Past Exhibitions and events

gallery exhibition

In the Presence Of: Collective Histories of the Asian American Women Artists Association

January 27 - April 20, 2024

Curated by Christina Hiromi Hobbs

“What is an Asian American woman artist?”

Karin Higa’s influential essay from 2002 recounts the historical exclusion of Asian American women from the male-dominated Asian American movement and the second wave feminists of the 1960s and 1970s by tracing the art and lives of the following Asian American women artists: Ruth Asawa, Hisako Hibi, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Rea Tajiri, and Hung Liu. The author recognizes the specificities of the artists’ personal and collective histories, generational differences, and artistic practices, and she concludes, “What is the wisdom in grouping the diverse and divergent practices of these artists?”

While recent theorizations of Asian American femininity animated through the registers of ornamentalism, inscrutability, invisibility, and silence have been organized around an understanding of gender formation as an individual process, In the Presence Of returns to Higa’s question “What is an Asian American woman artist?” through the frameworks of kinship, mentorship, intergenerational friendship, and community-building between artists in the group.

Exhibiting artists and poets: Lucy Arai, Ruth Asawa, Bernice Bing, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Lenore Chinn, Terry Acebo Davis, Shari Arai DeBoer, Hisako Hibi, Nancy Hom, Betty Kano, Genny Lim, Hung Liu, Barbara Jane Reyes, Pallavi Sharma, Cynthia Tom, Flo Oy Wong, and Nellie Wong

gallery exhibition

Naming Our Time

October 27, 2023 - January 13, 2024

Curated by Qianjin Montoya

In response to chaos, brokenness, and tragedy there is the tendency to seek out a single, vetted, solution, some fixed, grand method of order that one can count on to solve, fix, and make right. In a moment defined by the effects of climate change, global pandemics, historically charged race and class reckonings and so much more, it is crucial to examine how these tendencies toward self-preservation and belonging are further complicated when the tragedy and chaos many marginalized beings experience are, in fact, features of the socially constructed systems we engage in every day. These realities leave many of us asking: In the face of real and symbolic entropy, how do we call upon our individual wholeness? How do we find personal comfort, belonging, or even salvation? With these questions in mind, through a rigorous and thoughtful blending of image, labor, gathering, and storytelling, Naming Our Time is an integrated presentation between artists Tosha Stimage, Charlene Tan, Alexa Burrell, and Erina C. Alejo of the historical, sonic, material, and natural landscapes through which we navigate meaning, material, identity, and kinship.

Curated by Qianjin Montoya

Mail Art

TOSHA STIMAGE: Lots of Flowers

SUMMER 2022

For our latest commissioned work, Berkeley Art Center is proud to present Lots of Flowers, a limited-edition mail art project by artist TOSHA STIMAGE that includes a set of six prints, a custom scent inspired by the park surrounding BAC, and a packet of seeds. Prints are designed by the artist and printed by SUN NIGHT EDITIONS in Oakland.

GALLERY EXHIBITION

rabbit hole

AUGUST 12 - SEPTEMBER 23, 2023

JURIED BY adrianne ramsey

Rabbit Hole, featuring works by FRED MARQUE DEWITT, MARK HARRIS, DANIELLE NANOS-LUZ, COURTNEY DESIREE MORRIS, ARLEENE CORREA VALENCIA, CONNIE ZHENG, takes a deeper look at the significance of space and the subtle and obvious ways that we engage with it on a daily basis. Space can take place in many forms – personal, public, institutional, communal, mental, etc. – and has its own sets of rules and expectations. Those who enter these spaces are confronted with the choice, or necessity, to play by the rules – or break them. While we maintain various degrees of fluency in navigating the spaces we traverse every day, as space is tied to both history and geography, our concepts of it change as our memories transform over time. Curated by Adrianne Ramsey.

GALLERY EXHIBITION

2023 JURIED MEMBERS EXHIBITION

JUne 3 – july 29

JURIED BY hoi Leung

Excursions brings together over 20+ Bay Area artists working across a diverse range of mediums including painting, sculpture, installation, and video.

Works by: Dalar Alahverdi, Alexis Arnold, Katayoun Bahrami, Lizzy Blasingame, Lisa Conrad, Carolina Cuevas, Lee Oscar Gomez, Emily Gui, Sabina Kariat, Ben Leon, Parul Naresh, Will Pang, Johanna Poethig, Callan Porter-Romero, Helia Pouyanfar, Leonard Reidelbach, Hilda Robinson, Eugene Rodriguez, Leyla Rzayeva, kaory santillan, AJ Serrano, Yana Verba, Amy Yoshitsu.

EXPERIMENTS IN THE GALLERY

UNDERGROUND PROJECTS

MAY 26–27, 2023: XANDRA IBARRA

An evening of short video works by Oakland-based visual and performance artist, Xandra Ibarra, including the debut of Scum in Ecstasy, a video project created in conjunction with the BAC Basement Projects. Underground Projects creating a temporary project space in the gallery underground space for newly commissioned site-responsive projects. As part of its commitment to expand paid opportunities for local emerging and mid-career artists in the Bay Area and to surprise audiences with exceptional contemporary art presented for free in an approachable manner, BAC will transform part of its basement into a mini-gallery dedicated to all things “underground.” Finished works will address themes of (in)visibility, submergence, and darkness, with an emphasis on video, sound, and sculptural installation projects.

COMMUNITY PARTNER IN THE GALLERY

BERKELEY COMMONPLACE: POSTAL COLLAGE PROJECT NO. 12    

MAY 13–MAY 21

BERKELEY COMMONPLACE is pleased to have hosted the exhibition for Postal Collage Project No. 12 this spring at Berkeley Art Center.** The exhibition will feature more than 200 collaborative collages created between September 2022 and Spring 2023 by nearly 300 collaborators in sixteen countries. Participants worked in groups-of-five, and sent works-in-progress to one another by mail.

**NOTE: Berkeley Commonplace is a Community Partner; this exhibition is not official programming of Berkeley Art Center

experiments in the gallery

holding: christine wong yap

MARCH 22–APRIL 29: CHRISTINE WONG YAP

To “hold change” or “hold space” is to hold both the people in, and the dynamic energy of, a room, a space, a meeting, an organization, a movement. As BAC emerges/becomes more vocal about its equity plan and institutional transformation, we invite interdisciplinary Bay Area artists to facilitate space that challenges traditional, passive gallery exhibition frameworks. CHRISTINE WONG-YAP will lead artist- and community-driven programs through projects, community workshops, and dialogues.

Gallery exhibition

THE LETTERS OF MINA HARKER

JANUARY 21–MARCH 12, 2023
CURATED BY NAZ CUGUOGLU

Participating Artists: DENA AL-ADEEB, SHOLEH ASGARY, KERRI CONLON, RED CULEBRA (GUILLERMO GALINDO AND CRISTOBAL MARTíNEZ), MADELEINE FITZPATRICK, BEHNAZ AND BAHARAK KHALEGHI, HEESOO KWON, TRACY REN, CHELSEA RYOKO WONG, RUPY C. TUT

Drawing its title from the 1998 eponymous debut novel by Dodie Bellamy, a vital contributor to the Bay Area's avant-garde literary scene, The Letters of Mina Harker investigates speculative fiction’s potential for alternative world-building. The exhibition celebrates Mina, the central woman character from Bram Stoker's Dracula, who demands her own agency and voice in Bellamy’s narrative. Via diasporic artistic practices, the exhibition looks at the definition of “monster” as a symbol for the outsider and constructs an alternative universe with a new and otherworldly language.   

EXPERIMENTS IN THE GALLERY

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE: ANGELICA TRIMBLE-YANU

OCTOBER 1 – OCTOBER 15: GALLERY CLOSED FOR ARTIST IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM
OCTOBER 16 – NOVEMBER 11: HOLDING, CEREMONY

Lynette Betancur, Alma Leppla, Tricia Rainwater, Loreum, Steven Flores, and Angelica Trimble-Yanu

As Berkeley Art Center holds space for artist practices with the first artist in resident, ANGELICA TRIMBLE-YANU shares the holding of space by inviting artists who explore themes of the body and movement, intertwined with place and identity.

Gallery Exhibition

2022 JURIED MEMBERS EXHIBITION

JULY 2 – AUGUST 6

JURIED BY ELENA GROSS

Cherisse Alcantara, Kristin Anderson, Norman Aragones, Austin Boe, Amy Brown, Serena Corson, Dana DeKalb, Claire Dunn, Jy Jimmie Gabiola, Ann Holsberry, Sylvia Hughes-Gonzales, Sarah Klein, Charles Lee, Zoe Loa, Judit Navratil, Breanna Parks, Callan Porter-Romero, Anthony A. Russell, Selby Sohn, Raisa Solis, Camilo Villa

Gallery Exhibition

ALL OF US ALL OF US

APRIL 16–JUNE 18, 2022

Curated by Roula Seikaly
Works by Tristan Crane, First Exposures Mentors & Mentees, The Q-Sides (Brown Amy, Vero Majano, Kari Orvik), and Marcel Pardo Ariza

All of Us All of Us celebrates collaborative contemporary photography projects produced by Bay Area makers. In addition to challenging the familiar concept of a solitary photographer addressing aesthetic, technical, or socio-political matters, the four featured projects exemplify collaborators striving as equals to answer the same questions, and more.

Gallery Exhibition

MIDAS: How Art Becomes Life & Life Becomes Art

January 29–March 26, 2022

Curated by Squeak Carnwath
Works by Ricki Dwyer, Linda Geary, Maria A. Guzmán Capron, Sahar Khoury, Jerry Leisure, Kyle Lypka & Tyler Cross, and John Moore

The way in which things in the studio become art is a magical, mysterious occurrence. This exhibition highlights the inspiration artists take from their surroundings and how they bring everyday objects into their work. Participating artists will display studio ephemera or personal objects alongside finished artworks, sharing insight into the creative process.

Off-site Exhibition

BAC at the Mills Building San Francisco

October 22, 2021 – February 10, 2022

Alice Beasley, Leo Bersamina, Alexandra Cicorschi, Uma Rani Iyli, Maya Kabat, Mel Prest, Brian Singer, Simon Tran and Rochelle Youk
Curated by Artsource Consulting

The Swig Company presents a new exhibition featuring works by Berkeley Art Center members in the lobby of the historic Mills Building in downtown San Francisco.

Gallery Exhibition

SUSPENDED MATTER

October 30, 2021 – January 15, 2022

Julia Goodman, Asma Kazmi, Laura Arminda Kingsley, Jenifer K Wofford
Curated by Patricia Cariño Valdez

Suspended Matter riffs off the scientific definition of a disruption in the environment — such as erosion or flooding during rainfall — that stirs up particles and detritus to create a new composition of matter that doesn’t dissolve. The exhibition refracts our contemporary moment, examining the sentiments and materiality of these unsettled times. Through sculpture, video, photography, and paintings, the artists consider the intimate connections with ourselves, others, and the domestic objects that shape our surroundings.

Gallery exhibition

DAVID HUFFMAN: AFRO HIPPIE

August 14 – October 16, 2021

For his solo exhibition at the Berkeley Art Center, artist DAVID HUFFMAN presents a deeply personal show of new and existing works, including family mementos and a series of ’psychic portraits’ that have never been seen publicly before. Born and raised in Berkeley in the late 1960s and ‘70s, Huffman was heavily influenced by his mother’s social and political activism — especially her work for the Black Panthers, which included designing an iconic Free Huey flag.

The show's title Afro Hippie references his interest in reuniting two important local historical movements that have been segregated over time: Black Power and free love. For Huffman, the adults of his childhood were all part of a single community — Black and white, Oakland and Berkeley — mingled together and united by radical ideals. The centerpiece of the exhibition will be a tribute to his mother in the form of a large-scale foil pyramid, an important symbol of energy, healing, and protection.

Bridge Project

Cathy Lu: Customs Declaration

July 10 – September 15, 2021

For Customs Declaration, CATHY LU strings together nearly 2,000 pieces of slipcast ceramic fruit into an elaborate net suspended over the bridge outside BAC. As an artist of Taiwanese descent who grew up in Miami, her work unpacks how experiences of immigration, cultural hybridity, and cultural assimilation become part of the larger American identity. Lu has long been interested in various fruits as evocative reminders of distant homelands.

The community was invited to participate in this latest iteration of the project by sharing their own fruit stories via voice message. Selected recordings are shared as part of the finished work.

Gallery Exhibition

Uplift/Heavy Lift

June 12 – July 18

Milena Arango, Alexandra Bailliere, Cristine Blanco, Mariet Braakman, Alexandra Cicorschi, Brian Conery, Jillian Crochet, Reniel Del Rosario, Leeza Doreian, Clea Felien, Lindsey Filowitz, Jo Ford, Yana Goldfine, Cynthia Gonzalez, Uma Rani Iyli, Kacy Jung, Mihee Kim, Melody Kozma-Kennedy, Ahn Lee, Natasha Loewy, Fredi Lopez, Mary V. Marsh, Mareiwa Miller, Judit Navratil, Beril Or, Marcela Pardo Ariza, Callan Porter-Romero, Mel Prest, Felix Quintana, Tracy Ren, Juan Carlos Rodriguez Rivera, Jose Sanchez, Brian Singer, Amrita Singhal, Dobee Snowber, Nga Trinh, Alice Wu, Michelle Yi Martin, Rochelle Youk

Curated by Thea Quiray Tagle

Gallery Exhibition

Origin Stories: Expanded Ceramics in the Bay Area

March 10 – May 8, 2021

Ebitenyefa Baralaye, Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik and María Inés Leal García, The Brick Factory, Ilana Crispi, Futurefarmers, Nicki Green, Dana Hemenway, Kari Marboe, Mutual Stores, Stephanie Syjuco
Curated by Tanya Zimbardo

Spanning the past decade, Origin Stories: Expanded Ceramics in the Bay Area surveys key works by 10 artists and artist groups who consider ceramics in relation to site and place. The exhibition foregrounds the contributions of both interdisciplinary artists and artists who primarily work with clay to a larger and vibrant contemporary field. Several artists bring a conceptually driven approach to functional ceramics, embracing the potential to invite participation and community engagement.

Digital Projects

The Option To…

A series of commissioned projects by Kimberley Acebo Arteche, Roya Ebtehaj, Feral Fabric, Dionne Lee, Adia Millett, and Astria Suparak

Berkeley Art Center presents a series of newly commissioned projects by artists working in video, animation, writing, textiles, photography, and interactive media. As we continue to navigate a world of limited interaction, we invited six artists to make works that we could present online in some way. New projects were released every few weeks from October 2020 through February 2021.

Gallery exhibition

We Have Teeth Too

October 10, 2020 – december 19, 2020

Natalie Ball, Jordan Ann Craig, Emma Robbins, Amanda Roy
Curated by Natani Notah

Natani Notah guest curates an exhibition exploring what it means to be human. We have teeth too serves to disrupt Western notions of purity by focusing on various intersections of identity. On their own and together, the works included in this exhibition inspire a collective call to action, which is rooted in deep connections to community and conversations about representation in the arts. Contemporary pieces span a wide range of mixed media including sculpture, painting, and photography with ties to the complex histories of portraiture, quiltmaking, Indigenous quillwork, and regalia.

Site Project

SANCTUARY CITY PROJECT — BANNERS

September 11–DECEMBER 10, 2020

Over the past 12 years, artists SERGIO DE LA TORRE and CHRIS TREGGIARI have used a variety of engagement platforms — including interactive installations, public projections, mobile food projects, and mobile print shops — to create inclusive spaces where deeper dialogue surrounding sanctuary cities and immigration policy can take place. For their project at BAC, they call out the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 on immigrants and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) through a series of banners installed on the bridge leading to the gallery.

Gallery EXHIBITION

EXPERIMENTS IN THE FIELD:Creative Collaboration in the age of ecological concern

July 25–September 28, 2020

The Bureau of Linguistical Reality, Adriane Colburn, Alicia Escott, Stacey Goodman, Chanell Stone, Livien Yin, Minoosh Zomorodinia
Curated by Svea Lin Soll

While scientific objectivity is crucial to our formal understanding of climate change, art offers a range of discursive, visual, and sensual strategies to connect with the issue. This exhibition addresses ecological concerns as well as serving as a conceptual centrifuge for future exploration and action. Artists in the show expand on the particularities of site, ownership, history, representation, perception, public domain, and stewardship.

lobby project

SABINE RECKEWELL: Variegated vestibule

February 8 – March 22, 2020

SABINE RECKEWELL’s work is intrinsically related to its location, which serves as her inspiration. Using geometry and repeating lines to create varying densities that shift and change, Variegated Vestibule activates BAC’s lobby so that viewers are encouraged to explore the piece from various angles. “My installations look precise, but my use of various cords, yarns, and webbing — along with a very straightforward construction process — give them a handmade feel.”

Gallery Exhibition

Some Speechless Thing

February 8 – March 6, 2020

Laurence Elias, Lisa Espenmiller, Jane Fisher, Laine Justice, Toby Kahn, Christine Meuris, Maggie Preston, Laura Van Duren, A.L. Woods
Juried by Griff Williams

The second part of our annual Members Exhibition brings together nine artists selected by guest juror Griff Williams based on the single small works they presented in Part 1. The show leans into the ineffable associations that emerge when juxtaposing artists’ work, as well as the intuitive nature of the jurying process. Representing a range of ideas and approaches to art-making, these artists come from varied backgrounds, ages, and artistic practices. All share a common vocabulary of inquiry, and they each challenge themselves to find ways to articulate their curiosities through iteration.

Gallery exhibition

2020 members exhibition

January 11 – January 25, 2020

Each year BAC celebrates the rich and diverse practices of its artist-members with a two-part exhibition. Part 1 features a single work by each participating artist in a salon-style extravaganza. An esteemed guest juror then selects artists to present additional works in a group show for Part 2. This year’s juror is Griff Williams, founder of Gallery 16 in San Francisco.

Lobby ProjecT

ROUND TABLE [COLLABORATION]: Check It Out

August 17 – December 21, 2019

Check It Out is a round-robin collaborative collage project, open to all. In a ‘library style’–process, participants borrow works in progress and independently contribute to them. The borrowed work is then returned and made available for the next collaborator.

Gallery exhibition

Ready

October 26 – December 12, 2019

Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik, Janaki Jagannath & Cece Carpio; Cute Rage Press (Aram Han Sifuentes & Ishita Dharap); Rebecca Goldschmidt; Vero Majano; Nyeema Morgan & Mike Cloud; Kim Nguyen
Curated by Related Tactics

Ready presents a set of mobile stations created by Related Tactics that gather and deploy a collection of artists’ interventions, tools, and strategies that can be used by audiences to interrupt systems of marginalization, exploitation, and erasure. The assembled materials range from the poetic to prompts for guerrilla actions, from stickers to seeds, from prompts for literary analysis to the building blocks for temporary gatherings. All are linked through their interest in encouraging individual agency in challenging everyday moments where we are often caught off guard or isolated from allies. Ready offers a variety of tools to be utilized beyond the exhibition.

RELATED TACTICS is Michele Carlson, Weston Teruya, and Nathan Watson. They produce creative projects at the intersection of race and culture to confront and critique systemic and institutional racism and inequities.

Gallery exhibition

hot love — cold facts

August 17 – October 12, 2019

Andrea Borsuk, Frédéric Doazan, Matt Gonzalez, Mildred Howard, Victoria May, Catie O’Leary, Ward Schumaker, Katherine Sherwood, Vanessa Woods
Curated by Jack Fischer

Set up as a dialogue between two seemingly distinct camps — the hot, romantic and erotic on one hand, and the cool, austere and form-obsessed on the other — this exhibition explores collage as a form where narrative and abstraction meet and dissolve into one another. Pieces span a wide range of media, including cut paper, antique engravings, tapestry, painting, sculpture, and video.

Gallery exhibition

Bodies on the line: Sound, Performance, Endurance

june 8–July 20, 2019

Simone Bailey, Chris Evans, Beatrice L. Thomas (aka Black Benatar)
Curated by Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen

Curated by Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen, founder of Black & White Projects, this show features three artists who place the body at the center of their practice, bringing to light the urgency, endurance, violence, and magic associated with being Black women in 2019. Through live performances and broad documentation of past performances — including video recordings, photographs, and objects — the exhibition explores radically different approaches to performativity in relation to gender, race, and queerness.

During the opening reception, Simone Bailey presents Sway, Clench, Release (Requiem No. 415) featuring Mia Pixley. This performance was created to reflect upon the impulses of past Black in-migration to the Bay Area and the current displacement-fueled out-migration, which is part of a larger movement back to the South called the New Great Migration.

Gallery exhibition

look at me hungry

april 12 — May 23, 2019

Kim Bennett, Arthur Huang, Xi Nan, Joyce Nojima, Sandra Ono, James Sansing
Curated by Mel Prest

The works in this exhibition evolve from an obsessiveness and immersion in the process of making — something like hunger — while evoking the tension between being fully realized abstract “things” and pieces disintegrating into their many components. Crossing boundaries between painting, sculpture, and installation, the artists in the show lay bare their creative processes through works that embody time and the presence of their hand.

FIFTH ANNUAL glas animation festival

March 21 — March 24, 2019

KIM LAUGHTON is a Shanghai-based digital artist specializing in new media. His work blurs the boundaries between tech demo, music video, experimental film, and viral content — often exploiting cutting-edge imaging techniques to conjure feelings of nihilistic dystopia. Much of his work explores the notion of the uncanny valley, a computer animation concept describing the point at which an audience’s empathy becomes revulsion while watching an animated character that is too realistic yet still inhuman.

Gallery exhibition

outside the lines: busd YOUNG ARTISTS EXHIBITION

March 1 — March 16, 2019

Every two years, BAC celebrates and honors students in Berkeley elementary and middle schools with an exhibition of juried works selected by BUSD art teachers. In conjunction with Alameda County’s Art is Education Month, the show increases public awareness about and interest in the importance of art in our public schools.

Gallery exhibition

All that glitters

january 26 — February 16, 2019

Jennie Braman, Mary Burger, Dana DeKalb, Donna Fenstermaker, Shelley Gardner, Christine Meuris, Kimberly Rowe, Sally Smith, Simon Tran, Stephen Whisler, Rochelle Youk
Juried by Walter Maciel

Part two of our annual Members Exhibition gathers 11 artists selected by guest juror Walter Maciel. It reflects the varied strategies artists use to capture viewers’ attention and imagination — from bold color, to deft handling of material, to light touches of humor and whimsy. In a wide range of styles, these works celebrate the artistic spirit while touching on themes both personal and political.

Gallery exhibition

HERE: MEMBERS EXHIBITION PART 1

December 12, 2018 — January 1, 2019

Each year BAC celebrates the rich and diverse practices of its artist-members with a two-part show. Part 1 features a single work by each participating artist in a salon-style extravaganza. An esteemed guest juror then selects artists to present additional works in a group exhibition for Part 2. This year’s juror is Walter Maciel from Walter Maciel Gallery in Los Angeles.

gallery exhibition

universal messages: new vistascontemporary muslim women artists in the bay area

November 3 — December 2, 2018

Salma Arastu, Bassamat Fayoumi Bahnasy, Manli Salimah Chao, Rabea Chaudhry, Rubina Kazi, Yasmin Khafagy, Azeem Khaliq, Nabeela Sajjad, Ayesha Samdani
Curated by Salma Arastu

Inspired by the beauty of Arabic calligraphy — which developed from the Islamic tradition forbidding the depiction of God, Mohamed, and the prophets in art — the artists in this show work abstractly to represent spiritual concepts, words, and ideas.

gallery exhibition

of dreams AND reality

september 15 — october 25, 2018

Rose Borden, Adrienne Defendi, Anthony Delgado, Gene Dominique, Dan Fenstermacher, Linda Fitch, Ralf Hillebrand, Ken Hoffman, Ellen Konar and Steve Goldband, Tom Lavin, Mitch Nelles, Ari Salomon, Angelika Schilli, Cindy Stokes, Denise Tarantino, Nick Winkworth
Curated by Ann Jastrab

As part of the Bay Area Month of Photography, this exhibit showcases work by the members of the Bay Area Photographers Collective, a nonprofit that sustains a community of photographic artists through support, encouragement, constructive critique, and exhibition opportunities.

gallery exhibition

queer technology

july 21 — september 2, 2018

Rudy Lemcke, Colleen Jennings, Aaron Reed, Kara Stone, Lark VCR
Curated by Elliot Anderson

What are the political, economic, and social ramifications of the technologies we live and interact with everyday? We are told that these technologies are neutral and transparent, designed to satisfy each individual’s desires. But what if those desires are outside the norms encoded in software, hardware, and delivery systems? Queer Technology responds to these questions and others by inviting Bay Area LGBTQ+ artists to critique the norms and values assumed by the technosphere. Participating artists expose us to new possibilities with games, augmented virtual reality artworks, sound and music, sculpture, internet-based works, video, and performance,

gallery exhibition

wonder women

may 26 — July 8, 2018

Helen Berggruen, Kay Bradner, Stacey Carter, Dana DeKalb, Lisa Esherick, Robbin Henderson, Naomie Kremer, Diana Krevsky, Tabitha Soren, Jan Wurm
Curated by George Krevsky

Stimulated by the explosion of media attention to feminist action and the confluence of pop culture, the impact of Wonder Women has new significance in our day and age. In the art world, women continue fighting for recognition and representation while simultaneously creating some of their most potent and influential work. With this exhibition, curator George Krevsky has gathered a group of 10 women artists who have impacted society with their ability to blend paint, canvas, paper, technology, and talent to produce bodies of work that document and reflect the world we live in. Sometimes political and often lyrical or surreal, these artists balance their personal and professional lives with the needs of their communities.

AGILITY PROJECTS

LEAH ROSENBERG & JEREMIAH JENKINS: the measure of enjoyment

April 7—May 13, 2018

Featured artists for the Agility Projects are selected by BAC’s Program Committee from a list nominated by esteemed Bay Area arts professionals. This year’s artists are LEAH ROSENBERG and JEREMIAH JENKINS. Rosenberg is a San Francisco–based artist whose practice spans a range of media including painting, sculpture, installation, printmaking, and performance. Color and process play a primary role in her work. Jenkins creates sculptures, installations, and performative work. His humor and social resonance stem from a unique understanding of materials: “I think of myself as a reverse anthropologist. I make artifacts that reflect our society on a physical and conceptual level.”

FOURTH ANNUAL glas animation festival

March 22 — March 25, 2018

GLAS Animation Festival presents Signals, a collaborative project by artists NICOLAS SASSOON and RICK SILVA. Sassoon and Silva share a broad and persistent theme in their practice — the depiction and alteration of natural forms through computer technology. Rooted in this common interest, and produced by pairing complementary fields of research in computer imaging, Signals focuses primarily on immersive audio-visual renderings of seascape environments. The project draws from scientific oceanic surveys, virtual reality, and natural phenomena to generate video works, prints, sculptures, and installations that reflect on environmental inquiries, concepts of monumentality, and alteration.

PARTNER PROJECTS

divining triptychs: printmaking, dance & poetry across millennia

march 7 — march 17, 2018

Alan Bern, Lucinda Weaver, Robert Woods

Divining Triptychs is a multimedia exhibition and live event featuring the work of poet and storyteller ALAN BERN, dancer and choreographer LUCINDA WEAVER, and artist ROBERT WOODS. With deep roots in Berkeley, all three have been working along parallel lines and weaving their work together in site-specific collaborations. The exhibition includes a family workshop, where Bern will lead audiences to compose a unique, expressive poem that will be paired with music by on-site musicians. This event, titled Composing Together, uses poetry to explore issues of self-identity, relationships with nature, our place in the world, and the silly things that just make us feel good. The exhibition also includes poetry readings by members of a North Berkeley writing group, including Rebecca Radner, Glenn Ingersoll, and Alan Bern. Special guest John Altman, a Santa Barbara translator, will read from his translations of Pablo Neruda.

gallery exhibition

this place

February 3 — March 4, 2018

Peter Baczek, Monique Boyd, Timothea Campbell, Victoria Hamlin, Shelly Hoyt, Jeannie O’Connor, Nancy Mona Russell
Juried by Maria Porges

The task of selecting a show from the works submitted by 180 member artists is not a simple one. In a display of enormously diverse style and media, the BAC Artists Annual Exhibition is an exciting opportunity for artists to have hundreds of eyes on their work and, in particular, the eyes of this year's juror, MARIA PORGES. In her selection of works for This Place, Porges was interested in the role that environment plays in an artist’s development: “The work of each of the seven artists in this show demonstrates a connection to the unique landscapes of northern California, whether urban, suburban or pastoral.” Some works are straightforward, others more abstract. Through painting, printmaking, drawing, etching, digital prints, and painted film, the artworks create a record of familiar places — and some that no longer exist.

Agility Projects

RoDNEY EWING: Fact & Fiction/Cloud Jar
Jamil HellU: Present Tense

March 19 – May 8, 2016

As part of BAC’s Agility Projects, RODNEY EWING and JAMIL HELLU present new work from distinct projects that explore how we determine our relationships to cultural histories and personal experiences. How do we reconcile who we really are with how we have been perceived? How do we articulate our own identity within generations of histories?

GALLERY EXHIBITION

Looking Back & Seeing Now: New Work by Lava Thomas

July 11 – August 23, 2015

Looking Back and Seeing Now is an immersive, kinetic, site-specific solo installation that transforms the BAC gallery into a meditative space for a dialogue between history and the present.