Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory

February 4–August 13, 2023

Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory is the first retrospective exhibition of the work of longtime Bay Area artist Mesa-Bains. Presenting work from the entirety of her career for the first time, this exhibition, which features nearly 60 works in a range of media, including fourteen major installations, celebrates Mesa-Bains’s important contributions to the field of contemporary art locally and globally.

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Amalia Mesa-Bains: Cihuateotl with Mirror in Private Landscapes and Public Territories, 1998-2011. Mixed media installation including painted and mirrored armoire, found objects, moss, dried flowers, faux topiaries, family photographs, miniature jeweled trees, painted wooden hedges; 10’ x 20’ x 25’; photo by Michael Karibian.
Amalia Mesa-Bains: Circle of Ancestors, 1995. Seven hand-painted chairs with mirrors and jewels, candles, 14’ diameter.
Detail of Amalia Mesa-Bains: Queen of the Waters, Mother of the Land of the Dead: Homenaje a Tonatzin/Guadalupe, 1992. Mixed media installation including fabric drape, six jeweled clocks, mirror pedestals with grottos, nicho box, found objects, dried flowers, dried pomegranate, potpourri. 18’ x 6’.
Amalia Mesa-Bains: Private Landscapes and Public Territories, 1998-2011. Mixed media installation including painted and mirrored armoire, found objects, moss, dried flowers, faux topiaries, family photographs, miniature jeweled trees, painted wooden hedges; 10’ x 20’ x 25’; photo by Michael Karibian.
Amalia Mesa-Bains: Amazona Azteca in Venus Envy Chapter III: Cihuatlampa, The Place of the Giant Women, 1997; giclee print.
Detail of Amalia Mesa-Bains: Transparent Migrations, 2001; mixed media installation; 10’ x 18’ x 6’

Upcoming
Films
Upcoming
Events
Selected
Objects
Past
Films
Past
Events

Past Events

Saturday, July 8, 11:30 AM
Gallery+Studio: Thinking GIANT

Explore Cihuatlampa, the Place of the Giant Women, by Amalia Mesa-Bains, and envision a special garment for someone you consider a heroine.

BAMPFA

For ages 6–12 with accompanying adult(s)
Saturday, June 10, 11:30 AM
Gallery+Studio: A Book of Us

Inspired by Amalia Mesa-Bains’s handmade books, tell the story of your own personal and family memories.

BAMPFA

For ages 6–12 with accompanying adult(s)
Saturday, May 13, 11:30 AM
Gallery+Studio: Cabinet of Memories

After learning about assemblage in Amalia Mesa-Bains’s art, decorate a found picture frame with objects that enhance your feelings about a family photo.

BAMPFA

For ages 6–12 with accompanying adult(s)
Saturday, April 29, 1:30 PM
American Sign Language Guided Tour of Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory

Patricia Lessard offers American Sign Language interpretation for a graduate student–led tour of the exhibition. All visitors are welcome.

BAMPFA
Sunday, March 19, 1 PM
Artist's Talk: Amalia Mesa-Bains

Join us for an engaging, illustrated talk by Amalia Mesa-Bains as she illuminates the sources and stories behind her wide-ranging multimedia practice.

BAMPFA
Saturday, February 18, 1 PM
In Conversation with Amalia Mesa-Bains

Amalia Mesa-Bains’s artworks, spanning a range of formats and media, resonate in contemporary formal terms and in their ties to her Chicana/o community and history. Scholars Jennifer González and Adriana Zavala and artist Sandy Rodriguez join Mesa-Bains for an expanded conversation in response to these themes and other ideas in her work.

BAMPFA
Saturday, February 11, 11:30 AM
Gallery + Studio: Stories to Tell

Inspired by Amalia Mesa-Bains’s altars, re-create a family story or memory in a miniature altar of your own.

BAMPFA

For ages 6–12 with accompanying adult(s)
Selected Wednesday, Sundays, and First Free Thursdays
Guided Tours: Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory

Tours of Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory are led by UC Berkeley graduate students in history of art, Chicanx/Latinx studies, and theater, dance, and performance studies.

BAMPFA
Saturday, February 4, 11 AM–7 PM
Free Gallery Admission: Amalia Mesa-Bains Opening Day

Celebrate the opening of Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory with free admission to the public.

BAMPFA
Saturday, February 4, 11:30 AM–2 PM
Art Making for Families / Creación artística para familias

Make art inspired by Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory with local artist Rebeca Flores. / Haz arte inspirado en la exposición, Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory, con la artista Rebeca Flores.

BAMPFA
Saturday, February 4, 2 PM
Free Film Screening: Amalia Mesa-Bains: In Her Own Worlds

Amalia Mesa-Bains’s work is deeply concerned with memory and with how art serves as a portal into the cultural histories of Indigenous, Mexican, African diasporic, and multiply gendered communities. In this new film directed by Raymond Telles, the artist reflects on how culture, history, and family memories have informed her art.

BAMPFA
Saturday, February 4, 3 PM
Curators’ Talk: María Esther Fernández and Laura Pérez on Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory

Join cocurators María Esther Fernández and Laura Pérez—who organized this major retrospective exhibition of the work of renowned artist, scholar, and curator Amalia Mesa-Bains—for an insightful talk about the artist’s work in BAMPFA’s galleries.

BAMPFA
February 2 & 3, 11 AM–7 PM
Preview Days: Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory

BAMPFA members enjoy exclusive preview access to Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory Thursday and Friday, February 2 and 3.

BAMPFA

For BAMPFA members and UC Berkeley students, faculty, and staff

Past Films

Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory

February 4–August 13, 2023

For over forty-five years, Mesa-Bains has worked to bring Chicana art into the broader American field of contemporary art through innovations of sacred forms such as altares (home altars), ofrendas (offerings to the dead), descansos (roadside resting places), and capillas (home yard shrines). She expanded her installations from domestic spaces to include laboratories, library forms, gardens, and landscapes, focusing attention on the politics of space to highlight colonial erasure of the preexisting and still-surviving cultural differences in colonized Indigenous and Mexican American communities. Many of these works offer a feminist perspective on the domestic life of immigrant and Mexican American women across different historical periods—most notably the four-part installation series Venus Envy, which was created over multiple decades and will be displayed in its entirety for the first time at BAMPFA.

Standing at the juncture of cultural diversity, environmentally centered spirituality culled from ancestral non-Western worldviews, and intersectional feminism, Mesa-Bains has been heralded as one of the most prominent voices in feminist Chicanx art of her generation.

Co-published with University of California Press, a full-color exhibition catalog is available for purchase in the BAMPFA store and via online booksellers.

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Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory is organized by the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in collaboration with the Latinx Research Center (LRC) at UC Berkeley. The exhibition is guest curated by María Esther Fernández, artistic director of The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum, and Dr. Laura E. Pérez, professor and chair of the LRC.

The exhibition is made possible by generous lead support from the Henry Luce Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Major funding is provided by Margarita Gandia and Diana Campoamor, Marta Thoma Hall, Pamela and David Hornik, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the UC Berkeley Latinx Research Center. Additional support was provided by a College of Letters and Sciences Dean’s Faculty Excellence Program project grant, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.