SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art inaugurated its new, temporary space with a suite of new torn-map collage from Portland-based Francesca Berrini, who first exhibited with Wolfe Contemporary in 2005.

Berrini deconstructs and reconstitutes found maps using the process of collage. Drawn initially to what appear to be ordinary maps and the reassuring sense of selflocation they provide (“I know where I am”), the viewer soon discovers that any effort at place-recognition is futile. What appear to be ordinary maps, are actually comprised of hand-torn, half-inch square map remnants that have been reconstituted into fictional places with arbitrary borders, invented topographies, and bizarre infrastructural depictions. The intricately detailed and richly textured arrangement of landmasses, oceans, deserts, rivers, and cities exist solely in the artist’s imagination. As such, they instill reactions in the viewer that are by turns disorienting, disquieting, and bewitching.

Berrini is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. She has professional experience as a metal fabricator and finisher, and stationery designer. She has exhibited widely at galleries and art fairs across the U.S.

"My work deconstructs and reconstitutes found maps using the process of collage. Each piece can be comprised of tens of thousands of individual pieces of paper. The eye is drawn initially to what appear to be ordinary maps the viewer soon discovers that any effort of place recognition is futile. These places, comprised of torn, half-inch square map remnants are purely fictional. The richly textured quilt of land masses, oceans, deserts, rivers, and cities are as fictional as the idea of imposing artificial boundaries of nationality." ---Francesca Berrini

Founded in 2005, Mark Wolfe Contemporary exhibits emerging and mid-career artists working in all media, with a focus on younger California painters. The gallery's mission is to introduce works that compel viewers to adopt new modes of observing, processing, and decoding visual information that shape the ways they perceive and respond to the world around them. We take great pride in having mounted the first-ever shows of several now-established artists from across the US, Europe, and China, and in having introduced Bay Area artists to new audiences at art fairs in Miami, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.