Maren Hassinger: Living Moving Growing

On June 6, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) opens Maren Hassinger: Living Moving Growing, the most comprehensive retrospective of the artist’s work to date. Known for constantly experimenting with impermanent and industrial materials, she has worked at the intersection of sculpture, performance, video, and installation over the past five decades. Hassinger's work addresses social and cultural issues through an awareness of interconnectedness, ephemerality, and the relationships between humans and the natural world. These themes emphasize the importance of caring for the things we share in contrast to the things that divide us.

Born in Los Angeles in 1947, Hassinger studied dance and sculpture at Bennington College and received an MFA in Fiber Structure from UCLA. In the 1970s, she began collaborating with other artists as part of the collective Studio Z, including Senga Nengudi, Ulysses Jenkins, and David Hammons, among others. In 1980, Hassinger had her first solo exhibition at Just Above Midtown Gallery in New York; the following year, she became the first Black artist to have a solo exhibition at LACMA. Hassinger relocated to the East Coast in 1984 to participate in the artist-in-residence program at the Studio Museum in Harlem. After several years on Long Island, she moved to Baltimore, where she became Director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art, a position she held for twenty years.

Living Moving Growing builds upon the understanding that collaboration and participation are crucial to Hassinger's practice, foregrounding how her work in sculpture and performance transcends disciplinary boundaries and engages with the natural world. This exhibition brings together large-scale sculptures, archival documentation of performances, re-creations of ephemeral installations, and a series of performances and participatory workshops.

In conjunction with the retrospective, BAMPFA has published a fully illustrated catalogue, in association with DelMonico Books / D.A.P. The most extensive publication on this artist ever assembled, the catalogue features extensive archival materials and new scholarship on the artist’s practice. Edited with texts by Anthony Graham and Margot Norton, the publication includes contributions by Hilton Als, Omar Jason Farah, Robyn Farrell, Linda Goode Bryant, Ava Hassinger, Kristin Juarez, Senga Nengudi, Cole Palatini, and Lowery Stokes Sims.

BAMPFA will present a series of performances and public programs alongside Living Moving Growing, including: Maren Hassinger Tributes and Wrenching News Workshop, June 6, 1:30pm

Opening day, important figures from Maren Hassinger’s life and career will speak about the artist, featuring tributes by Linda Goode Bryant, Ava Hassinger, Kellie Jones, Leslie King-Hammond, Senga Nengudi, and Lowery Stokes Sims. Following these tributes, Hassinger will lead the audience in the participatory newspaper twisting workshop, Wrenching News.  

Wrenching News Workshops, July 19–November 5
Berkeley-based artist Julia Goodman will lead a series of participatory workshops, guiding audiences in twisting and knotting newspapers. The resulting material will contribute to an collaborative, ongoing installation in the exhibition.

Pink Trash at Crescent Lawn, UC Berkeley, September 20, 2pm
Maren Hassinger will restage her iconic 1982 performance Pink Trash, exploring the encounters between humans and nature. Hassinger will be joined by six UC Berkeley students to perform the piece, highlighting the intergenerational obligations of our collective task to protect the natural world.  

Steffani Jemison and Leslie Cuyjet on Maren Hassinger and Senga Nengudi, October 31, 1pm
Artist Steffani Jemison and choreographer Leslie Cuyjet will perform a collaborative piece that reflects on the dynamic artistic relationship between Maren Hassinger and Senga Nengudi. Performing alongside projections of archival images, Jemison and Cuyjet improvise with text, dance, and a web of thread. The performance meditates on the intimacy and attunement involved in longstanding artistic collaborations. 

Panel on Hassinger’s Moving Image Work, November 21, 1pm
The panel will consider Hassinger’s work in video and film, exploring both her performance documentation in the 1970s and her ongoing use of the medium. The panelists will consider Hassinger’s unique approach to the moving image across her career, from poetic color studies to autobiographical documentary. The conversation will include catalogue contributors Robyn Farrell and Kristin Juarez, moderated by UC Berkeley Professor Leigh Raiford. 

Exhibition credits
Maren Hassinger: Living Moving Growing is organized by BAMPFA and co-curated by Margot Norton, Chief Curator, and Anthony Graham, Senior Curator, with Omar Jason Farah, Curatorial Assistant.

This exhibition is made possible through support from the Shah Garg Women Artists Research Fund. Generous lead support provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Henry Luce Foundation. Major support is provided by The KHR McNeely Family Foundation, Kevin, Rosemary, and Hannah Rose McNeely; Shannon Jackson; and Nion T. McEvoy & Leslie Berriman. Additional support provided by the Ed Bradley Family Foundation, Christina Hribar, Susan Inglett Gallery, Wendi Norris, Alexandra Bowes, and Bernard I. Lumpkin and Carmine D. Boccuzzi.