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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  • Students gather at The House of Dust, California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Valencia, CA, 1971; Courtesy California Institute of the Arts, Institute Archives.

  • Alison Knowles: Taxis and Buses, 1960; oil and screen print on canvas; 96 5/8 x 54 1/8 in.; Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Archiv Sohm.

  • Alison Knowles and Amanda Degener: Tamashi, 2002; screen print on indigo- and walnut- dyed handmade flax paper in box, published by Cave Paper. Photo: David Familian.

  • Installation view, Alison Knowles: Celebration Red (Homage to Each Red Thing), 1994/2016, at Alison Knowles, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. Courtesy the Carnegie Museum of Art.

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Past Events

  • Sunday, February 12,12 PM

    Curator's Talk: Karen Moss on by Alison Knowles: A Retrospective (1960-2022)

    Join Karen Moss, guest curator of by Alison Knowles, for a special Curator's Talk marking the closing day of by Alison Knowles. Art historians and catalogue essayists Lucia Fabio, Hannah Higgins and Nicole Woods will also participate.

  • Saturday, January 14, 11:30 AM

    Gallery + Studio: A Little Fluxusbook

    Inspired by Alison Knowles’s many imaginative books, create your own Fluxusbook from elements of your choosing.

    For ages 6–12 with accompanying adult(s)

  • Saturday, December 10, 11:30 AM

    Gallery + Studio: A House of Imagination

    Follow artist Alison Knowles’s example and generate poetic instructions for building a house!

    For ages 6–12 with accompanying adult(s)

  • Saturday, October 15, 1–2:30 PM

    by Alison Knowles: A Symposium

    Moderated by guest curator Karen Moss, this symposium reassessing the importance and impact of Alison Knowles’s work features art historians Hannah B. Higgins and Nicole L. Woods, and artist/educator/writer Simon Leung.

  • Sunday, October 9, 7:30 PM

    Full: Event Scores of Alison Knowles

    UC Berkeley students from the course Creativity in Practice perform several of Fluxus artist Alison Knowles’s provocative event "scores," involving simple actions, ideas, and objects from everyday life, recontextualized as performance.

    Programmed by Sean Carson

  • Selected Wednesday, 12:15 PM; Sundays, 2 PM

    Guided Tours: by Alison Knowles: A Retrospective (1960–2022)

    Graduate students —Claire Chun and Patricia de Nobrega-Gomes—offer tours of  by Alison Knowles on Wednesdays at 12:15 PM and Sundays at 2:00 PM.

  • Saturday, July 23, 1 PM

    Curator's Talk: Karen Moss and Hannah B Higgins on by Alison Knowles

    Karen Moss, curator of by Alison Knowles, and Fluxus scholar and Knowles’s daughter, Hannah Higgins, offer an immersive tour of the exhibition. The art historians highlight specific works and series, addressing the trajectory of Knowles’s art, from her earliest paintings and involvement with Fluxus in the 1960s to her large-scale intermedia projects and experiments across disciplines from the 1970s to the present.

  • Saturday, July 23, 2:30 PM

    Celebration Red

    Visitors are invited to bring an everyday red object to the museum to contribute to Alison Knowles’s participatory, interactive installation Celebration Red. Her original score Celebrate every red thing asks participants to choose a single red object and place it on a red grid on the floor.

Past Films