Kiki Smith American, b. 1954

Berggruen Gallery is proud to present Works in Black & White, a group exhibition that delves into the world of black and white as the primary, and often sole, colors. This curated collection explores the nuances of these two fundamental tones, reflecting on the various ways artists employ simplicity and complexity within this timeless palette. From bold abstractions to intricate minimalism, the exhibition reveals the artists' diverse abilities to convey emotion and provoke contemplation within the grayscale spectrum.

Works in Black & White will be on display from September 14 — October 13, 2023, featured on the top level of Berggruen Gallery.

Exhibiting Artists:

Robert Bechtle | Richard Diebenkorn | Lucian Freud | Michael Gregory | Philip Guston | Mona Hatoum | Al Held | Sarah Hotchkiss | William Kentridge | Anselm Kiefer | Matt Kleberg | Des Lawrence | Julian Lethbridge | Brice Marden | Sam Messenger | Martin Puryear | Linda Ridgway | Iran Do Espírito Santo | Richard Serra | Joel Shapiro | Kiki Smith | Jonas Wood

Berggruen Gallery is proud to announce Serial Imagery: Portfolios & Prints in Sets, an exhibition of etchings and intaglios, pochoirs, lithographs, screenprints, and woodblock prints. Serial Imagery: Portfolios & Prints in Sets will be on view from June 15 through July 22, 2023. The gallery will host an opening reception on Thursday, June 15, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.

Throughout history, artists have created work in series, producing collections of images, repetitive forms, and cohesive graphic languages. In the last century, the practice of creating serial prints witnessed an extraordinary surge as visionaries from the conceptual and pop art movements embraced the sequential format, propelling it to newfound prominence and cultural relevancy. This exhibition will explore the compelling methodologies in which artists employ printmaking techniques to communicate unconventional concepts and push the boundaries of their chosen medium. Whether it involves utilizing multiple prints to convey a progressive narrative or extending the subject across multiple sheets, this presentation delves into the possibilities of sequential printmaking.

The artworks showcased in Serial Imagery: Portfolios & Prints in Sets were created with a diverse range of techniques and hybrid processes, including pochoir, etching and intaglio, lithography, screenprinting, and woodcut. The exhibition is grounded by the complete sets of Henri Matisse’s groundbreaking Jazz from 1947, a portfolio of twenty colorful pochoirs from the artist’s cut-out series, and Wayne Thiebaud’s canonical Delights from 1964, a suite of seventeen intimate etchings of confections and foods. Serial Imagery presents an array of contemporary approaches to serial production, demonstrating how seminal artists engaged and experimented with the tradition of printmaking. It includes works by:

Nina Chanel Abney
Brice Marden
Odili Donald Odita
Polly Apfelbaum
Henri Matisse
Kiki Smith
John Baldessari
Julie Mehretu
Wayne Thiebaud
Charles Gaines
Robert Motherwell
Ellsworth Kelly
Terry Winters

Artist Nina Chanel Abney's CREW displays sentimental portraits of friends and fellow creatives, employing bold shapes and vibrant hues to create iconic images that celebrate the significance of collective support. In Heart and Soul, a portfolio of nine woodblock prints, Polly Apfelbaum ventures beyond her customary use of primary and secondary colors, delving into freshly imagined color combinations to create modernist heart-shaped design patterns. In Eight Soups, John Baldessari utilizes serial repetition to play with the iconic imagery of Henri Matisse’s 1912 painting, Goldfish and Sculpture, together with a nod to Andy Warhol’s ubiquitous soup can series, creating a vibrant series of eight screenprints. Serial Imagery presents a diverse range of contemporary approaches to serial print production. Whether the focus is experimenting with shifting chromatic pairings, expanding upon a conceptual narrative, or subverting historical iconography, these portfolio and print sets denote an interest in transcending disciplinary boundaries imposed by the notion of singularity.

Additionally, the exhibition celebrates the important contribution of fine printing presses and publishers in the process of creating and distributing serial prints. Each of these presses played a critical role in the serialization of the artist’s vision, from planning to execution. Prints in the exhibition were created at Crown Point Press, San Francisco; Durham Press, Durham, PA; Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles; Paulson Fontaine Press, Berkeley; and Tériade, Paris; among others.

Serial Imagery: Portfolios & Prints in Sets, June 15 – July 22, 2023. On view at 10 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. Images and preview are available upon request. For all inquiries, please contact the gallery by phone at (415) 781-4629 or by email at info@berggruen.com.

I am honored to present this exhibition, Her Voice, in honor of my late wife, Gretchen Berggruen. Co-owner of Berggruen Gallery, Gretchen was the heart and soul of the gallery. This group show features more than thirty artists, all of whom Gretchen championed, worked closely alongside, and deeply admired. This exhibition reflects Gretchen’s vision and her great passion in life. Those who had the pleasure to have known her know the deep level of care and attention with which she always acted. Her expertise, drive, kindness, patience, and perseverance drove the gallery to be what it is today. Gretchen was my partner and our leader, and I am proud to present Her Voice, celebrating her life and all that she built. – John Berggruen

Featuring artworks by the following artists:

Diana Al-Hadid | John Alexander | Jennifer Bartlett | Cecily Brown | Christopher Brown | Squeak Carnwath | Bruce Cohen | Roseline Delisle | Mark di Suvero | Richard Diebenkorn | Austin Eddy | Helen Frankenthaler | Jane Hammond | Stephen Hannock | Shara Hughes | William Kentridge | Clare Kirkconnell | Julian Lethbridge | Alicia McCarthy | Tom McKinley | Julie Mehretu | Elizabeth Murray | Tom Otterness | Martin Puryear | Linda Ridgway | Joel Shapiro | Judith Shea | Kiki Smith | Mark Tansey | Wayne Thiebaud | Fiona Waterstreet

We are pleased to present Contemporary Women Artists, an exhibition of paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by eight of the most exciting female artists creating work today, including Tauba Auerbach, Carmen Herrera, Clare Kirkconnell, Suzanne McClelland, Julie Mehretu, Beatriz Milhazes, Linda Ridgway, and Kiki Smith. This show will be on view through October 9, 2020.

Contemporary Women Artists presents a compelling selection of works by women artists who have each pioneered facets of the contemporary art canon. While Milhazes fuses cultural elements from her native Brazil with influence from European Modernist painters, Mehretu completely reenergizes and renews 21st century Abstraction. Altogether, the works composing Contemporary Women Artists are intricate yet bold; delicate yet powerful.

Spanning an intriguing breadth of subject matter, Contemporary Women Artists showcases works that both allude to and subvert mainstream ideas of femininity. Kirkconnell, Ridgway, and Smith consider the natural world in their alluring renderings while Auerbach and Herrera compose works of rigid geometries. When viewed altogether, power between delicacy and boldness is shared. The viewer can appreciate how strength radiates from seemingly fragile, natural forms while a certain subtlety can be found in the linear components of abstract works.

Contemporary Women Artists, September 3 – October 9, 2020. On view at 10 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. Images and preview are available upon request. For all inquiries, please contact the gallery by phone (415) 781-4629 or by email info@berggruen.com.

Berggruen Gallery is pleased to present Major Contemporary Works, an exhibition of paintings, drawings, and sculptures by important contemporary artists. This show will be on view May 16 - July 6, 2019.

Tauba Auerbach | Cecily Brown | Christo | Tony Cragg | Sarah Crowner | John Currin | Mark di Suvero
Spencer Finch | Günther Förg | Danny Fox | Michelle Grabner | Shara Hughes | William Kentridge
Alicia McCarthy | Beatriz Milhazes | Sarah Morris | Odili Donald Odita | Tom Otterness
Martin Puryear | Joel Shapiro | Jenny Sharaf | Kiki Smith | Lucy Williams


Major Contemporary Works, May 16 - July 6, 2019. On view at 10 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. Images and preview are available upon request. For all inquiries, please contact the gallery by phone (415) 781-4629 or by email info@berggruen.com.

Berggruen Gallery is pleased to present Botánica, a group exhibition by guest curator Todd von Ammon, on view July 13 – August 29, 2017. The gallery will host an opening reception on Thursday, July 13 from 5:00–8:00 p.m. Named after the botánica shops of the San Francisco Mission district—purveyors of a wide variety of medicinal herbs and folk medicines—this exhibition examines the many transformations of botany in contemporary art. Botánica explores the curious case of the still life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, through the lens of artists whose interpretations of this subject matter range from the traditional to the idiosyncratic. Each work in the show presents a different state of organic matter, culminating into an anti-ecosystem of sorts that highlights a wide array of distinct art taxonomies. The unique materials, techniques and histories are as varied as the number of works—from generative digital video to found street detritus to oil paint. Botánica intends to evoke the dizzyingly wide variety of substances and objects found within the shops from which the exhibition derives its name.

Botany in traditional art historical practice is manifested in the genre of still life painting, drawing, and later photography. The long and complex history of the still life—the rise of the Dutch still life painting tradition to symbolically communicate such themes as the brevity of life (vanitas), and its relative ranking by the French Academy during the seventeenth century as the lowest genre because it depicts solely inanimate objects—is simultaneously challenged and celebrated in contemporary art. A number of works in Botánica, such as those by John Alexander, Imogen Cunningham, Ellsworth Kelly, and Sam McKinniss, closely adhere to this long-standing practice and often directly pay homage to the iconic artists we so often associate with the genre, such as Claude Monet and Henri Fantin-Latour. Contemporary art, however, has revealed its guarantee of unpredictability and flux, and oftentimes an artwork’s quality is defined by how intrepid its challenge is to common sense and the quotidian. Botánica investigates the various layers and meanings of the still life, in both its traditional and contemporary forms.

According to Hakuin Ekaku, one of the most influential masters of Zen Buddhism, the aim of seeing into one’s own nature can only be fully accomplished through cutting off the root of life. The term ikebana, or the art of flower arrangement, literally translates to “making flowers live” through initiating the plant’s inevitable death by cutting the plant at its root. The action of the “cut” in Japanese aesthetic discourse is called kire and is an essential tenet of the ikebana practice. The plant is cut at its root and removed from the earth to be arranged and placed oftentimes in alcoves in the rooms of a house where guests are received. Somewhat antithetically, the act of killing the plant is precisely what allows its true nature to come to the fore. The ikebana artist brings greater truth to the plant by removing it from its earthly context. Flowers for Africa: South Sudan (2017), a floral bouquet installation by Kapwani Kiwanga made to commemorate the independence of that African country by reproducing a flower decoration from the 2011 ceremonies, beautifully illustrates the crossover between traditional and contemporary still life practice and ikebana. The work is still life experienced in the flesh, recalling the Dutch vanitas paintings through its literal process of decay, which takes place over the course of the exhibition’s duration. Other works featured in the exhibition, such as Ryan Foerster’s vibrant and surprisingly artful C-print photographs of decomposing compost, similarly embody the seemingly incongruous notion of beauty arising from something that fundamentally represents mortality and decay. Living plants have the extraordinary ability to capture and transmute energy into the stuff of human survival—refuse and exhaust, through a process of delicate alchemy, are regenerated into fresh air and calories. All of these reactions occur far beyond the narrow field of human perception, and thus the flower or leaf is underestimated and overlooked as the organic nuclear reactor it truly is. Instead, it is admired in a purely decorative sense for the deceptively simple function of emitting light along the visible spectrum. Moreover, the petal and the leaf seem to be most charming when these subatomic systems have been shut down forever.

Botánica defined refers to small stores or shops within the United States that sell herbs, candles, oils, incense, powders and other materials, often paired with ritualistic practices or blessings administered by a traditional healer, called a curandera, to treat physical as well as spiritual ailments. The prepackaged herbal blends that these botánicas dispense serve a variety of different purposes: to bring money, work or love, to ward off bad luck, to seek protection or guidance. Humankind has borrowed the leaves, roots and flowers of vegetation for millennia in order to reach higher psychic and spiritual states. It is no wonder that organisms that perform such uncanny transformations of energy can dramatically alter human perception when ingested. Bloom #6 (2011) by Fred Tomaselli—a deliriously oscillating, psychedelic form intended to invoke the mind’s drug-altered state—and Sunset Park (2015) by Tom Fruin—a delicately woven quilt or flag of found plastic drug bags in incongruously cheerful colors—exemplify two ways in which contemporary artists have incorporated plants and their psychic properties into their artistic practices, giving a new layer of social commentary and meaning to the traditional “still life” work. At a time when the greenness of the world holds less promise of durability than ever before, perhaps it is a worthwhile pursuit to recall the evidence that the living flower, an energy powerhouse capable of sustaining life or transforming one’s mental state, is also a potent reminder of our mortality. It is in consideration of these attributes and abilities that lie beyond the visible spectrum that we can appreciate the plant or flower for more than its very durable charm.

Full Artist List

Yuji Agematsu Evan Holloway Dominic Nurre
John Alexander Max Hooper Schneider Irving Penn
Theodora Allen Parker Ito Jason Rhoades
Darren Almond Rashid Johnson Gerhard Richter
Facundo Argañaraz Ellsworth Kelly Linda Ridgway
Ernesto Caivano Kapwani Kiwanga Tabor Robak
James Crosby Henri Matisse Philip Taaffe
Imogen Cunningham Sam McKinniss Fred Tomaselli
Jim Dine Beatriz Milhazes Evelyn Taocheng Wang
Ryan Foerster Donald Moffett Kehinde Wiley
Tom Fruin David Seth Moltz Donald Roller Wilson
Nick Goss Daido Moriyama Luiz Zerbini

Botánica, curated by Todd von Ammon, July 13 – August 29, 2017. Todd von Ammon is a gallerist and curator based in New York and currently the director of Team Gallery. Previous curated shows include Old Black, Ghost Outfit and Dolores at Team Gallery; VBS at the Bennington College Usdan Galleries, and Mike at FOURAM. von Ammon’s concurrent exhibition, Wormwood, is on view at the Ellis King Gallery in Dublin, Ireland. He is a member of the ICI (Independent Curators International) and serves on the organization's benefit committee. Botánica is on view at 10 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. Images and preview are available upon request. For all inquiries, please contact the gallery by phone (415) 781-4629 or by email info@berggruen.com.

Berggruen Gallery is pleased to present The Human Form, a sweeping exploration of the human figure from the early 20th century to today. It will be the inaugural exhibition in its new space at 10 Hawthorne Street, across from the recently expanded San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Bringing together over 60 works by 20th century masters such as Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Lucian Freud, Alberto Giacometti, Edward Hopper, Willem de Kooning, Gerhard Richter, Richard Diebenkorn, and Wayne Thiebaud, as well as leading contemporary artists George Condo, Cecily Brown, Joel Shapiro, Antony Gormley, Kiki Smith and Kehinde Wiley, The Human Form will look at the formal and conceptual ways that artists have approached the representation of the figure. As Dr. Steven A. Nash writes, “The human body has been a lightning rod for creative imagination since humankind’s earliest impulses toward graphic representation. As the most common attribute of our shared humanity, it provides a powerful channel for empathetic communication of ideas, emotions, ideals, and beliefs. Throughout the history of image-making, the body has inspired countless varieties of interpretation, but it is safe to say that no other period of art history has seen the inventive, radical, and expressive explorations of this human vessel that characterize the modern era starting in the early 20th-century.”

The exhibition is the first in the gallery’s new space, and reflects the Berggruen’s interest in putting into conversation works of historical significance with contemporary pieces that grapple with the most pressing issues of our time. The gallery has a long history of exploring figuration through its exhibitions, and this show provides an in-depth look at the significant role the figure has played for artists over time, and the way it has been adapted throughout the narrative of 20th and 21st century art. The exhibition will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with an introductory essay by Dr. Steven A. Nash, Founding Director of the Nasher Sculpture Center, Chief Curator at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and most recently, Director of the Palm Springs Art Museum.

Full Artist List

Milton Avery Lucian Freud Elizabeth Peyton
David Bates Alberto Giacometti Francis Picabia
Max Beckmann Antony Gormley Pablo Picasso
Michaël Borremans Edward Hopper Martin Puryear
Cecily Brown Chris Johanson Gerhard Richter
Christopher Brown Alex Katz Tom Sachs
Nick Cave Yves Klein Jenny Saville
Chuck Close Roy Lichtenstein Joel Shapiro
George Condo Henri Matisse Kiki Smith
James Crosby Barry McGee Wayne Thiebaud
Willem de Kooning Henry Moore Adriana Varejão
Richard Diebenkorn Nathan Oliveira Kara Walker
Peter Doig David Park Kehinde Wiley

The Human Form, January 13 – March 4, 2017. On view at 10 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. Images and preview are available upon request. For further information, please contact the gallery by phone
(415) 781.4629 or by email info@berggruen.com. Gallery hours: Monday – Saturday, 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

John Berggruen Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition of new sculpture and drawings by New York-based artist, Kiki Smith. The reception for the artist will be on Thursday, November 17th from 5:30-7:30pm.

This is Smith's second exhibition at John Berggruen Gallery, the previous one being in 2000. For the current installation, she has made two life-size bronze sculptures of female figures: one standing, guarding a flowering bush behind her; the other reclining with bent knees, posing on a bed of earth. Also on exhibit, are bronze laser-cut drawings including Sleeping in a Thicket, collaged drawings of female faces on Nepal paper, and Untitled (Flower Drawings) depicting mulberries and keys made with her own blood, referencing the classic fairly tale- Bluebeard. Principal themes in Smith's oeuvre explore life, death, resurrection, and rebirth.

Born in Nuremburg, Germany in 1954, Kiki Smith began her artistic career by participating in COLAB (Collaborative Projects), a New York-based cooperative that consisted of over forty artists in the mid-Seventies. Smith's early career included solo exhibitions at the Dallas Museum of Art (1989), the MAK Galerie (Vienna, 1991), the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Humlebaek, Denmark) and the Fawbush Gallery, New York.

A traveling retrospective, organized by the Walker Art Center, of Smith's work- Kiki Smith: A Gathering, 1980-2005, is at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art at the same time as the current exhibition at the John Berggruen Gallery. Other recent solo exhibitions have included: Convergence at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Directions – Kiki Smith: Night at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.; and Invention/Intervention: Kiki Smith and the Museums at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. Kiki Smith's work can be found in over thirty-five national and international public collections.