Collection of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami), Miami, FL. Museum purchase with funds provided by John Auerbach and Ed Tang.”][/rs_hero_slider2]
Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA, Booth 206
January 20-23, 2022 (Preview Gala — January 19, 2022)
Alexander Berggruen is pleased to announce our participation in FOG Design+Art 2022 as the gallery’s inaugural art fair. The gallery will debut new works by Elana Bowsher, Hulda Guzmán, and Brittney Leeanne Williams. Alexander Berggruen will be at Booth 206, in a shared booth with Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco.
Elana Bowsher (b. 1990, San Francisco, CA) playfully approaches the rich history and relationships of pattern, fashion, and femininity through a personal lens in her portrayals of the figure. Appropriating canonical female nudes by cropping the form into a circle around the depicted posterior, the round edges of her tondos mimic the curving form of the female body while also implying a furtive gaze, perhaps through a peephole. In recent work that will be exhibited at FOG Design+Art 2022, Bowsher depicts figures—nude or clothed in fishnet stockings and sharp printed blazers—who are animated by their gestures to convey power, sensuality, and animated conversation.
Bowsher’s work was included in the gallery’s group show Elana Bowsher, Vicente Matte, Gabriel Mills (June 2–July 14, 2021).
Hulda Guzmán (b. 1984, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) renders a world in which children, adults, animals, plants, and invented creatures alike come together to dance, lounge, congregate, share secrets, and play—all colored and enriched by embracing nature and celebrated through the act of painting. Inspired by the environment in the Dominican Republic, Guzmán often paints from observance of her tropical surroundings. At FOG Design+Art 2022, Alexander Berggruen will present the artist’s first two works painted solely from her memory: Deep Forest and Fresa Salvaje.
Guzmán has held a solo show with the gallery Hulda Guzmán: my flora, my fauna (October 23-December 19, 2020) and been included in the gallery’s group show Katherine Bradford, Hulda Guzmán, Rebecca Ness (December 11, 2019-January 29, 2020).
Brittney Leeanne Williams (b. 1990, Pasadena, CA) transforms Southern Californian landscapes into what she calls “emotional landscapes: representations of psychological states, memories, and emotional ties,” by injecting her omnipresent, often red, folded figure into the architecture of the environment. The figures depicted in the works we will present at FOG Design+Art 2022 march in unison on water, echo the curve of sun rays, fold to fit in a keyhole, and dissipate into a pixelated forest, among others. Williams’s female forms serve as conduits to viewing a dimension of the artist’s spirit and her exploration of feminine and Black identities.
Alexander Berggruen has shown Williams’s paintings in a solo show Brittney Leeanne Williams: The Arch Is a Portal Is a Belly Is a Back (March 5-April 14, 2021) and in the gallery’s group show Quarters: Anne Buckwalter, Dustin Hodges, JJ Manford, Brittney Leeanne Williams (March 18-May 27, 2020).
Elana Bowsher (b. 1990, San Francisco, CA) received a BA in Art at UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, Los Angeles, CA. Bowsher has been an artist-in-residence at The Macedonia Institute, Chatham, NY. She completed special projects at Cerámica Suro, Guadalajara, MX, in 2018 and 2019. Her work has been exhibited at Alexander Berggruen, NY; Half Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; The Pit Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Club Pro, Toronto, ON; and Steve Turner, Los Angeles, CA. Bowsher lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
Hulda Guzmán (b. 1984, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) received a BA from Altos de Chavón School of Design in the Dominican Republic and went on to study photography and mural painting at the National School of Visual Arts, Mexico. Her work is included in the permanent collections of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA); Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL; Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), São Paulo, Brazil; Patricia Phelps de Cisneros; Centro Leon Jimenes; Casa Cortes Foundation; Antonio Murzi Collection; and Kadist Foundation. Guzmán has been featured in the Dominican Republic’s pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. Guzmán has shown with Dio Horia Gallery (Mykonos), Arte BA (Buenos Aires), Galería Machete (Mexico City), Gallery Ariane Paffrath (Dusseldorf), and at institutions such as Museo de Arte Moderno (Santo Domingo), the Pérez Art Museum Miami, Museo de Arte de São Paulo (Brazil), Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo (Costa Rica), and Art Museum of the Americas (Washington, D.C.).
Brittney Leeanne Williams (b. 1990, Pasadena, CA) is a Chicago-based artist, originally from Los Angeles. Her work has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami (Untitled Art Fair), London, Venice, Italy (Venice Biennale), Antwerp, Copenhagen, and Hong Kong, as well as in Chicago and throughout the Midwest. Williams attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2008- 09). She is a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant recipient and a Luminarts Fellow. Williams’s artist residencies include Arts + Public Life (University of Chicago) and McColl Center for Art + Innovation, among others. Her work is included in the public collections of the Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA; the Domus Collection, Beijing, CN; Fundacion Medianoche0, Granada, ES; the MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, IL; and X Museum, Beijing, CN.
Installation Photos: Christina Russo
The ICA Miami also bought work by Hulda Guzmán from first-time exhibitor Alexander Berggruen’s booth. “Guzmán is an artist I have been following closely and looking to add a strong example of her work to ICA Miami’s collection. The opportunity arose with the opening of FOG fair,” said ICA Miami director Alex Gartenfeld.
