Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings

January 24–April 19, 2026

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings is the first retrospective in twenty-five years dedicated to the groundbreaking work of the artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. Gathering over one hundred artworks and archival materials from across her short but prolific career, as well as select loans of works by Cha and other artists, the exhibition highlights the inventive, playful, and meditative methods of Cha’s practice while also situating her work within a constellation of artistic forebearers, peers, and contemporary artists for whom she has long been a lodestar.

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Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Aveugle Voix, 1975. Performance documentation, 63 Bluxome Street, San Francisco. Gift of the Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Memorial Foundation.
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Other Things Seen, Other Things Heard, 1978. Gift of the Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Memorial Foundation.
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, White Dust From Mongolia, 1980. Gift of the Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Memorial Foundation.

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Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings

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January 24–April 19, 2026

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings is the first retrospective in twenty-five years dedicated to the groundbreaking work of the artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (b. 1951, Busan, South Korea; d. 1982, New York City). Cha produced an expansive range of works across text-based media, video, and performance, including her posthumously published book, Dictée (1982). The artist’s interdisciplinary practice gave shape to the experimental art scenes in San Francisco, New York City, and beyond.

After emigrating from South Korea to the United States, Cha enrolled in 1969 at UC Berkeley, where she studied art practice, comparative literature, and film. Keenly attuned to the active role that audiences play in the creation of meaning, she prioritized nonlinear narratives to allow for more open-ended forms of interpretation—what she termed a method of “Multiple Telling with Multiple Offering.” The retrospective adopts this framework to allow for a range of entry points into Cha’s work, guiding visitors through the themes—memory, displacement, and the mutability of language, among others—that recur in her oeuvre.

Since 1992, owing to a generous gift from the Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Memorial Foundation, BAMPFA has served as the steward of Cha’s art and archives. Gathering over one hundred artworks and archival materials from across her short but prolific career, as well as select loans of works by Cha and other artists, Multiple Offerings highlights the inventive, playful, and meditative methods of Cha’s practice while also situating her work within a constellation of artistic forebearers, peers, and contemporary artists for whom she has long been a lodestar.

The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue—the first museum monograph dedicated to the artist in over twenty years.

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Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings is curated by Victoria Sung, Phyllis C. Wattis Senior Curator, with Tausif Noor, Curatorial Associate. This exhibition is made possible through lead support from Teiger Foundation. Major support is provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Korea Foundation, the Shah Garg Women Artists Research Fund, and the R.J. Bertero Family Fund. Additional support is provided by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Alexandra Bowes, Stephen Cheng, Miyoung Lee, and Robin Wright.

The Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Endowment was established in 2003 to support the Cha Collection and Archives at BAMPFA.

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Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings

January 24–April 19, 2026

Upcoming Events

Past Films