BERKELEY, CA.-The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) is pleased to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of BAM/PFA's acclaimed MATRIX Program for Contemporary Art. To kick off the year-long festivities, the museum presents MATRIX/REDUX, an exhibition showcasing the work of artists featured in MATRIX exhibitions over the past three decades. MATRIX/REDUX opens March 9. Parts of the exhibition will close May 18, while others will remain on view through July 20.

Over the past thirty years, with more than 220 exhibitions, MATRIX has charted a unique course through the landscape of contemporary art. MATRIX founder James Elliot, then museum director, viewed the program's exhibitions as being actively engaged with living artists and the wide range of ideas expressed through their art. This was a progressive stance at the time of the program’s founding in 1978, when most museums focused on contemporary art only infrequently. Today, nearly every major museum in the country has a project-based contemporary art program similar to MATRIX, a testament both to the prescience of Elliott’s vision and to the increasing prominence of contemporary art in society.

The small-scale, short-term MATRIX format inspired experimentation on the part of both the artists and the institution, resulting in a mix of exhibitions that defied categorization and kept Berkeley at the forefront of international contemporary art. MATRIX has been a key force in introducing many important contemporary artists to Bay Area audiences, and in supporting the careers and raising the profiles of Bay Area artists internationally. The legacy of this influence lives on in the museum’s collection, which includes works by a majority of the artists who have exhibited in the MATRIX program, and in the collections of patrons who have supported the museum over the history of the program.

MATRIX/REDUX samples from the rich history of the MATRIX program with selections from the BAM/PFA collection and loans from local collections rarely seen by museum audiences. The exhibition places special emphasis on new gifts and acquisitions, such as Kiki Smith’s Crèche (1997), a recent gift from Richard and Lenore Niles. Other artists whose work will be featured in the exhibition include Chiho Aoshima, Richard Artschwager, Lutz Bacher, John Baldessari, Robert Bechtle, Nayland Blake, Louise Bourgeois, Joan Brown, Sophie Calle, Theresa Cha, Anne Chu, Bruce Conner, Jay DeFeo, Peter Doig, Jim Goldberg, Nan Goldin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Eva Hesse, David Ireland, Robert Irwin, Carla Klein, Paul Kos, Zoe Leonard, Tom Marioni, Julie Mehretu, Ree Morton, Shirin Neshat, Adrian Piper, Lorna Simpson, Larry Sultan, and many more.

MATRIX/REDUX, which is organized by Phyllis Wattis MATRIX curator Elizabeth Thomas, opens March 9. Parts of the exhibition will close May 18, while others will remain on view through July 20.