Linda Ridgway American, b. 1947

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

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

Berggruen Gallery is pleased to present Linda Ridgway: A Story and the Poet, an exhibition of recent sculptures and works on paper by Texas based artist, Linda Ridgway. Berggruen Gallery has worked with Ridgway for over twenty-five years and this show marks her fifth solo exhibition with the gallery. A Story and the Poet and will be on view July 28 through August 27, 2022.

Linda Ridgway is influenced by the weight of prose and how literature and nature intertwine to uncover new ideas of selfhood and material expression. Since 1987, Ridgway has been working with bronze and stretching the medium in new directions. She is well known for her intricate bronze sculptures that ascribe the enduring medium to ephemeral themes. In her 2013 Berggruen Gallery exhibition, The Grand Anonymous, she juxtaposed the material with lighter lace and crochet textures, exploring themes of domesticity and heritage. Ridgway’s new body of work, A Story and the Poet, focuses on natural themes by creating sculptures that offer an organic break for the medium. With precise lines and delicate forms, her exhibition A Story and the Poet, includes both bronze sculpture and works on paper, and celebrates the artist’s use of poetry as her muse and nature as her grounding force for self-discovery.

Ridgway draws inspiration from nature’s cyclical patterns, often referencing shapes that allude to states of growth and decay. Her sculpture Brother Line bends long and upward, grounded in a rising state of expansion, while her quieter work, Glory, suggests a melancholic leaf weathered by storm. Throughout the exhibition Ridgway looks at how sculptures can capture movement and interact with the shadows they create. Her unique bronze casting, Diagram from the River Ouse, shows a gathering of grasses fanning outward. Ridgway intricately crafts the stems of the branches creating depth and atmosphere among their shadows. Ridgway juxtaposes her medium with temporal themes, drawing on natural tropes for understanding and insight.

Ridgway’s work emerges not only from natural themes, but from a deep appreciation of poetry. In Sounds of Trees, the artist threads Robert Frost’s poems directly into the work and incorporates the poet’s writing into her literary title. For other pieces, Ridgway creates sculptural poems through a curious trail of objects. Her eponymous sculpture A Story and the Poet presents a bronze domino piece and mesh wiring held within a tangled branch. The contemporary piece asks of imaginative thought, and playful interpretation through its alluring narrative. Ridgway’s long admiration of poetry stems from her childhood memories of a strong familial passion for literature. She continues to find great inspiration and comfort from its emotive power.

At the root of Ridgway’s work is her study of lines. She is fascinated by the simplicity of groves, and the way edges structurally assemble. The exhibition presents the artists new archival pigment prints overlayed with a fine graphite grid. Ridgway uses lines to create order and harmony atop her nature-based photographs. She also looks to grasslands, commonly referencing grass as nature’s signature, to guide her drawing practice. Ridgway’s Morning Light studies, two works composed of graphic and colored pencil on paper, elegantly expose the delicate bends of branches, and the slight shimmer of morning sun. Because it was grassy and wanted wear, receiving its name from a line in Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken,” visualizes the wildness of an untamed trail through scattered, yet controlled marks. Ridgway’s mastery of, and attention to, line reflects her desire to have her art whisper and present peace above all else. At its core, Ridgway’s A Story and the Poet is an ode to nature and all who find solace among its presence.

Linda Ridgway born in Jeffersonville, Indiana in 1947. Ridgway received an M.F.A. from Tulane University and a B.F.A. from the Louisville School of Art. Her work has been included in various solo and group exhibitions, most recently in 2021 in From First and Last Lines, To the River Ouse: Works by Linda Ridgway at the Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas and Linda Ridgway: Herself at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas. Other exhibitions include Art & Language: A Shared Conversation, Grace Museum, Abilene, Texas; Linda Ridgway: White Flowers, Dallas Visual Art Center, Texas, solo exhibition to recognize the 2001 Legend Award Artist; One Hundred Years: The Permanent Collection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas in 2002, among others. Ridgway currently lives and works in Dallas, Texas.

Linda Ridgway: A Story and the Poet, July 28 - August 27, 2022. 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.

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 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.

John Berggruen Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of works by Dallas artist, Linda Ridgway. Linda Ridgway: The Grand Anonymous marks the artist’s third solo exhibition at the gallery and will be on view September 5 through October 12, 2013. John Berggruen Gallery will host an opening reception on Thursday, September 5 from 5:30 – 7:30 pm.



Linda Ridgway (born 1947 in Jeffersonville, Indiana) creates poetic bronze wall reliefs that convey both autobiographical and cultural imagery. Although educated as a printmaker, Ridgway continues to experiment with the limits of various media to create work that remains intimate regardless of scale. Ridgway’s bronzes emerge from a two-dimensional template to become new spatial objects that elucidate the artist’s personal experiences. These works span the themes of femininity, tradition, and heritage while establishing their own permanence through the medium of bronze. Ridgway juxtaposes the delicacy of the texture of lace, and crochet work with the monochromatic and industrial fortitude of metalwork. While some of her works emphasize a reverence for domesticity, Ridgway also uses the translation of knit pieces into bronze sculptures to underscore a disintegration of memory. Ridgway extracts the artisanship of crochet work to develop a history of herself as an artist in the enduring medium of bronze.

The artist’s work emerges not only from specific sentiments but also from a rich appreciation of poetry. This is exemplified in A whir among white branches great and small, 2013 which draws its name from the poem “Our Singing Strength” by Robert Frost. Ridgway uses Frost in her work frequently, both referencing and physically including his words in works such as Now Let the Night, 2013 and But the secret in the middle knows, 2011. Ridgway’s love of Frost, amongst other writers such as Mary Oliver and Harper Lee, is rooted in childhood memories of her mother’s passion for literature. Ridgway both references and physically includes literature in her sculptures by interweaving text in nests and using books as the stuffing of her pillows. In this way, she investigates how instrumental these works are to her identity as an artist, mother, daughter and friend. In this exhibition, Ridgway celebrates the anonymous artistic achievements of the women in her life by memorializing them in bronze.



Linda Ridgway (b.1947, Jeffersonville, IN) received an M.F.A. from Tulane University, and a B.F.A. from the Louisville School of Art. She has participated in various solo and group exhibitions including Linda Ridgway: A Survey, Poetics of Form at the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas and the Dallas Museum of Art, Texas in 1997-98; and One Hundred Years: The Permanent Collection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas in 2002.

John Berggruen Gallery is pleased to present The Time is Now, a group exhibition featuring Doug Aitken, Darren Almond, Diane Arbus, Richard Artschwager, Michael Craig-Martin, Hans Peter-Feldmann, Lee Friedlander, Philip Guston, Jasper Johns, Karen Kilimnik, Vera Lutter, Christian Marclay, Tom McKinley, Tin Ojeda, Richard Prince, Robert Rauschenberg, Linda Ridgway, Ugo Rondinone, James Rosenquist, Ed Ruscha, Stephen Shore, Taryn Simon and Lawrence Weiner.



The Time is Now brings together a group of works that acknowledge and contend with the representation of time (past, present and future), and how it is reinterpreted and revealed across diverse media. Through drawing, sculpture, installation, sound and light this exhibition illustrates the continuing human fascination with exploring the concept of time, both in the metaphysical and physical sense. This exhibition evades easy classification, with each artist bringing their own experience to one of the oldest topics that defies the typical social, cultural and political context.



In its most literal sense, the clock serves as a common allegorical image to convey how we calculate the presence of time within our lives. Philip Guston’s colorful, almost whimsical portrait of a timepiece shows the city below, dwarfed and eventually crushed by the presence of a large clock. For a more abstract representation, there is Doug Aitken’s lightbox depicting a beautiful island vista glimpsed simply through the ominous word “END.” Both of these images speak directly to the fear underlying every artist’s curiosity and obsession with the progression of time.



Another interesting element is the effect of the passage of time on the work itself. In 1967, Lee Friedlander was documenting everyday American life, while today his snapshot of a television in “Aloha, Washington,” is an artifact, depicting obsolete technology rendering his image to a specific period within our history. This overarching theme is segmented even further as the work featured stretches from the early 1960’s to present day, created by artists both living and dead born between 1913 and 1982.



Grouped together, all of these images display the impulse to transcend our inevitable circumstances and capture or define the ultimate progression of time, an unstoppable force. The result is a group show that circumnavigates the expectations of typical group shows, turning the viewer into part of the experience, by reminding us all of the importance of each passing minute.



The exhibition will be on view April 4-May 4, 2013 on two floors of exhibition space. John Berggruen Gallery will host a reception on Thursday, April 4th between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m.



The exhibit will coincide with Christain Marclay’s film “The Clock” being shown at SFMOMA from April 6th – June 2nd.



For further information and photographs, please contact the gallery at (415) 781-4629 or info@berggruen.com.

John Berggruen Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new sculpture and photographs by Dallas-based artist, Linda Ridgway. The reception for the artist will be held on Thursday, February 1st from 5:30-7:30pm.

Ridgway's poetic bronze wall reliefs convey both elegance and beauty. Although educated as a printmaker, Ridgway continues to experiment with the limits of various media to create work that remains intimate regardless of scale. Ridgway's bronzes, inspired by organic and cultural imagery, emerge from a two-dimensional surface to become new sculptural objects in space. Her work often translates traditional feminine crafts and materials, such as knitting and lace, into prominent sculptures.

As a sculptor, Ridgway has a keen interest in other artists who share similar concerns in materials and content. Eva Hesse was one such artist and whose work influenced Ridgway's artistic development. Ridgway found that Hesse treated materials in flux and gave them solidity. In addition, Ridgway discovered the poignant expressive potential in lines draped across large blank expanses. In Ridgway's own work, her linear, often repetitive forms become strands of thought.

Linda Ridgway (b.1947, Jeffersonville, IN) received an M.F.A. from Tulane University, and a B.F.A. from the Louisville School of Art. She has participated in various solo and group exhibitions including Linda Ridgway: A Survey, Poetics of Form at the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas and the Dallas Museum of Art, Texas in 1997-98; and One Hundred Years: The Permanent Collection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas in 2002.