@ the Cheech

EXHIBITION ON VIEW: March 1, 2025 – August 3, 2025

Location: Second floor

Organized by Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory is the first major retrospective to explore the historically significant work and career of Amalia Mesa-Bains, a pioneering Chicana artist, curator, and theorist. 

The exhibition brings together over 40 works created over 45 years, including the artist’s renowned altar-installations and her lesser-studied handmade books and palimpsest prints characterized by a signature archeological aesthetic of layering and excavation.

The exhibition is co-curated by María Esther Fernández, Artistic Director, The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum, and Laura E. Pérez, PhD, Professor of Chicanx, Latinx and Ethnic Studies, and Chair of the Latinx Research Center, UC Berkeley.

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 (premiered at BAMPFA) is made possible by generous lead support from the Henry Luce Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.   The Riverside Art Museum acknowledges PNC Bank as the exhibition’s presenting sponsor at The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture.

Circle of Ancestors and Private Landscapes and Public Territories. Photos courtesy of Daria Lugina.