A list of all the changing and permanent exhibitions at the museum.

Press: please visit our Press Section

Courtesy National Museum of Mexican Art Chicago.

This exhibition examines the overlooked history of African contributions to Mexican culture. In 1609 Yanga, an African leader, founded the first free African township in the Americas- almost a century after Africans first arrived in Mexico (in 1519). Africans have continued to contribute their artistic, culinary, musical, and cultural traditions to Mexican culture. The exhibition features paintings, prints, movie posters, photographs, sculpture, costumes, masks, musical instruments, and other examples of art and popular culture. The exhibition was curated by Sagrario Cruz-Carretero of the University of Veracruz and Cesáreo Morena, visual arts director at the National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago.     

The African Presence in Mexico: From Yanga to the Present in is made possible in part by generous support from the Oakland Museum Women’s Board (include logo) and the Walter and Elise Haas Fund.

Exhibition organized by the National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago. Sponsors–Wallace Foundation, Ford Foundation, Nathen Cummings Foundation, American Airlines. Image concept & design: Angelina Villanueva

Squeak Carnwath: Painting Is No Ordinary Object
April 25–August 23, 2009

Squeak Carnwath, In Pursuit of Happiness, 2000. Oil and alkyd on canvas (80” x 80”). Collection of Squeak Carnwath and Gary Knecht. © Squeak Carnwath/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

This survey reflects Carnwath’s groundbreaking artistry and stature as one of California’s leading contemporary artists. Karen Tsujimoto, senior curator of art at the museum, has chosen more than forty works from the past fifteen years—the period since Carnwath’s last major exhibition. As the title indicates, a painting is “no ordinary object” for the artist. Her recurring motifs reflect personal and universal themes; each meticulously applied layer of glaze carries meaning and inquiry.

The 160-page companion book, Painting Is No Ordinary Object, includes essays by Tsujimoto and art critic and poet John Yau, and eighty full-color reproductions of works from 1979 to the present (co-published with Pomegranate, 2009)

Squeak Carnwath: Painting Is No Ordinary Object is made possible by generous support from the Oakland Museum Women’s Board, the Art Guild of the Oakland Museum of California, and by exhibition sponsors and donors.

Future of Sequoias: Sustaining Parklands in the 21st Century
February 7–August 23, 2009

Fall Fog. Photo: Jeff Jones.

The museum goes deep into the forest primeval. Forty panoramic photographs by Jeff Jones and commentary by retired National Park interpretative ranger William C. Tweed celebrate the spectacular beauty of Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, while sounding an alarm about the threat of pollution and a call for environmental action.

Future of Sequoias: Sustaining Parklands in the 21st Century is generously supported by the Oakland Museum Women’s Board

TOLD FROM A TOTEM
Sixty students (grades 9-12) from Oakland High School’s Visual Arts Academy created contemporary totem poles, using recycled materials,

Daisy Velasco (grade 11), “The Real Me,” 2007. Mixed media.

during sessions led by Oakland High teachers and Oakland Museum of California staff. The students personalized their work with symbols, plaster, paint, and ornaments. The totems differ wildly one from another.

The Oakland High School Partnership Program is in its eighth year. The 2007 collaboration between the museum and Oakland High’s Visual Arts Academy was led by Christine Lashaw, artist and museum preparator, and Carol Squicci, assistant project coordinator. Student participants came from Keith (K-Dub) Williams’s and Jack Begrin’s art classes. Ongoing.

Gallery of California Art -Art
Transformation underway – reopens in 2010

California: A Place, A People, A Dream-History
Transformation underway – reopens in 2010

Walk Across California-Natural Sciences
The Natural Sciences Gallery takes the visitor on a simulated journey through California's diverse ecosystems, observing plants and animals found from the Pacific coastline to the High Sierra and the inland desert. Exhibits contain approximately 2,500 natural specimens organized around basic ecological principles highlighting relationships among plants, animals, geology and climate. The Aquatic California Gallery presents an overview of our aquatic environments, including the oceans, rivers and streams and estuaries. Natural Sciences Department, first level.