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.
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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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Talks & Conversations
Ongoing

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

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

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

Inspire your creativity, engage your senses, and expand your ideas.
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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.
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Candice Lin: Seeping, Rotting, Resting, Weeping
May 8–November 27, 2022

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
Elaine May: Age of Irony
September 9–30, 2022

Highly regarded as a comedian, screenwriter, playwright, and actress, Elaine May had a more tempestuous ride as a film director—often at odds with the Hollywood studio executives. Her films are championed by many for their ironic humor, sense of spontaneity, authenticity, and... 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.
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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.
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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.
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Limited Engagements & Special Screenings
Ongoing

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