This summer, the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive will exhibit a rarely seen work by Ed Aulerich-Sugai in the exhibition Way Bay 2. Never publicly shown, the work represents one of a series of mixed media works on paper produced between 1986 – 1989. The Cells series, including over 100 paintings and drawings, displays a broad range in the use of color, form, and texture. In 1988, Aulerich-Sugai completed the painting currently on display at BAMPFA, Cells: C-28, in response to his diagnosis the previous autumn with HIV-related illnesses. The work represents an interrogation of his illness and the virus weakening his immune system. The painting's composition was influenced by Aulerich-Sugai's study of ukiyo-e woodblock prints.
As the second iteration of an innovatively organized exhibition of art, film, performance, poetry, and archival materials, Way Bay 2 continues BAMPFA's wide-ranging exploration of the creative energies that have emerged from the San Francisco Bay Area over two centuries. The exhibition features almost two hundred works by Bay Area artists and others whose work engages directly with the region’s geographic and cultural landscape and highlights dozens of recent acquisitions. Of these new acquisitions, many bring a focus to the ways women and people of color have contributed their voices to historic cultural moments in the Bay. Way Bay 2 is on view at BAMPFA from June 13 – September 2, 2018.