Artists Space

Book talk for Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings

Thursday, October 15
7pm
Free, no RSVP required

Join us for a conversation centered on Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings, the first museum monograph dedicated to Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951–82) since the now out-of-print 2001 catalog The Dream of the Audience. The most comprehensive volume to date on the life and legacy of the Korean American artist and writer best known for her 1982 novel Dictée, the publication features new scholarship alongside previously unseen documentation from Cha’s work and archives.

A book cover featuring a black-and-white photograph of a woman
Cover of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2026. [A book cover featuring a black-and-white photograph of a woman's face.]

Published by the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the volume investigates and unearths Cha’s multifaceted career across conceptual art, mail art, film, performance, and poetry. Showcasing more than 100 objects and ephemera drawn from BAMPFA’s collection, Multiple Offerings reveals lesser-known aspects of Cha’s practice, including early works in ceramics and fiber, while highlighting her critical explorations of language, memory, and identity.

The publication also situates Cha’s contributions within a constellation of works by her contemporaries and peers, as well as by artists working today who have directly responded to her legacy.

The event begins with a screening of Permutations (1976), one of Cha’s experimental structuralist films. Following the screening, the publication’s editor, Victoria Sung, will join designer Ben Schwartz in conversation, moderated by curator Danielle A. Jackson. Together, they will explore the conceptual foundations of the book and examine Cha’s distinctive artistic practice.

Victoria Sung is the Phyllis C. Wattis Senior Curator at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), where she oversees the museum’s long-standing MATRIX series of contemporary art and works with artists to create exhibitions, publications, and public programs. Recent projects include solo shows with Amol K Patil, Lee ShinJa, Sin Wai Kin, Duane Linklater, Kenneth Tam, and Yee I-Lann. From 2015 to 2023, Sung was a curator at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, where she organized survey exhibitions on Pacita Abad, Siah Armajani, and Theaster Gates, among others. Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings, the first retrospective on the artist in 25 years, debuted at BAMPFA in January 2026 and will travel to New York, Chicago, and Seoul.

Ben Schwartz is a graphic designer, researcher, and writer from Ohio. After working in the music industry, Schwartz attended design school at ArtCenter College of Design in Los Angeles, CA. In 2018 he was awarded the Walker Art Center design fellowship working on various exhibition ephemera, catalogs, and published articles frequently on The Gradient. In 2020 Schwartz participated in the Jan van Eyck Residency where he investigated the act of bootlegging through an interview series and text, to be published forthcoming. He has also worked freelance for various studios including Folder Studio, Studio Lin, ETC., and Benjamin Critton Art Dept. Currently he works as the managing editor for Source Type.

Lead exhibition support for Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings is provided by Teiger Foundation.

    A book lays open against a white background. The book pages feature an image of a beige cloth with the text
    Spread from Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2026. [A book lays open against a white background. The book pages feature an image of a beige cloth with the text "A BLE W AIL" printed across it.]