BAMPFA is in full bloom with exciting art, films, and more. Come step into spring with us 🌸💐
➡️ Swipe to see what's happening at BAMPFA this season.
–
[Nicola Tyson, "Figure on Grey Ground," 2004]
Coming up Friday, May 22: Black Life: Bloom as Miracle. ✨
This improvisational performance brings together two performance artists whose identities remain unknown to each other—and to the audience—until the day of the event. What unfolds is a live encounter shaped by movement, tension, healing, persistence, and collective blossoming. 🌱
Organized by Black Life Guest Curator Gabriele Christian (@gabriele.mov ), Bloom as Miracle is the third installment in the yearlong series AS LONG AS THERE ARE CATASTROPHES, THERE WILL BE MIRACLES.
Included with admission. Details are at the link in bio. 🎟️
This Sunday at 11 AM: Highly Descriptive Vision Access Guided Tour of “Rhapsody: Works from the Cooper Rosenwasser Collection”. ✨
BAMPFA Education staff offers a highly descriptive tour of several artworks in the exhibition for blind and low-vision visitors with rich verbal description and close attention to the artworks on view. Together, we’ll explore abstraction, design, representations of the body, materiality, process, and the influence of second-wave feminism throughout Rhapsody. 🖼️
The tour is included with admission and runs from 11 AM to 12:30 PM. Details are at the link in bio. 🎟️
Ahead of this Saturday’s screening of OUR HITLER, read this @screenslate preview of Hans-Jürgen Syberberg’s monumental 1977 film. 🎬
Screening at BAMPFA on May 16 at 1:30 PM, OUR HITLER is a sprawling, formally audacious work that uses stylized tableaux, projection, performance, and dense historical reference to confront the mythologies of modern Germany. ✨
Join us for the screening this Saturday. Tickets and details are at bampfa.org/event/our-hitler or the link in bio. 🎟️
This Friday at 6 PM: MFA Artists’ Talk at BAMPFA. 🎤
Hear from the 2026 graduates of UC Berkeley’s MFA program as they discuss their work with exhibition curators Omar Farah and Tausif Noor. BAMPFA’s Fifty-Sixth Annual UC Berkeley MFA Exhibition features work by graduating artists Zuhoor Al Sayegh, Eleni Maria Berg, Itzli OCIEL, Kristiana Chan 薧礼醑, Swaleha Masude, and Héctor Muñoz-Guzmán. It’s a chance to hear directly from these artists about the ideas, materials, and questions behind the work now on view. ✨
Tickets are required, and gallery admission is included with ticket purchase. Details are at the link in bio. 🎟️
Planning a visit to BAMPFA this month? ✨
A quick reminder that our seasonal hours begin this week. From Wednesday, May 13 through Sunday, May 24, the BAMPFA galleries and store will close early at 5 PM.
Please check our Hours & Admission page before your visit. Link in bio. 🕐
Opening tomorrow: Fifty-Sixth Annual UC Berkeley MFA Exhibition. ✨
For more than fifty years, BAMPFA and the @ucberkeley_artpractice Department have partnered to present work by graduating MFA students. This year’s exhibition features work by Zuhoor Al Sayegh, Eleni Maria Berg, Itzli OCIEL, Kristiana Chan 薧礼醑, Swaleha Masude, and Héctor Muñoz-Guzmán. 🖼️
The exhibition opens May 13 and runs through July 26. Come see the culmination of two years of rigorous research, experimentation, and making at BAMPFA. Link in bio.
Tomorrow at 4:30 PM: ROBERT WILSON AND THE CIVIL WARS at BAMPFA. 🎬
Howard Brookner’s documentary follows avant-garde American director Robert Wilson as he pursues one of the great unrealized productions of the twentieth century: a twelve-hour historical opera planned in six parts, rehearsed across multiple countries, and intended for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Featuring appearances by Philip Glass and David Byrne, the film captures an artistic vision of almost impossible scale. ✨
See this new digital restoration on the big screen Sunday afternoon. Tickets and details are at the link in bio. 🎟️
Art. Film. Food. Community. Support for the mission we love. ❤️
BAMPFA’s 2026 Art & Film Benefit was pure magic, honoring the incomparable Alice Waters (@alicelouisewaters ) and Stephanie Syjuco (@ssyjuco ), with a menu by Alice Waters herself, and a late-night dance floor that no one wanted to leave.
A special thanks to our incredible wine sponsors Beaune Imports (@beauneimports ), Chez Panisse (@chezpanisse ), and Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant (@kermitlynchwine ).
This is what it looks like when a community shows up for art and film. Thank you.
🔗 Link in bio to learn more.
This Saturday is Second Saturdays for Families at BAMPFA! 🎨
Join us Saturday, May 9, for a full day of family-friendly programs in the galleries, Art Lab, and Reading Room. Start the day with Gallery+Studio / Architectural Designs from 11:30 AM to 1 PM, where local artist Jill McLennan leads young artists in exploring blueprint plans and bas-relief models. Then stop by the Fisher Family Art Lab from 1 to 7 PM, or join Roundtable Reading / “Lalani of the Distant Sea” by Erin Entrada Kelly from 2:30 to 3:30 PM. ✨
Admission is free for kids 13 and under, and for one accompanying adult per child. Plan your family visit at bampfa.org/family-programs, the link in bio. 🖍️
Tomorrow is Free First Thursday at BAMPFA! ✨
Gallery admission is free all day on Thursday, May 7. Drop in to check out “Rhapsody: Works from the Cooper Rosenwasser Collection,” “Object Oriented: Abstraction and Design in the BAMPFA Collection,” “Stephanie Syjuco: Present Tense (Roll Call)”, “Sarah Cain: To—you know—you”, and the newly opened “Collection Focus / Meriem Bennani: Life on the CAPS”. If you’re feeling inspired, the Art Lab is open all day! 🖼️
Plan your visit at bampfa.org or the link in bio. 🎨
Opening May 6 at BAMPFA: “Collection Focus / Meriem Bennani: Life on the CAPS,” curated by Omar Jason Farah, Curatorial Assistant. ✨
This new exhibition marks the California debut of Meriem Bennani’s (@meriembennani ) acclaimed “Life on the CAPS” trilogy, a vivid, genre-bending video installation that blends animation and live action to imagine a dystopian future shaped by migration, technology, borders, and diasporic life. Guided by Fiona, a crocodile and resident of the CAPS, Bennani’s fictional island world is playful, strange, funny, and poses sharp questions about humanity’s future. 🐊
On view May 6–August 23, the exhibition brings together the complete trilogy in one presentation at BAMPFA. Learn more and plan your visit at bampfa.org/bennani or the link in bio. 🎥
@francoisghebaly
![BAMPFA is in full bloom with exciting art, films, and more. Come step into spring with us ️ Swipe to see what's happening at BAMPFA this season.–[Nicola Tyson, "Figure on Grey Ground," 2004]](https://sp1.picnob.com/p/pt_6747445120255467273320_0_29072b67221c7310e187ae0cf2a1b0d7.jpg?o=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&h=18d31edd4890fa9c26db050e5f348463)
