Installation view of Marcel Pardo Ariza's Art Wall at BAMPFA

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) · Downtown Berkeley, next to the UC Berkeley campus

Art Wall / Marcel Pardo Ariza: Las frutas del labor

Orain ikusgai2026(e)ko abuztuaren 5(a) – 2027(e)ko uztailaren 11(a)·18 $

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.

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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.