BAC Member Show
I Have Considered the Lilies,
or,
Everything Is Fine & Alright Forever
Berkeley Art Center
Ongoing – August 15
Closing Reception & Public Awardee Announced
August 15, 3-5pm
The Art Center isn’t providing much information. It has simply announced that this installation is their Juried Members’ Exhibition for 2026. Really, that’s “enuf said” since the Members’ Show is always a highlight in BAC’s annual offerings.
Without much by way of further details (or any images), I can assure you of one thing: This show will be thoughtful, innovative and provocative How can I be certain? Because it always is. (After all, this is the 51st year for the Members’ Exhibition.)
I am including a list of the artist participants. Perhaps, you’ll recognize someone you know. Perhaps not. Either way, set some time aside for a short stroll through Live Oak Park and view this exhibition.
Exhibition Theme
“Everything is fine and alright forever” is a paraphrase of Kerouac. Despite choosing that adage as the subtitle of the exhibition, the curators assure us that the saying does not represent their point of view. Still, “flits of fine spread across the wilds of the bad and forgettable, like fireflies on a summer night. By this logic, the infinite night surrounding them is the possibly overwhelming 'not fine' … yet their modest glow brings hope. The good things can pierce the void; survival can be woven from node to node, fill space.” It’s a hope we are all clinging to these days.
That hope is found in the connections made by bringing these artists together. Over 300 members responded to the Open Call and 60 were chosen. Although these artists, living maybe twenty miles apart max, all found their way to this project, only a few of them know each other. Here they create that hope.
Represented Artists:
Christine Aiko Beck · Cherisse Alcantara · Salimatu Amabebe · Nadja Battersby · Emilie Boras · Heather Brown · Jackie Sarah Brown · Angela Chu · Jacob Clark · Paquerette · Anjelica Colliard · James Corbett · Sofia Criswell · Alex Ehmer · Laurence Elias · Carol Elkovich · Eden Evans · Anna Feldman · Sneha Gindodiya · Kate Goka · Kris Goodie · Jennifer Boyuan Han · Yang Hu · Elizabeth Kendall · Emily Kenyo · Suzy Kopf · Shay Lari-Hosain · Kate Laster · Nagi Lee · Carey Lin · Nico Lown Heitz · Yuki Maruyama · Christine Meuris · Claudia Morales · Firouzeh Nourzad · Mokhtar Paki · Sun Park · Moonji Pickering · Adriana Ramirez · Leah Rosenberg · Sanaz Safanasab · Erik Schmitt · Julia Schwartz · Gabby Severson · Meghna Sharma · Rene Smith · Siana Smith · Dobee Snowber · Sam Soon · Salix Staley · Beatrice Thornton · Ali Vaughan · Jane Whitley · Sharon Yan · Jes Young · Elena Yu · Abby Zhang · Stella Zhang
A Last Word
I beg your indulgence to add some further information on the choice of the exhibition’s title. I quote from the curators:
“Artworks are these nodes bridging time and space. Thinking about artworks a bit, a song came to mind by Connie Converse:
‘I have considered the lilies
They never toil, they only bloom
They never feel chilly
Or tired or silly
And they don’t need much room
I have considered the lilies
I have considered how they grow
Tell me, tell me how to be a lily
If you know’*
*Connie Converse dropped out of college, traveled the country, eventually settling in New York where she wrote and recorded a handful of wonderful songs, beloved by (in her words) ‘Dozens of people all over the world.’ In 1974 she wrote a series of goodbye letters to friends and family, packed up her Volkswagen, and disappeared. She has not been heard from since.”
For more information, including information on Potluck and Artists in Conversation, click here.
