On View

all
exhibitions
film series
event series

  • Black Life

    Ongoing

    Experience the vitality and range of cultural production in the African diaspora through this multidisciplinary event series.

    View

  • Family Events

    Ongoing

    Second Saturdays: Hands-on activities and participatory readings designed for kids and their families.

    View

  • Talks & Conversations

    Ongoing

    Artists, curators, scholars, and others share their insights on BAMPFA exhibitions, the arts, and other cultural topics.

    View

  • Guided Tours

    Ongoing

    Get a deeper look at the artworks on view by joining an expert-led tour.

    View

  • Five Tables

    First Thursdays of each month

    Five Tables is a monthly event coinciding with First Free Thursdays organized by the BAMPFA staff, and periodically by the Student Committee. Drop by the Florence Helzel Works on Paper Study Center for a curated behind-the-scenes experience.

    View

  • Full

    Ongoing

    Monthly Performance Series

    Explore the BAMPFA galleries and discover exciting performances in our dramatic space on the night of each full moon.

    View
  • Mimi Tempestt and Darius Simpson

    Readings

    Ongoing

    Meet the authors of new books and hear poets and other literary lights read their work.

    View
  • Touch Bass

    Performances

    Ongoing

    Music, dance, and other creative actions to inspire you at home.

    View

  • Workshops

    Ongoing

    Inspire your creativity, engage your senses, and expand your ideas.

    View

  • Art Wall: Caroline Kent

    April 27–October 30, 2022

    BAMPFA commissioned Chicago-based artist Caroline Kent to present The Sounds Among Us, a large-scale, self-reflective yet otherworldly meditation on the museum as a site of intimate performance and public engagement.

    View

  • Candice Lin: Seeping, Rotting, Resting, Weeping

    May 8–November 27, 2022

    View
  • Women of different racial backgrounds and skin tone appear in separate photographs, capturing a moment where they are engaged in a primal scream.

    Whitney Bradshaw: OUTCRY

    July 13–November 8, 2022

    This large-scale presentation of Bradshaw's photographic project features one hundred women engaging in unbridled self-expression as an act of defiance against patriarchal oppression. Running three times daily on the outdoor screen.

    View

  • by Alison Knowles: A Retrospective (1960–2022)

    July 20, 2022–February 12, 2023

    Best known as a core member of Fluxus, the first comprehensive exhibition of Knowles's work, spanning the entire breadth of her still-active career, from her intermedia works of the 1960s to participatory and relational art from the 2000s. 

    View

  • Fluxus Reverb: Events, Scores, Boxes & More

    July 20, 2022–February 12, 2023

    An international movement of the 1960s and 1970s of artists working across disciplines and in a decidedly anti-commercial manner, this exhibition offers an opportunity to see Fluxus materials and many artworks in the form of a box, including numerous Fluxkits by a wide variety of... View

  • Alternative Visions

    September 7–November 30, 2022

    This year our annual series showcases current and historical experimental films by local filmmakers, as well as works by artists from Brazil, Canada, Iran, Poland, Rwanda, and the United Kingdom.

    View

  • Hannah Levy / MATRIX 279

    August 10, 2022–January 8, 2023

    Hannah Levy’s tactile, creaturelike sculptures infuse the stripped-down lines of Modernist design with a visceral tension that is simultaneously sterile and erotic, amusing and disturbing.

    View

  • African Film Festival

    September 7–October 29, 2022

    After two years of pandemic-related cancellations or virtual screenings, we are proud to welcome the African Film Festival back to BAMPFA. This year, open your eyes to new horizons, new heroes, and new narratives.

    View

  • Undoing Time: Cinema and Histories of Incarceration

    September 8–November 16, 2022

    Including historical and contemporary documentaries, essay films, and works of fiction, this series reflects on the inherent racism and inhumanity of the prison industrial complex while celebrating courageous voices and acts of resistance from inside and outside of prison... View

  • In Dialogue with China: Family, Memory, Resistance, and Change

    October 6–27, 2022

    Presented in conjunction with the Townsend Center’s In Dialogue with China: Art, Culture, Politics, these films show how three contemporary Chinese filmmakers—Chan Tze Woon, Li Dongmei, and Luo Li—use inventive and subtle techniques to approach themes of family, memory, change,... View

  • Mill Valley Film Festival at BAMPFA

    October 8–16, 2022

    BAMPFA is pleased to partner with the Mill Valley Film Festival to present selected screenings from MVFF45 in the Barbro Osher Theater.

    View

  • Pier Paolo Pasolini

    October 22–November 27, 2022

    This retrospective of the influential Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922–1975) features 35mm restorations, many done by Cineteca di Bologna in partnership with Cinecittà.

    View

  • Georgian Cinema: Highlights from the BAMPFA Collection

    October 29–November 27, 2022

    Among the treasured special collections within our film archive are the rare and distinctive holdings of Georgian cinema produced during the Soviet era and since the country’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. This series features works by leading Georgian auteurs.

    View

  • Limited Engagements & Special Screenings

    Ongoing

    Recent releases, restored classics, and special guests grace the Barbro Osher Theater.

    View

  • The New Lebanese Cinema of the 1970s and 1980s

    November 10–17, 2022

    This small series features new restorations of works by three filmmakers from Lebanon who bear witness to its difficult history: Borhane Alaouié, Jocelyne Saab, and Heiny Srour. 

    View

  • Arts + Design Thursdays

    September 1–December 1, 2022

    Thinking Through Art and Design: Creativity & Practice

    BAMPFA partners with Berkeley Arts + Design to offer this lecture series about creativity and practice as a vital resource in times of change. Join us every Thursday afternoon to hear cutting-edge thinkers and makers share about their creative practice.

    View

  • Arts + Design Fridays

    September 2–December 2, 2022

    Landscapes of Migration, Incarceration, and Resistance

    Join us for a lively series of talks by artists, performers, scholars, and activists exploring themes of global and US migration, exclusion, and belonging. We use the historic Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay as jumping-off point for this exploration.

    View

  • Undoing Time: Art and Histories of Incarceration

    September 3–December 18, 2022

    Undoing Time: Art and Histories of Incarceration considers the foundational roots of confinement from philosophical, sociological, theological, and art historical perspectives to better understand the fact that today’s mass incarceration crisis has been centuries in the making.... View

  • The Black Poet’s Imagination

    September 25–November 13, 2022

    This reading series brings together a deeply talented group of Black poets and highly skilled performers to address themes of revolution, wounding, and intergenerational healing through powerful words.

    View