Experience the diverse voices of California’s Indigenous peoples as they shape the present and future through the lens of celebrated Indigenous photographer Dugan Aguilar.

La última exposición de OMCA, Born of the Bear Dance: Dugan Aguilar's Photographs of Native California (Nacido de la danza del oso: Fotografías de los nativos de California de Dugan Aguilar) ofrece a los visitantes una primera visión de una importante colección que pone de relieve la resistencia indígena y explora el vívido tapiz de la vida contemporánea de los indígenas de California.

Students on Strike is a new installation opening in the OMCA Gallery of California History. The installation explores the enduring legacy of student activism at San Francisco State University by comparing the 1968-1969 student strike that established the nation’s first Black Studies Department and first College of Ethnic Studies to the recent campus protests against the war in Gaza. Through historical and contemporary posters and photographs, the intimate feature shows how students have consistently demanded justice and accountability from institutions, then and now. 

Fashion, family histories, and personal identity intersect in a new installation at OMCA by Bay Area artist Chelsea Ryoko Wong. Wong’s energetic and colorful paintings, drawn from both real-life events and her imagination, depict busy, rhythmic scenes of people going about their daily lives. For this project, Wong’s paintings take inspiration from dresses owned by seven 20th century Chinese American women, whose clothing and legacies live on in OMCA’s collection. Ancestral Visions features paintings along with a selection of the fashions that inspired them. Visitors to the installation are invited into the world of the dresses and the women who wore them to ponder history, the value of what we wear to future generations, and the role of clothing as an expression of identity. Dresses that belonged to Rose Setzo, Sophia Chang Wong, Grace Dea, Lei Kim Lim, Chop Chin Chum, and Sun Fung Lee Wong caught Wong’s eye and are re-envisioned in the abstract narratives of her vibrant work.

Esta selección de nuevas incorporaciones a la colección de la OMCA pone de relieve el arte y la cultura del momento e ilumina la historia en ciernes. Las obras de la instalación son el resultado del nuevo proceso de coleccionismo del OMCA, que trata de responder a cuestiones de actualidad que afectan a las comunidades de Oakland y California. Representando un alejamiento de las prioridades de coleccionismo museístico más tradicionales, Collecting the Moment muestra algunas de las formas en que centramos nuestras relaciones institucionales con diversos grupos y voces de la comunidad. Esta instalación continua y cambiante revelará algunas de las muchas formas en que los artistas, activistas y otras personas de California reclaman un espacio cultural, cuestionan las normas sociales, adquieren poder y se enfrentan a las grandes cuestiones de nuestro tiempo.