Mathias Kauage (ca. 1944–2003) is acclaimed for his boldly colorful paintings of a world radically changing around him in the late 20th century. This exhibition features four paintings from our collection by Mathias and his family, on view for the first time. During his lifetime, Mathias experienced dramatic societal shifts — not only during the decades under colonial Australian administration but also after Papua New Guinea achieved independence in 1975. Both periods are a focus of his work. Learn more here.

Leilah Babirye: We Have a History

Born in Kampala, Uganda, and based in New York, Leilah Babirye is known for her highly expressive, ambiguously gendered sculptures in ceramic, wood, and discarded objects. Reclaiming ceramic and wood-carving traditions from western and central Africa, she hand builds her ceramics, firing them with expressive glazes, while she whittles, scorches, and burnishes her wood sculptures. As a final touch, she adorns them with wire, bicycle chains, inner tubes, and other found metals and materials. The sculptures, which range in scale from towering totemic forms to busts, talismans, and masks, are portraits of her LGBTQ+ community. Babirye’s work speaks to the power of reclaiming personal and cultural identity through artistic practices, historical narratives, and cultural traditions. Learn more here.

About Place: Bay Area Artists from the Svane Gift (Svane Part II)

This exhibition is the second in a series highlighting contemporary Bay Area artists in our collection. The installation explores how artists relate to their environments through place: place as the physical land, place as heritage, place as the imaginary, and place as belonging. Learn more here.

Arts of Indigenous America

Celebrating the vibrancy and diversity of Indigenous American art, this new presentation features beloved collection highlights alongside major acquisitions and commissions by contemporary artists. In the most extensive reinstallation of this collection in 20 years, each of the four refreshed galleries explores a different aspect of the theme “Relationship to Place.” Developed with Native scholars and in consultation with communities of origin, the project centers Indigenous values and voices. Works spanning over a thousand years of history in all types of media challenge expectations about what Native art is and can be. Learn more here.

Rose B. Simpson: LEXICON

Boom and Bust: Photographing Northern California

California has long been considered a land of opportunity, offering a promise of prosperity that drove westward expansion from the Gold Rush era to its transformation into an epicenter of technological innovation. Since the 19th century, photographers have used the camera to bear witness to the continual construction of the California landscape as well as the destructive environmental forces that threaten its habitability. The photographs in this exhibition chronicle these cycles of urban settlement, including the building and renewal of San Francisco before and after the 1906 earthquake and fire, the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge, and the development of San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood. Above all, the works reveal how periods of growth and decline have always been part of the story of Northern California, and attest to the continued resilience of this land and its inhabitants. Learn more here. 

Embroidered Histories

Featuring favorite stitches and motifs, embroidery samplers have been used to teach needlework skills and literacy since the 14th century. By the 18th century, these textiles were viewed as works of art in their own right. This exhibition highlights European embroidery samplers from the 17th through 19th centuries in our collection. Through a close look at the samplers’ materials, techniques, and designs, Embroidered Histories explores economic, political, and social developments in Europe during these centuries. Learn more here.

The McCoy Jones Collection: Textiles from Central Asia and the Middle East 

Drawn in Venice

Spanning the Renaissance to the Rococo period, this exhibition celebrates the vitality and originality of the arts in Venice and the Veneto region through more than 30 drawings. Learn more here.