In six to eight exhibitions each year, the MATRIX Program for Contemporary Art introduces the Bay Area community to provocative views expressed by international avant-garde artists, creating a local connection to the current global dialogue on contemporary art and demonstrating that the art of this moment is vital, dynamic, and often challenging. Confronting traditional practices of display and encouraging new, open modes of analysis, MATRIX provides a framework for an active interchange between the artist, the museum, and the viewer. There have been over 200 MATRIX shows at the Berkeley Art Museum in twenty-five years, featuring artists such as John Baldessari, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Louise Bourgeois, Nan Goldin, Eva Hesse, Sol LeWitt, Nancy Spero, and Andy Warhol. In recent years the selection of MATRIX artists has become more international in scope, with the roster including Sanford Biggers, Teresita Fernández, Ricky Swallow, Tobias Rehberger, Ernesto Neto, Berni Searle, and Anne Chu, representing countries including Germany, Iran, Australia, Brazil, and China. The projects presented by the MATRIX Program are available for viewing physically, at the museum site, as well as virtually, through the production and distribution of a DVD archive, and online.


Browse past MATRIX exhibitions: Over 200 MATRIX exhibitions, covering more than 25 years.