Adia Millett’s painting Under Ground (2021) is featured in “Some Particular Heaven: Ideas of Utopia in the BAMPFA Collection” from 5 August 2026 to 11 July 2027 at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive curated by Tausif Noor, and Elaine Yau.
From 15th century European paintings and Buddhist hanging scrolls produced throughout Asia to contemporary photographs and installations, the works on view demonstrate how art has been central to envisioning better social realities, rethinking inherited narratives of progress, and claiming spaces of liberation. This wide-ranging, multidisciplinary presentation of artworks from BAMPFA's collection considers utopia as an ongoing project rooted in the pursuit of social justice and a future in which all have the resources to thrive.
Under Ground was inspired by Adia Millett’s encounter with the patchwork quilts of Rosie Lee Tompkins. In addition to incorporating crosses and a palette of hot colors, Millett gave special attention to the areas where the points and edges of her painted forms meet. In a manner similar to Tompkins’s approach to quilt piecing, Millett built her composition improvisationally in ways that left visible traces of her hand. In Tompkins, Millett found an artistic forebearer who embraced Blackness, abstraction, and craft to tell complex stories about self and society.
Image courtesy
Installation view, "Some Particular Heaven: Ideas of Utopia in the BAMPFA Collection", Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA, August 5, 2026–July 11, 2027. Photo: Chris Grunder.
