Carl Berg has been a curator and gallery director for almost thirty years. He is the founder/director of PRJCTLA a new alternate gallery in downtown Los Angeles. He has owned galleries in Los Angeles and Amsterdam and has worked as a curator organizing over 150 exhibitions in Los Angeles, Berlin, Seoul, Amsterdam, Berlin, Rotterdam and elsewhere.
He has organized several groundbreaking exhibitions over the years including: “Southern California Car Culture” that highlighted the works of 15 LA artists including Slater Bradley, Chris Burden, Andrew Bush, Carolie Dixon, Ed Kienholz, Mathew Luem, Kori Newkirk, Patrick Paeper, Annica Carlson Rixon, Steve Roden, Haley Rodman, Ed Ruscha, Robert Stone, Erik Treml, Paul Tzanetopoulos and car designs by BMW (Designworks USA), Lexus (CALTY), Lincoln Mercury, Mazda, Mercedes Benz Advanced Design (SMART CAR), Schools: Art Center College of Design. This exhibition looked at the culture of the automobile in Los Angeles and how artists reacted to this unique environment.
There was a diverse blend of work from blue chip, mid-career and emerging artist all of which addressed “Car Culture” in his or her own unique way. As part of the mix in the exhibition Berg also included car designs by major Los Angeles based design studios including studios from Ford, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Mazda and Toyota. The show included early designs of the Smart Car, the [irst BMW SUV and full-scale rendering of the Mazda Miata. “Booster Up Dutch Courage” that featured the work of 17 artists from many prominent Dutch artists which premiered their LA debut including Aernout Mik, Rob Birza, Mathilde ter Heijne, Tariq Alvi, Lisa May Post, Rik Meijers and Federico D. Orazio.
This exhibition co-curated by Theo Tegelaers was the [irst to introduce a new generation of Netherlands based artist to the West Coast. This exhibition was followed up by a show of 20 Los Angeles based artist titled “CA 9000-185” at W139, a prominent non-pro[it space in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Some of the artists included Slater Bradley, Jessica Bronson, Greg Colson, Tim Hawkinson, Steve Hurd, Martin Kersels, Habib Kheradyar, Charles LaBelle, Marcos Lutyens, Yunhee Min, Patty Wickman, and Liz Young. This exhibition co-curated by Theo Tegelaers was the first of its kind introducing a new generation of Dutch artists to the LA art scene. More recently Berg curated “Framing Time” an exhibition of photography focused on the concept of movement in still photos. The show includes Los Angeles-based artists Uta Barth, Stephen Berens, John Divola, Robbert Flick, Tim Hawkinson, George Legrady, Sharon Lockhart, Ed Ruscha, and Augusta Wood and formerly from LA Dinh Q Lê (now living in Vietnam). Berg has also worked on many solo exhibitions with compelling artists including Tim Hawkinson (LA) , Folkert de Jong (Amsterdam), Slater Bradley (Berlin), Neha Choksi (LA and Mumbai), Iva Gueorguieva (LA), Megan Williams (LA), Diana Cooper (New York), Rob Birza (Amsterdam), Federico D’Orazio (Bangkok), Asad Faulwell (LA), HK Zamani (LA) amongst others.
In addition to his curatorial practice, Berg has organized a residency exchange with Foundation Kaus Australis in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and has sent over 70 artists from Los Angeles to this program from 2002-17. In Berg’s newest project, yet to be titled, he is interviewing a broad range of Los Angeles-based gallery owners, curators, collectors, critics and also artist. His objective is to create a historical document in a video format for future generations to study and enjoy. His [irst interview will be with renowned LA galleries Rosamund Felsen and he has many other exciting interviews planned for this project.