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

"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