FEMALE TROUBLE


June 9 - July 28, 2018

Marcela Pardo Ariza
Angela Hennessy
Desiree Holman
Amy Nathan
Samantha Rosenwald
Cate White

Samantha Rosenwald, I'm Dying Up Here, 2018, colored pencil on canvas, 72 x 54 inches

“NICE GIRLS DON’T WEAR CHA CHA HEELS!”

CULT | Aimee Friberg Exhibitions is pleased to announce Female Trouble, a group exhibition of Bay Area affiliated artists including Angela Hennessy, Desiree Holman, Amy Nathan, Marcela Pardo Ariza, Samantha Rosenwald, and Cate White. The exhibition runs from June 9 through July 28, with an artist’s reception on Saturday, June 9 from 5-8 PM.

The exhibition takes its name from John Waters’ 1974 spectacular cult-trash film Female Trouble, starring drag performer Divine as Dawn Davenport, a high school dropout who takes misbehaving and rebellion to the ultimate level.

From the crowds that took to the streets for the post-election Women’s Marches to #MeToo, #TimesUp, and new intersectional, internationalist, and transgender movements, the category of “woman” has become a renewed site of critical engagement and activism across cultural registers. Female-identified, non-binary, trans, and queer butch/femme of all genders are disrupting the status quo and demanding radical gender equality and an end to patriarchal violence in all its forms. The works in this exhibition challenge and resist social expectations of feminine behavior, celebrating the misbehaving, gender-defying, norm-disrupting and gaze-reversing aspects of femininity and womanhood in all its guises.

Marcela Pardo Ariza (b. 1991 Bogotá, Colombia) lives and works in San Francisco, CA. Ariza explores the relationship of wry humor, queerness and representation through color sets and prop-like objects. Their photographs incorporate quotidian objects in seemingly absurd ways creating tableaux that mix recognizable elements with magical realism. Ariza is interested in the action of looking within the theatricality of “the set” and their visually provoking portraits seek to explore metaphors regarding race and gender. Ariza is the recipient of the Tosa Studio Award, a Murphy & Cadogan Contemporary Art Award and is a finalist for the 2017 San Francisco Artist Award. She received her BA from Earlham College, Richmond, IN in 2013 and an MFA from San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) in 2016. Their work has been recently exhibited at R/SF Projects (San Francisco), Minnesota Street Project (San Francisco, CA); De:Formal Gallery (New York, NY); Alter Space (San Francisco, CA); Guerrero Gallery (San Francisco, CA) and ProArts (Oakland, CA). Ariza works in the Program and Pedagogy department at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and is a current member of the Curatorial Council at Southern Exposure.

Angela Hennessy (b. 1971, Carmel, CA) is an Oakland-based interdisciplinary artist and Associate Professor at California College of the Arts where she teaches courses on visual and cultural narratives of death and contemporary textile theory. Through writing, studio work, and performance her practice examines mythologies of blackness embedded in linguistic metaphors of color and cloth. Her current project, The School of the Dead, is a program for the decolonization of death and grief through the radical inquiry of aesthetic and social practices that mediate the boundary between the living and the dead. Hennessy has exhibited at Southern Exposure (San Francisco, CA), Bellevue Arts Museum (Bellevue, WA), Exit Art (New York, NY), Ampersand International Arts and Southern Exposure (San Francisco, CA), Pro Arts Gallery and the Oakland Museum of California (Oakland, CA) and the Richmond Art Center (Richmond, CA). Her work is in the permanent collection of the Cornell Fine Arts Museum and was featured in the Journal of Cloth and Culture and In The Make: Studio Visits with Artists.

Desiree Holman (b. 1974, Montgomery, AL) is an accomplished interdisciplinary artist focused in the fields of expanded cinema, performance, public artworks as well as traditional gallery works. Her multi-sensory work positions groups of individuals and theatrical tools, like costumes or props, in settings that illuminate ideas of identity. The artist’s work reveals a complex dialogue about truth and the experience of the ‘real’ world and is underpinned by a creative investigation into social equality through the use of character play. Holman holds a Masters degree from the University of California at Berkeley. Earning critical acclaim for her work, Holman was awarded a San Francisco Modern Museum of Art SECA award in 2008 and in 2007 the Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue award. From 2016-2017, she returned to SFMOMA as a fellow in the Film & Performance Department with a new works commission. Solo exhibitions of her work include the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2009), Montreal’s SKOL (2016), Denver’s Black Cube Nomadic Museum (2015), and the Berkeley Art Museum’s MATRIX program (2011). International exhibitions of Holman’s work include the Sao Paulo Museum of Modern Art, Berlin’s Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Milan’s BnD, Montréal’s Centre des Arts Actuals SKOL and Toronto’s YYZ. Reviews of Holman’s work appeared in numerous publications including Artforum, Los Angeles Times, NY Arts, Artillery, San Francisco Chronicle and Artweek. Her work is represented by CULT Aimee Friberg Exhibitions in San Francisco and Aspect/Ratio in Chicago.

Amy Nathan (b.1973, Madison, Wisconsin) is an artist and curator based in Berkeley, California. She received her MFA from Mills College in 2018. She will be a Graduate Fellow at the Headlands Center for the Arts from 2018-2019. She is the director of Underline Projects, a non-commercial, experimental gallery space in her home in Berkeley; and a co-director of Royal NoneSuch Gallery in Oakland, California. Her work will be included in New American Paintings MFA Annual in the summer of 2018.

Samantha Rosenwald (b. 1994, Los Angeles, CA) is an LA-based artist working primarily with painting, coloring, and ceramic. Threading together contemporary art practice and the traditions and anomalies of art history, Rosenwald creates compositions that throw historical and social gold standards under the bus. Funny, bizarre, and quietly sad, her work mockingly performs the ideals she wishes to live up to, and, through this, demonstrates their absurdity. Through humor, visual pun, and an overarching sensation of dissociative ennui, Rosenwald delineates the anxiety and strangeness of being a person. Rosenwald received an MFA in Fine Art from California College of the Arts in 2018 and a BA in Art History from Vassar College in 2016.

Cate White (b. 1971, Ukiah, CA) lives and works in Oakland, CA. Originally form the back woods of northern California, Cate White received a BA from Dominican University in 1994, after which she returned to some different back-woods for the duration of her 20s. She began painting at age 30 in 2002 and earned her MFA from John F. Kennedy University's Arts and Consciousness program in Berkeley, CA in 2012. In the last 5 years Cate has exhibited worked in Denmark, Los Angeles, Atlanta and the Bay Area, with solo shows in San Francisco, Oakland and Hayward. She has presented at the Oakland Museum of California, San Francisco Art Institute, Mills College and University of California, Berkeley. While primarily a painter, she also works in sculpture, video and bookmaking. She received the 2013-2014 ProArts 2x2 Solos Award, the 2014-2015 Tournesol Award from Headlands Center for the Arts, and was a grantee at the Roswell-Artist-in-Residence program in New Mexico. Her 10-volume book series The Book of Life is available from Half Truth Press on Amazon.

Installation Photos | Individual Works

DESIREE HOLMAN - After Breakfast in Bed, Mixed media, color pencil on paper 19 x 24 inches, 2011
AMY NATHAN - Three Sisters, Acrylic paint and spray paint on hydrocal 16 x 48 x 7 inches (including shelf) 16 x 12.5 x 1.5 inches (each tablet), 2018
AMY NATHAN - Lashes/Shield, Glazed ceramic 9.5 x 13 x 6 inches, 2018
MARCELA PARDO ARIZA -She (Blanca Inés) wove with a stitch in her hand, Poplar frame, inkjet print, vinyl 25 x 35 inches (apx) Edition of 3, 2018
SAMANTHA ROSENWALD - I'm Dying Up Here, Colored pencil on canvas 72 x 54 inches, 2018
SAMANTHA ROSENWALD - Acclaim (Killer), Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas 48 x 60 inches, 2017
CATE WHITE - Celeste’s Selfie, Acrylic, latex, glitter on canvas, 54 x 50 inches, 2017
CATE WHITE - Setting a Boundary, Latex and acrylic on paper 23 x 30 inches, 2018
ANGELA HENNESSY - Gatekeepers 1, Repousse and chasing on copper with enamel paint and patina 9 x 12 inches to 10 x 14 inches, 2018
ANGELA HENNESSY - Gatekeepers 2, Repousse and chasing on copper with enamel paint and patina 9 x 14 inches (apx), 2018
ANGELA HENNESSY - Gatekeepers 3, Repousse and chasing on copper with enamel paint and patina 9 x 14 inches (apx), 2018
ANGELA HENNESSY - Gatekeepers 4, Repousse and chasing on copper with enamel paint and patina 9 x 14 inches (apx), 2018
ANGELA HENNESSY - Magical Negro Pussy, Repousse and chasing on copper with enamel paint and patina 9 x 14 inches (apx) NFS, 2014

Current

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

Past

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

Two Handfuls Of Silver Dust: Rhonda Holberton
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