Way Bay 2

June 13–September 2, 2018

A fresh iteration of our innovative exhibition exploring the creative energies that have emerged from the Bay Area over the past two centuries.

Read full description

Conrad Ruiz: Overload, 2009; watercolor on canvas; 77 x 110 in.; BAMPFA, gift of the artist and Neil LeDoux.

Upcoming
Films
Upcoming
Events
Selected
Objects
Past
Films
Past
Events

Past Events

Sunday, September 2, 2 PM
Performance: Wavy Gravy

Combining performance and oral history, Berkeley-based hippie icon Wavy Gravy shares his unique experience of living a life of creative activism in the Bay Area, always with fun as a ruling factor.

BAMPFA
Sunday, August 26, 12 PM
Feral Fabric with Amanda Walters and Paulina Berczynski

Make back patches and a communal banner in this workshop with artists Amanda Walters and Paulina Berczynski. Discover how undomesticated cloth can be!

BAMPFA

Programmed by Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo
Saturday, August 4, 12 PM
1+1=11: Risograph Workshop with Tim Belonax

Join local designer and educator Tim Belonax to create Risograph-printed postcards in response to Way Bay 2.

BAMPFA

Programmed by Denise Kan
Saturday, July 21, 1 PM
Seeing & Reading: Graphic Design Workshop with Mary Banas

Create a collaborative book based on poetry and imagery from Way Bay 2 in this workshop led by designer Mary Banas.

BAMPFA

Programmed by Denise Kan
Sunday, July 15, 2 PM
Monuments and Ruins: Sculpture Workshop with Maryam Yousif and Nick Makanna

Explore the construction of identity, history, and nationhood through the lens of architectural monuments and ruins in this workshop with artists Maryam Yousif and Nick Makanna.

BAMPFA

Programmed by Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo
Saturday, July 14, 11:30–1 PM or 1–2:30 PM
Gallery + Studio: Inside Out and Outside In

Explore biomorphic forms and fictional characters in Way Bay 2, then create your own colorful sculpture.

BAMPFA

For ages 6 to 12 with accompanying adult(s)
Saturday, June 30, 1:30 PM
Way Bay Days: Tom di Maria, Sandra Phillips, Keith Wilson, Brett Goodroad, Terry Cannon

Five speakers take on five Bay Area artists: Judith Scott, Lew Thomas, Frank Moore, Fred Martin, and Sara Kathryn Arledge.

BAMPFA
Friday, June 15, 6 PM
Dig, Sift, Soak: Clay as a Pigment with Mutual Stores

Learn about clay—both as a flexible artistic medium and as a resource that surrounds us in the local landscape—in this workshop with the Mutual Stores artist collective.

BAMPFA

Programmed by Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo
Thursday, June 14, 7:30 PM
Reading: Dick Evans

Photographer Dick Evans introduces and signs his new book of photographs of San Francisco’s Mission District that focus on its quintessential art form, the community mural.

BAMPFA
Selected Sundays, Wednesdays, and Free First Thursdays
Guided Tours: Way Bay 2

Explore the works on view in Way Bay 2 with tours led by UC Berkeley graduate students.

BAMPFA

Past Films

Way Bay 2

June 13–September 2, 2018

The second iteration of an innovatively organized exhibition of art, film, performance, poetry, and archival materials, Way Bay 2 continues our wide-ranging exploration of the creative energies that have emerged from the San Francisco Bay Area over two centuries. The exhibition features almost two hundred works by Bay Area artists and others whose work engages directly with the region’s geographic and cultural landscape. Dozens of works not seen in the first iteration of the exhibition are on view, including pieces by Rosie Lee Tompkins, Jay DeFeo, Larry Sultan, Frank Moore, Sadie Barnette, Ajit Chauhan, Nicole Phungrasamee Fein, Conrad Ruiz, Michelle Vignes, and Lewis Watts as well as films by Jordan Belson, Lawrence Jordan, Lynne Sachs, and Chick Strand.

Ranging in historical scope from the early nineteenth century to the present, the exhibition explores the enduring themes and powerful artistic voices that have emerged from the Bay Area across times and cultures, highlighting transhistorical affinities among the many artists, filmmakers, authors, and other creative practitioners who have drawn inspiration from the region’s distinctive character. Rather than a conventional historical survey, Way Bay 2 is an open-ended and provocative attempt to reveal hidden currents and connections among works from disparate times, cultures, and communities.

Continuous film screenings in the galleries showcase the Bay Area’s rich history as an incubator for avant-garde and experimental cinema, beginning with a silent film that captures life on the streets of San Francisco just days before the 1906 earthquake destroyed much of the city. The exhibition also includes highlights from BAMPFA’s extensive archive of video and audio recordings of Bay Area artists.

A section of the exhibition is devoted to poetry by Bay Area writers, presented through an original, interactive postcard project. A series of performances and other programs, including readings by local poets and participatory workshops in the museum’s Art Lab, complements the exhibition.

In addition to works from BAMPFA’s collection, including a number of recent acquisitions on display for the first time, Way Bay 2 includes exceptional paintings, prints, photographs, and other works from UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library and Hearst Museum of Anthropology.

Less

Way Bay 2 is organized by Director and Chief Curator Lawrence Rinder, Film Curator Kathy Geritz, and Engagement Associate David Wilson, with Curatorial Assistant Matthew Coleman and Assistant Film Archivist Jon Shibata. The exhibition is made possible with lead support from Nion McEvoy and Leslie Berriman. Additional support is provided by Carla and David Crane; Penelope and Noel Nellis; Hanley Tzeho, Christopher Tzening, and Jonathan Tzechien Leung; Alexandra Bowes and Stephen Williamson; Rena Bransten; Gertrud V. Parker; Janie and Jeff Green; The Jay DeFeo Foundation; an anonymous donor; Eliza Brown and Hal Candee; Dudley and Michael Del Balso; Lorrie and Richard Greene; Arun and Rummi Sarin; Sotheby's; Paul Templeton and Darrell Louie; and Ama Torrance and C.J. David Davies.

Way Bay 2

Way Bay 2

June 13–September 2, 2018

Selected Exhibition Objects

Overload

Conrad Ruiz

Origin

Jay DeFeo

Untitled

Rosie Lee Tompkins

5485

Mike Brodie

The Simpson Verdict

Kota Ezawa

Patti Smith

Frank Moore

Drawn and Quartered

Lynne Sachs

Afro Punk Atlanta (white headband with two puffs)

Lewis Watts

Past Events

Past Films