iBerkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA)Downtown Berkeley, next to the UC Berkeley campus
Art Wall / Marcel Pardo Ariza: Las frutas del labor
Oakland artist Marcel Pardo Ariza's site-specific Art Wall installation pays homage to the art handlers who care for museum collections.
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A hand with long, patterned red nails grips a pair of locking pliers. Another, in dark polish, holds a yellow box cutter over a heap of oranges and strawberries. Ariza photographed BAMPFA's own art handlers after treating them to manicures and a day off, then blew their hands and tools up across the 63-by-30-foot Art Wall. Anyone who has carried a sofa up a Berkeley walk-up will agree they'd earned it.
You see it from the street before you're through the door. The background is a green cutting mat with ruler numbers, scattered with a tape measure, a spirit level, a saw blade and a blue triangle marked "Prep Crew". The handlers' sticky note made it in too: "Donut touch the art!!"
It's one wall, so a short stop, included in the $18 admission and free on the first Thursday of the month. Ariza and Ambrose Trataris of the group Art Handlxrs* return on Saturday, April 24, 2027 at 5 PM for a drag performance about art handling.
Look for
The pliers hand
A hand with long, patterned red nails, rings and a bracelet grips a pair of silver locking pliers near the top of the wall.
The box cutter over the fruit
A giant arm reaches down from the top corner, dark-polished nails holding a yellow box cutter just above a pile of halved oranges and lemons.
The fruit pile
Strawberries, grapes, limes, oranges, a mango and blackberries heap up in front of a giant circular saw blade at the bottom of the wall.
The Prep Crew triangle
Look for a blue triangular tool on the left, covered in hand-drawn hearts with "Prep Crew" written across it in marker.
The sticky note
Top left, a yellow note in handwriting reads "Donut touch the art!!", with an arrow pointing down.
Good for
- An Hour Or Less
- Locals Who've Seen It All
Skip if
You want a full exhibition: this is a single photographic mural on the entrance wall.
Also at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA)
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
5
- Art Wall / Marcel Pardo Ariza: Las frutas del laborCourtesy BAMPFA
- Rex RayCourtesy of Minnesota Street Project
- 20 Years - Anniversary ExhibitionCourtesy of Minnesota Street Project
- Isadora Gullov-Singh: Traces We HoldCourtesy of Minnesota Street Project
- Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA)Cullen328 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0