On View

all
exhibitions
film series
event series

  • Limited Engagements & Special Screenings

    Ongoing

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

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  • Art Wall: Luis Camnitzer

    November 30, 2022–May 31, 2023

    In his West Coast solo project debut, Uruguayan artist Luis Camnitzer (b. 1937) debuts the new work below/here/above/ahead/was as part of BAMPFA’s Art Wall commissioned series.

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  • Endless Knot: Struggle and Healing in the Buddhist World

    December 14, 2022–May 7, 2023

    Endless Knot: Struggle and Healing in the Buddhist World explores how artists and practitioners across two millennia have understood and utilized one of the core tenets of Buddhism—dependent arising, which posits that cycles of existence (saṃsāra) arise from past actions and... 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.

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  • Performances

    Ongoing

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

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  • Documentary Voices

    February 1–April 12, 2023

    Our annual series features an international array of recent and historical documentaries and nonfiction films.

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  • Readings

    Ongoing

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

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  • Guided Tours

    Ongoing

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

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  • Talks & Conversations

    Ongoing

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

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  • Black Life

    Ongoing

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

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  • Workshops

    Ongoing

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

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  • Family Events

    Ongoing

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

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  • 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.

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  • Rina Kimche

    January 11–March 26, 2023

    This is the first solo exhibition in the United States of the work of Israeli-based artist Rina Kimche (born 1934). Kimche’s diminutive sculptures are modern in their reductive, abstract simplicity and in their expression of the material essence of their clay medium.

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  • Video Art in Context

    January 19—April 19, 2023

    Arts + Design Thursdays

    How have artists made use of the screen? What are the opportunities and hazards of using the screen as a vehicle for connection? A stunning roster of artists, curators, designers, and critics consider these questions and more.

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  • Pioneers of Queer Cinema

    March 3–May 3, 2023

    Pioneers of Queer Cinema celebrates the groundbreaking achievements born from visionary queer filmmakers, ranging from landmark to little-known works.

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  • Orchestrating Time: The Films of William Kentridge

    March 9–April 2, 2023

    South African artist William Kentridge’s work in animation and live action film is a central element of his interdisciplinary approach. Featured here are many of his short works, including the film cycle Drawings for Projection (1989–2020) and several filmed versions of his staged... View

  • Frank Moore / MATRIX 280: Theater of Human Melting

    January 25–April 23, 2023

    This exhibition represents a small portion of the vast body of creative work by the late Berkeley-based artist and teacher Frank Moore (1946–2013). Over the course of more than five decades, Moore, who was born with a physical disability, used painting, performance, public access... View

  • Black Studies Open University

    February 1–April 19, 2023

    Abolition Democracy Fellows Spring 2023 Speaker Series

    The Black Studies Collaboratory is a collaborative initiative to address racial inequality through bold and unique humanities-based research projects, housed in the Department of African American Studies and funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The ... View

  • Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cinema of Now

    March 10–May 12, 2023

    Apichatpong Weerasethakul presents several programs and the Townsend Center for the Humanities’s Una’s Lecture during this retrospective of the artist’s haunting, beautiful, and resonant works. 

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  • Out of the Vault: Billy Woodberry in Person

    March 22–29, 2023

    Filmmaker Billy Woodberry presents two nights of his moving-image work and the annual Les Blank Lecture on documentary film.

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  • Kelly Reichardt in Person

    March 24–31, 2023

    We are delighted to welcome Kelly Reichardt, the very first guest in BAMPFA’s long-running Afterimage series in 2009, back to present her most recent film, Showing Up, and to launch a spotlight series of three more films that she has released in the intervening years.

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  • Odessa’s Uncompromising Eccentric: The Films of Kira Muratova

    April 1–May 14, 2023

    We are honored to collaborate with the Ukraine’s Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Center on this series celebrating “Odessa’s uncompromising eccentric” (Jane Taubman), with guest curator Stanislav Menzelevskyi introducing three screenings.

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  • Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory

    February 4–July 23, 2023

    Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory is the first retrospective exhibition of the work of longtime Bay Area artist Mesa-Bains. Presenting work from the entirety of her career for the first time, this exhibition, which features nearly 60 works in a range of media,... View

  • Out of Africa: Selections from the Kramlich Collection

    March 8–April 30, 2023

    This selection of photographs and two video installations centers the continent of Africa as a site of extraction, exploitation, and displacement for economic gain.

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  • Apichatpong Weerasethakul "Morakot (Emerald)"

    March 8–April 30, 2023

    Endless Knot: Struggle and Healing in the Buddhist World

    Independent filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s video installation Morakot (Emerald), a work in the BAMPFA collection, is on view as part of the exhibition Endless Knot: Struggle and Healing in the Buddhist World.

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  • On the Hour: Three short films by William Kentridge

    March 9–April 30, 2023

    This trio of short animated films by William Kentridge demonstrate his interest in patterns associated with stream of consciousness thought, transformation, language, abstraction, and time. He uses the formal principles and building blocks of cinema, i.e. the illusion of movement... View

  • 66th San Francisco International Film Festival at BAMPFA

    April 14–23, 2023

    BAMPFA is proud to partner with the SFFILM Festival, an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and a major cultural event in the Bay Area.

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