BAMPFA opens largest-ever retrospective of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

"The 1960s and 1970s were heady years on the UC Berkeley campus: The university and its environs were roiled by fierce demonstrations against the Vietnam War and in support of the Free Speech Movement and the Third World Liberation Front. As a student during this transformative environment, artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha experimented with the ideas, materials, and forms that would become the cornerstone of her rigorous, interdisciplinary practice."

"On Jan. 24 the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive will launch the largest retrospective to date on Cha, shedding new light on her contributions to conceptual art, performance, film and poetry in her short but prolific career. Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings draws on BAMPFA's prodigious collection of Cha's work, as well as works by her contemporaries and peers."

"Born in South Korea in 1951, Cha came with her family to the Bay Area in 1964, just in time to partake in the wave of avant-garde energy spreading across the region's art scene. Cha spent nearly a third of her life in Berkeley, where she earned multiple undergraduate and graduate degrees in art practice and comparative literature. It was as a young Berkeley artist that she first became acquainted with Bay Area visionaries like Jim Melchert, Terry Fox and Reese Williams"

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha developed a rigorous interdisciplinary practice through experimentation with ideas, materials, and forms during the charged 1960s-70s UC Berkeley environment. BAMPFA will present Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings from Jan. 24–April 19, the largest retrospective to date, drawing on the museum's collection and works by contemporaries and later artists influenced by her. The exhibition includes works by Jesse Chun, L. Franklin Gilliam, Renee Green, Yong Soon Min, Na Mira, Cecilia Vicuna and Cici Wu. Born in South Korea in 1951, Cha immigrated to the Bay Area in 1964, studied art practice and comparative literature in Berkeley, and collaborated with Bay Area avant-garde artists. Cha died at age 31, leaving a lasting influence on conceptual art, performance, film and poetry.

Read at www.berkeleyside.org