Stephanie Syjuco: After/Images | January 15 - May 23, 2027

In the heart of downtown Oakland, the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) is a museum, garden, and gathering place where art, history, and nature come together. Meet up with friends, explore the galleries, wander through our gardens, grab a bite at Town Fare, and discover special exhibitions and programs that bring California’s many stories and perspectives to life. Kids 12 and under always get in for free. During SF Art Week 2027, visitors can explore OMCA’s expansive permanent Galleries of California Art, History, and Natural Science, while also visiting our special exhibition, Stephanie Syjuco: After/Images.

Stephanie Syjuco: After/Images explores how photographs and archives shape our understanding of history, power, and belonging. Oakland artist Stephanie Syjuco engages with and manipulates photographs and objects from US institutional archives, making visible the tools and choices behind image-making.

Through cutting, layering, pixelating, crumpling, and rephotographing, she “talks back” to the archive, repurposing its tools to care for and return agency to the people represented within it. Throughout the exhibition, chromakey green, staged photographs, props, mannequins, and video installations transform OMCA’s Great Hall into a dynamic space where image-making unfolds. Visitors are invited to look closely, question what they see, and consider how images can be reshaped to tell more complete stories of the past.

Images:

Stephanie Syjuco. Dodge and Burn (Visible Storage), 2019. Wooden platform, digital photos and printed vinyl on laser-cut wood, chroma-key fabric, printed backdrops, seamless paper, artificial plants, mixed media. 204 x 240 x 96 in. Courtesy of the artist; Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco; RYAN LEE Gallery, New York; and Silverlens Gallery, Manila, Philippines. Installation view of Stephanie Syjuco: Rogue States, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, September 6–December 29, 2019. Photo: Stephanie Syjuco

Photo by Christine Cueto

Game night by Gold Beams at ThursDates at OMCA. Photo by Christine Cueto

Live figure drawing with Sketchboard Co. at ThursDates at OMCA.. Photo by Christine Cueto