater part in democratizing the collecting process and bridging the conversation between Oakland, the Bay Area and the global art market." Friberg said. "CULT Bureau will allow me to build relationships between collectors and artists and create a more approachable, accessible experience with art, particularly for newer and younger collectors."

Friberg collaborated with SOLID, an architectural design firm located in New York, on the design of CULT Bureau. SOLID’s multidisciplinary projects span art, design and architecture, combining an insider knowledge of the art world and cultural sector with impeccable technical expertise and a thorough understanding of zoning, building code and historical preservation guidelines.

CULT Aimee Friberg Exhibitions is a contemporary art gallery for cutting-edge work by emerging and established artists, founded in November 2013 by curator Aimee Friberg. CULT bridges formal, conceptual and process-based investigations, across all media. Since its inception, CULT has quickly become the leading gallery in San Francisco for rigorous work that is both experimental and forward-thinking. CULT engages a broad Bay Area and international audience with programming that encourages artists, especially from underrepresented groups, to take risks with their work. CULT is committed to supporting international and local artists, through onsite residencies, institutional collaborations, and a nutritive dialogue with the Bay Area public. Conceived as a commercial gallery that would engage its audience beyond the white cube, CULT has quickly become renowned for its provocative exhibition programming, as well as unorthodox performances, critical dialogues between artists, curators, and critics and intimate dinners.

Aimee Friberg is an artist-curator and the founding director of CULT Aimee Friberg Exhibitions, which she launched in San Francisco in 2013. CULT presents cutting-edge work by emerging and established artists who bridge formal, conceptual and process-based investigations exploring the human condition. CULT’s exhibitions have been featured in Artforum, Frieze, Artsy, Art Practical, SFAQ/NYAQ, Art ltd, San Francisco Chronicle, 7x7 Magazine, KQED, Squarecylinder and Hyperallergic, among others. Prior to launching CULT, Friberg held various curatorial and film programming roles, including curating and producing public programs from 2005-2008 at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. For more information, please visit cultexhibitions.com.

Currently Open by Appointment

Information & Appointments: (415) 238-7385 // info@cultexhibitions.com

Media Contact: Jacqueline WayneGuite, Olu & Company (313) 407-2188 // jacqueline@olucompany.com

Sapiens / Stories

November 10, 2021 - January 29, 2022
Inaugural Opening Reception Wednesday, November 10, 6 - 8 PM

Amy Lincoln
Amy Nathan
Bruna Massadas
Chris Fallon
Curtis Talwst Santiago
Dana Harel
Marcel Pardo Ariza
Marcus Leslie Singleton
Nicki Green
Masako Miki
Rebekah Goldstein
Ruxue Zhang
Sahana Ramakrishnan

Bruna Massadas, Orb Fruit Tree, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 30 x 36 inches 76.2 x 91.4 cm

Chris Fallon, Loaded Compliment, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 24 x 18 inches

Marcel Pardo Ariza, Rosie, Cait and Kat, 2018 Mounted Inkjet print, ash artist frame, Pool Blue paint 53 x 53 inches

Masako Miki, Offerings - Green Reflection, 2021 Ink and Watercolor on Paper 24 x 32 inches

Sahana-Ramakrishnan, Self Portrait with Sea Snake, 2021 Oil on canvas 40 x 35 x 3 1/2 inches 101.6 x 88.9 x 8.9 cm

Sahana-Ramakrishnan, The Wrong Kind of Mermaid, 2021 Oil, acrylic, color pencil and graphite on canvas 12 3/4 x 10 3/4 x 2 1/4 inches 32.4 x 27.3 x 5.7 cm