The collagist Robert Warner has arranged the contents of thirteen boxes given to him by reclusive artist Ray Johnson (the "Bob Boxes") on tables and on the gallery walls. The collages, letters, drawings, beach trash and other found objects reveal Johnson's stream-of-consciousness... View
Have you ever heard the sound of ice melting? State of Mind: New California Art circa 1970, part of Pacific Standard Time, offers an in-depth exploration of Conceptual art made by both Northern and Southern California artists during a pivotal period in contemporary art.
ViewBe among the first to encounter the work of seven exceptional artists as they embark on their careers in the Forty-Second Annual University of California, Berkeley Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition.
ViewThe journey of Himalayan Pilgrimage continues with Liberation Through Sight, which focuses on artwork created as vehicles to enlightenment. Works on view include an exceptionally rare set of seven paintings depicting the lineage of the Great Fifth Dalai Lama (c. 1815), as well as... View
At the Edge features works that have entered the BAMPFA collection over the past two years that convey a sense of reaching-and sometimes crossing-limits of perception and experience. Among the works on view are dreamlike, mystical, and otherworldly visions, as well as images of... View
MATRIX 242 presents Bien Hoa (2006–07), an important but rarely seen series that sheds light on the elusive practice of Berkeley-based artist Lutz Bacher. The series juxtaposes enlargements of photographs taken by a soldier in Vietnam, unearthed by the artist at a local salvage... View
D-L Alvarez's first solo museum exhibition explores the aesthetic guises that sometimes mask unspeakable horrors. MATRIX 243 pairs The Closet, a drawing series from 2006–07 based on the 1978 horror film Halloween, with Something to Cry About (I and II) (2007), patchwork bodysuits... View
This first midcareer survey of the globally influential San Francisco–based artist showcases the broad range of Barry McGee's compassionate and vivacious work. Taking over the entire lower level of the museum, the exhibition includes rarely seen early etchings, letterpress... View
As part of the new BAMPFA program Art for Human Rights, we feature several works from Fernando Botero's provocative Abu Ghraib series, as well as a sculpture by the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and newly acquired photographs by Ruth-Marion Baruch and Pirkle Jones that focus on aspects... View
Trimpin's Nancarrow Percussion Orchestra celebrates the one-hundredth birthday of the avant-garde composer Conlon Nancarrow (1912–97) with an interactive sculptural sound installation comprising three reconstructed salvaged pianos as well as percussive instruments originally... View
MATRIX 245, Rudolf de Crignis's first solo museum exhibition in the United States, brings together fourteen paintings and a series of graphite works on paper from 1991 to 2006. De Crignis (1948–2006) is best known for radiant abstract works, layered hues of blue that he called "... View
A magnificent pair of screens painted by Sakaki Hyakusen forms the centerpiece of this exhibition. The masterful Hyakusen (1697–1752) was an artist facing two directions: one towards the traditions of China and the other toward the future of Japanese Nanga painting.
ViewInspired by John Cage's groundbreaking composition 4'33", and the centenary of the composer's birth, Silence considers the absence of sound as both subject and medium in modern and contemporary art and film. The exhibition includes work by Joseph Beuys, Stan Brakhage, Giorgio de... View
For MATRIX 246, visionary choreographer Anna Halprin stages the final performances of her groundbreaking 1965 dance, Parades and Changes, and we display scores, photographs, and other documentation of the history of the dance.
ViewMATRIX 247 presents Apichatpong Weerasethakul's 2007 video installation Morakot (Emerald), where ghostly voices share their stories as the camera lingers on dust, light, and memory in the empty rooms and hallways of a defunct Bangkok hotel that once housed Cambodian refugees.
ViewAs part of our ongoing Art for Human Rights program, we display paintings and works on paper from acclaimed Colombian artist Fernando Botero's provocative Abu Ghraib series (2004–06).
ViewMATRIX 248 showcases the work of New York–based artist Nicole Eisenman, who has been steadfastly expanding dialogues surrounding painting and drawing since the 1990s. Intermixing styles associated with American Regionalism and the Italian Renaissance with German Expressionism,... View
We invite you to experience Kaleidoscape, an interactive seating sculpture designed by the San Francisco–based firm Rebar. Come rearrange the modular pieces to create a customized environment for study, relaxation, or socializing, or use the sections to create a crystalline... View
Now closing August 25. Drawn exclusively from BAMPFA's unsurpassed collection of paintings by the tremendously influential Abstract Expressionist artist, Hans Hofmann: Rectangles celebrates the completion of a comprehensive conservation project.
ViewTaking as its point of departure the work of Nicole Eisenman, on view in MATRIX 248, Ballet of Heads brings together works from the collection that demonstrate the inexhaustible variety and texture of the human form in art.
ViewBAMPFA presents the work of the 2013 M.F.A. graduates of UC Berkeley's Department of Art Practice.
ViewWe are delighted to present, for the first time in ten years, a selection of BAMPFA's earliest Chinese paintings. These rare works by twelfth- to fifteenth-century landscape and bird-and-flower painters demonstrate the sophistication and accomplishment of the early Chinese... View
Joyful and sensual sculptural figures of Indian deities and dancers join radiant images of enlightened beings from Tibet and Nepal in Deities, Demons, and Teachers, which presents a rotating display of works by anonymous Indian, Nepalese, and Tibetan artisans.
ViewWe are pleased to welcome Thingamajigs Performance Group as our first-ever L@TE artists-in-residence. With the help of audiences and local collaborators Thingamajigs investigates the meanings of travel, migrations, maps, and labyrinths in a series of linked performances, talks, a... View
MATRIX 249 showcases the work of Oakland-based artist Zarouhie Abdalian, whose work often responds to the specific attributes of a given location, architectural setting, or social landscape. For this exhibition, the artist has created new sculptures for Gallery A that explore the... View
This first midcareer survey of the work of Yang Fudong presents photographs, films, and video installations by a leading figure in China's contemporary art world and independent cinema movement. Yang reflects the ideals and anxieties of the generation that came of age after the... View
Beauty Revealed proposes new ways of viewing and understanding the genre of later Chinese painting known as meiren hua, or beautiful women painting. The exhibition features over twenty rare, exquisite paintings of women in intimate settings, such as the garden, home, bath, and... View
Los Angeles–based artist Linda Stark has been making figurative and abstract paintings with heavily built-up surfaces of paint since the late 1980s. MATRIX 250 highlights her more recent series of “adorned” and “branded” paintings, which conflate the surface textures of the... View