Teaching Gallery / Artists on Colonization, Nuclear Legacies, and Climate Crisis

August 26, 2026–January 24, 2027

This exhibition is part of Kõmij Mour Ijin / Our Life Is Here, a series of art installations taking place across UC Berkeley’s campus, which considers the legacies of nuclear testing and colonization in relation to climate crises. Featuring a selection of artworks from the BAMPFA Collection, it invites us to recognize our shared responsibility for planetary care.

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Richard Misrach, Dead Animals #93, from Desert Canto VI: The Pit, 1987; color photograph on Kodak Endura paper; 60 x 72 inches; BAMPFA Collection, gift of the artist, 2003.9.
David Shrigley, River for Sale, 1999; Color photograph; 12 x 16 inches; BAMPFA Collection, gift of The DiSaronno Originale Photography Collection, 2001.14.6.
Robert Hartman, Delta Connections, c. 1990s; ilfochrome; 19 ¼ x 13 inches; BAMPFA Collection, gift of Victoria Belco and William Goodman in memory of Teresa Goodman, 2019.38.9.

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Teaching Gallery / Artists on Colonization, Nuclear Legacies, and Climate Crisis

August 26, 2026–January 24, 2027

UC Berkeley Environmental Arts and Humanities Initiative

This exhibition invites us to recognize our shared responsibility for planetary care. It is part of Kõmij Mour Ijin / Our Life Is Here, a series of art installations taking place across UC Berkeley’s campus, which considers the legacies of nuclear testing and colonization in relation to climate crises. At the heart of this multisite project are the Marshall Islands, a nation of atolls, islands, and islets in the central Pacific Ocean. The Marshallese people have been firsthand witnesses to the devastating impacts of rising sea levels and the more than sixty nuclear tests conducted in the area by the United States...

UC Berkeley Environmental Arts and Humanities Initiative

This presentation expands upon these themes with a selection of artworks from the BAMPFA collection. It opens with images printed from aging slides that document US Army and Navy development on Kwajalein Island in the mid-1960s. These images show how land and water have been employed to support military interests. Photographs by Richard Misrach and Mark Ruwedel evoke the deadliness that lingers invisibly in places exposed to radioactivity. Works by Enrique Chagoya, Alma Lavenson, and Patrick Nagatani highlight Indigenous communities displaced and marginalized as a result of colonization. Another group of works explores humanity’s interconnections with nature and its resources, through fragility, ambivalence, or wonder. Together these images urge us to heed the message underlying Isabella Kirkland’s lush portrait of the rainforest: society will be defined by what we create, as well as what we choose to protect.

The works in this exhibition complement courses taught in the Departments of Art Practice, History, Rhetoric, and Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies during the fall semester. Learn more about Kõmij Mour Ijin / Our Life Is Here and related events.

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This exhibition is organized by Elaine Yau, Associate Curator and Academic Liaison, in conjunction with Professor Shannon Jackson and affiliated members of UC Berkeley’s Environmental Arts and Humanities Initiative. Special thanks to Bella Williams, Iliana Morton, and Kõmij Mour Ijin / Our Life Is Here curators Amy Kisch and Svea Lin Soll. The Teaching Gallery presents a regular series of rotating exhibitions that connect faculty teaching and student learning with artworks from the museum’s collection.