This panel discussion between the six Department of Art Practice MFA students (2022) and exhibition curator Claire Frost considers the questions of what, how, and why artists make what they make. Speaking two at a time, the artists discuss their artistic practice and the process of making work for their culminating MFA exhibition. Since 1970 BAMPFA has hosted an annual MFA exhibition for art practice students. Now in its fifty-second year, the exhibition provides a vital point of connection between the museum and the students, celebrating their work and the culmination of their time at UC Berkeley. While the exhibition showcases the work of each MFA student, it is also a deeply collaborative project, with a variety of forces and influences shaping the work that is made and presented—all of which is discussed in this program.

Curatorial Assistant Claire Frost has worked in the Bay Area since 2011 and has held positions at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, ArtSpan, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Intersection for the Arts. She received her MA in modern and contemporary art history, theory, and criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2017. Her graduate studies focused on the intersection of identity and historiography in relation to second wave feminism and conceptual art. She is the founder and curator of the apartment galleries COLLABO in Chicago and Claire Frost in San Francisco.

Presented by BAMPFA and UC Berkeley’s Department of Art Practice.

Participants and topics are subject to change; visit Berkeley Arts + Design (artsdesign.berkeley.edu) for the most up-to-date series information.