Physics & Fiction

January 20 - March 12, 2022

Zhivago Duncan
Nicki Green
Bruna Massadas
Masako Miki
Curtis Talwst Santiago

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Greeting the New Year with an expression of multiplicity, Physics & Fiction collectively engages an uncertain, increasingly surreal future. The five artists represented in Physics & Fiction destabilize reality, portraying a world re-rendered by science fictions, personal mythologies, ritual and collective memories. Working across painting, illustration, mixed media and sculptural work, Duncan, Green, Massadas, Miki and Santiago draw from historical and ancestral references as well as their own lived experiences. Examining and celebrating the environment, intersectional identity and generational relationships, Physics & Fiction is interested in the new myths being made amid old rules and realities.

Organic, biomorphic and earthly, Massadas’ paintings and Green’s sculptures present new ways for looking at and being in the world. Awash in color and lush with forms, Massadas’ landscapes almost appear alien, their dream-life visions charged with ambiguous, surging energy and presence. Exploring what she calls an “aesthetics of otherness,” Green’s sculptures mine ritual, material, history and mycology. She creates works that evoke an embodied world threaded with hidden networks of communication like those in the trans community. Reimagining space, historical time and the natural world, Green’s and Massadas’ strange, but familiar works breathe life into invisible-potential worlds, communal support systems and transformation.

Exploration of the medium is a key to establishing visibility of intersectional identities. Depicting familiar, often ordinary, inanimate objects as spirited beings, Miki, much like Green, charges old forms and rituals with history and a lineage. Miki’s felt sculptures and watercolors depict yōkai from the mythology of the Shinto tradition. By engaging with these ancient mythologies, Miki hopes to forge new collective narratives that express contemporary cultural values, echoing dichotomies of human identity and transformation. Likewise working in painting and sculpture, Santiago unearths ancestral memories drawing from his Afro-Caribbean roots to tell lesser-known narratives. Totemic and towering, crowned with a set of red horns, Santiago’s Jab Jab Knight (2020) is an ominous inverse of Miki’s affable figures, a narrative of larger, more formidable forces.

Bridging past and future with the form of a saga, Duncan’s monumental batik on canvas works form the culmination of a series of work the artist has been creating over the past 15 years. With sprawling, graphic works like The Hunt for Consciousness (2019-2021), Duncan breathes life into a legend of his own making, viewing history and the history of painting as inextricably linked—temporality, materiality and artistic practice all tied together.

Zhivago Duncan (Terre Haute, Ind., b. 1980) is a first-generation Syrian American artist based in Mexico City. Duncan’s work is a negotiation of the disconnection between the physical and metaphysical state of consciousness and how we relate to it through culture and history. Through painting, sculpture, installation and performative machines, Duncan attempts to reconcile that disconnection that exists and will always exist through various different theories and cultural practices which create grand ideas, whether, religion, physics literature, myth or science fiction. Through using myth and religion as a framework Duncan navigates through concepts of where we have come from and where we are going, what we can control and what we cannot. In 2007, Duncan received his BFA in painting from Chelsea College of Art and Design London. His works are in the collections of the Perez Art Museum Miami; Saatchi Collection, London; Barjeel Foundation Sharjah; Olbricht Collection, Berlin and various private collections worldwide.

Nicki Green (Boston, b. 1986) is a transdisciplinary artist working primarily in clay. Her sculptures, ritual objects and various flat works explore topics of historic preservation, conceptual ornamentation and the aesthetics of otherness. She has exhibited internationally, notably at the New Museum, New York; Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris and The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco. Green was a 2020 Art Matters fellow, 2019 John Michael Kohler Art Center resident and SFMOMA SECA Award Finalist, among others. In 2009, she received a BFA from San Francisco Art Institute and in 2018, an MFA from UC Berkeley. She lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Bruna Massadas (Rio de Janeiro, b. 1985) lives and works in Bozeman, Mont. She received a BFA from California State University, Fullerton in 2009 and an MFA from California College of the Arts in 2012. Massadas’ first solo exhibition, The Face Painter, was at Guerrero Gallery in 2018. Recent exhibitions include CULT Bureau in Oakland, Calif., BOZOMAG in Los Angeles and The Pit in Los Angeles. Massadas works as an adjunct professor at Montana State University, Bozeman.

Masako Miki (Osaka, Japan, b. 1973) is a multidisciplinary artist who has resided in the Bay Area for more than 20 years. She has exhibited throughout the Bay Area at venues including Headlands Center for the Arts, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Kala Art Institute and The Lab. Miki recently installed nine sculptures as a permanent installation on the Uber Technologies’ campus in Mission Bay, San Francisco. She was a resident artist at The Wassaic Project, Wassaic, N.Y.; Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vt.; Project 387, Gualala, Calif; Kamiyama Artists in Residency, Tokushima, Japan; Facebook Artist in Residence, Menlo Park, Calif. and the de Young Museum, San Francisco, with an accompanying solo exhibition in 2016. She received the 2018 Inga Maren Otto Fellowship from the Watermill Center in New York and 2017 Artist Fellow Award from Kala Art Institute in Berkeley. Her works are in the collections of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Facebook, The Byrd Hoffman Watermill Foundation, New York and private collections. Miki received her MFA from San Jose State University and has been on the adjunct faculty at University of California Berkeley, Davis and Mills College.

Curtis Talwst Santiago (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, b. 1979) studied as an apprentice of Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun. He has exhibited internationally at venues such as The FLAG Art Foundation, New York; The New Museum, New York; The Eli and Edythe Broad Museum at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich.; the Institute of Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Va.; the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, Canada; The Pérez Art Museum Miami; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto and the SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Ga.; among others. The artist was included in the inaugural 2019 Toronto Biennial of Art; the SITE Santa Fe 2018 Biennial, SITElines.2018: Casa tomada, in Santa Fe, N.M. and was featured in the 2018 Biennale de Dakar in Dakar, Senegal. His work is in the permanent collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. Santiago considers himself decentralized and lives and works between New York, Toronto and Cologne, Germany.

CURTIS TAWLST SANTIAGO Olokun (Venus), 2017 Mixed Media Diorama in Reclaimed Jewelry Box 3.5 x 2.5 x 2.75 inches (CSA27-SC)
BRUNA MASSADAS Orb Fruit Tree, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 30 x 36 inches 76.2 x 91.4 cm
CURTIS TALWST SANTIAGO A moment of reflection and self care Diorama, 2021 Mixed Media Diorama in Reclaimed Jewelry Box 3 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 2 3/4 in 8.9 x 6.3 x 7 cm
NICKI GREEN Slime Mold, 2018 Glazed stoneware 31 x 39 x 24 in 78.7 x 99.1 x 61 cm
ZHIVAGO DUNCAN The Hunt for Consciousness, 2019-2021 Batik on canvas 90 1/2 x 212 5/8 inches 230 x 540 cm
NICKI GREEN Folded Figure, 2017 Glazed stoneware 30 x 22 x 10 in 76.2 x 55.9 x 25.4 cm
MASAKO MIKI This could be the best thing that ever happened to her (mural), 2012 Ink on nepalese paper (unframed) 198.1 x 518.2 cm 77 x 203 in
CURTIS TALWST SANTIAGO Elk and Zebra embrace while reaching simultaneous climax Diorama, 2021 Mixed Media Diorama in Reclaimed Jewelry Box 3 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 2 3/4 in 8.9 x 6.3 x 7 cm
CURTIS TALWST SANTIAGO Pink Memory 1, 2017 Mixed media on paper 27 1/2 x 35 inches 27 1/2 x 35 in 69.8 x 88.9 cm
CURTIS TALWST SANTIAGO Pink Memory 2, 2017 Mixed media on paper 27 1/2 x 35 in 69.8 x 88.9 cm
CURTIS TALWST SANTIAGO Pink Memory 3, 2017 Mixed media on paper 27 1/2 x 35 in 69.8 x 88.9 cm
ZHIVAGO DUNCAN Meteorite: Perniciosa, 2021 Aluminum and steel. (on wall) On wall: 108 x 94 x 7 cm 42.5 x 37 x 2.7 inches On stand: 155 x 90 x 30 cm 61 x 35.4 x 11.8 inches
BRUNA MASSADAS Hot Springs, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 14 x 16 inches 35.6 x 40.6 cm
MASAKO MIKI Sound Shapeshifter, 2022 EPD foram, wool, wenge wool 51 x 25 in 129.5 x 63.5 cm

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