Works by: Irma Barbosa, Gericault De La Rose, Eniola Fakile, Juniper Harrower, Fei Pan, Tiare Ribeaux and Samuel Wildman, curated by Tausif Noor.
Curatorial Statement
Optimal Conditions presents works of M.F.A candidates in their first year of creative research and practice at the UC Berkeley Department of Art Practice. The exhibit explores themes of contingency and the limits of objectivity through sculpture, installation, video, and performance, unraveling dichotomies between empirical investigation and affective modes of knowledge production; fact and fantasy; visibility and erasure; and inherited traditions and self-actualization. Repurposing of ancestral mythologies, technological procedures, ordinary objects, and their own memories and experiences, the artists in Optimal Conditions assert that a shift in perspective and an attunement to the subtleties and complexities that exist in both the real world and in our most fantastical desires allows us to thrive in a present tense, one that may never offer an “ideal” state of conditions.
The exhibit is in the Department’s Worth Ryder Gallery at the Anthro and Art Practice Building (map).
Opening: Jan 26, 4-7 pm. To attend in person, please register here for a staggered visit time slot. Refreshments will be offered outdoors at Platform Artspace.
Open Hours: Jan. 26 to Feb. 17 2022, Mondays - Wednesdays, 12 PM to 5 PM, or by appointment.
No reservations required, only one person or pod admitted at a time.
Performances:
Gericault De La Rose: Friday, Jan. 28, 2022, from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM, accessible by live stream
Irma Yuliana Barbosa: Friday, Feb. 18, from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM, AAP 120. Please register here for a seat.
Location: The Worth Ryder Art Gallery is on the ground floor of the Anthro and Art Practice Building on the UC Berkeley Campus, near the intersection of College and Bancroft Ave, Berkeley, CA 94720.
Catalog: A printed exhibit catalog is available in the gallery. You can download the soft copy pdf of “Optimal Conditions” here.