On view August 5, 2026–July 11, 2027, Some Particular Heaven brings together works from across centuries, cultures, and artistic traditions to explore ideas of utopia as a way of imagining different possibilities for the future. The exhibition considers spiritual, social, environmental, and political visions of alternative realities, and how artists have used creativity to envision more just and expansive ways of living.
Exhibition Details
Exhibition Details:
Some Particular Heaven: Ideas of Utopia
August 5, 2026–July 11, 2027
Museum Hours:
Wednesday - Sunday | 11 AM–7 PM
2155 Center Street Berkeley, CA
Curators:
Some Particular Heaven: Ideas of Utopia in the BAMPFA Collection is curated by Tausif Noor, Curatorial Associate, and Elaine Yau, Associate Curator and Academic Liaison.
ABOUT The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) ignites cultural change for a more inclusive and artistic world. BAMPFA has been uniquely dedicated to art and film since 1970, with international programming that is locally connected and globally relevant. It holds more than 25,000 artworks and 18,000 films and videos in its collection, with particular strengths in modern and contemporary art and historical Chinese painting, as well as the world’s largest collection of African American quilts. As part of the University of California, Berkeley, BAMPFA is committed to artistic diversity through its robust slate of art exhibitions, film screenings, artist talks, live performances, and educational programs that shed new light on the art of the past and connect audiences with leading filmmakers and artists of our time. BAMPFA sits on the edge of campus and downtown Berkeley, where it welcomes visitors from across and beyond the Bay Area in a repurposed building designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.
ABOUT Judith Scott
Judith Scott was born in Ohio with her fraternal twin sister Joyce in 1943. Scott was institutionalized at the age of seven at the Columbus State School. She would remain in state institutions until 1985, when Joyce became her legal guardian and brought her to California. Scott entered the Creative Growth Studio in 1987, initially displaying little artistic interest until a visiting artist workshop with the sculptor Sylvia Seventy, during which Scott discovered the medium of fiber art. Her wrapped sculptures, abstract in shape, were sourced from handbuilt armatures from discarded or found materials, often concealing an inner structure or a cache of items. Her practice was marked by her independence, self-direction, and for never repeating a form or color scheme in her multi-media textile sculptures. Scott created nearly 100 sculptures during her tenure in the Creative Growth Studio, where she practiced until her death in 2005. Scott’s work has been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum in New York in a retrospective exhibition and is part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Smithsonian in Washington DC, among many others. She has also shown at Gugging, Austria; the Museum of Everything, London; the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; White Columns, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Gavin Brown’s enterprise, Ricco Maresca, New York: and Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco.