Bert Bergen

Artist Statement:

My work amalgamates scientific, mystical and historical information to form a new spiritual belief system.  I use depictions of humanity, nature and animals as characters in an evolving mythology that provides vignettes to the potential meaning of this system.  My interest lies in creating an experience where one witnesses a foreign and rapturous otherness, an unfamiliar ecstatic reality that is never fully revealed and delves into the more horrific side of metaphysics.

Bert Bergen was born on Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound of Washington State and raised by atheist libertarians in the surrounding rural areas. He focused on photography and gender studies while attending the Evergreen State College, WA and received a Bachelor of Liberal Arts Degree.  He later relocated to San Francisco and took classes at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Graphica Department to learn screen-printing.

Bert has had solo exhibitions at The SFMOMA Windows (San Francisco, CA), Adobe Books (San Francisco, CA), and The SFMOMA Artist’s Gallery (San Francisco, CA).  His work has been included in group exhibitions at ISE Cultural Foundation Gallery (New York, NY), Shizuoka University of Art and Culture Japan, Civilian Arts Project (Washington, DC), ArtScape (Baltimore, MD), and Southern Exposure (San Francisco, CA).  He has done residencies at Skylab Gallery (Columbus, OH) and Post Expose (Long Island City, NY). Publications that have featured his work include The Believer Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle and Good Intentions.  He has been a guest lecturer at the Evergreen State College and has designed for bands including Big Business, Om and Six Organs of Admittance.