On May 20, 2000, an exhibition of works by candidates for the Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of California, Berkeley, will open at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Now: The 30th Annual Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition continues the tradition of collaboration between the University of California Department of Art Practice and the Berkeley Art Museum. Every Spring for the past three decades one of the museum's galleries has been devoted to a selection of new work by Master of Fine Arts graduates. The students are provided with the valuable experience of participating in a museum show, while giving the community an opportunity to see work by some of the most exciting and promising new artists to emerge from the Bay Area. Now brings to the Museum works by artists Barbara Campbell, Aaron De Beers, Nemo Gould, Ajean Alexandra Lee, Dale MacDonald, Mally Mehryar, and Yauger. These students will present work in a wide range of media, including photography, painting, found-object sculpture, and installation.

"This annual exhibition of work by MFA graduate students is a highlight of the strong relationship between the UC Berkeley Art Museum and the campus," says Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, Phyllis Wattis MATRIX Curator and curator of this exhibition. "Now provides a exceptional opportunity for MFA students to present their work within a professional museum context, and to a wide and diverse audience that includes their fellow students."

The Master of Fine Art degree at UC Berkeley is a two year course that emphasizes concentrated studio work in the areas of painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, new genres and digital media. The program's aim is to broaden the visual, intellectual and aesthetic faculties of students in their pursuit of careers as dedicated and serious professional artists, instilling in each student a creative vision rich enough to transform common sight into uncommon insight. Only seven to nine students are accepted into the course each year from over one hundred applications.

Public Programs
On Sunday, May 21, at 3pm, each of the artists featured in Now: The 30th Annual MFA Graduate Exhibition will give brief talks about their work in the exhibition, offering visitors the opportunity to hear from and converse with these exciting and varied artists. These presentations will be in Gallery 2 and will be included with gallery admission.

Also on view
China: Fifty Years Inside the People's Republic, through June 18. This major exhibition explores half a century of social and political upheaval in China through the eyes of twenty-five of the most important Chinese and Western photographers of our time.

Anne Chu/MATRIX 184 Untitled, through June 18. In the latest exhibition for the MATRIX Program for Contemporary Art, Anne Chu appropriates ancient T'ang dynasty ceramic funerary figures to create sculptures that fuse traditional Chinese artistry with modern techniques and concepts.