Way Bay is a sweeping exploration of the creative energies that have emerged from the San Francisco Bay Area over the past two centuries. An innovatively organized exhibition of art and film, plus poetry, performance documentation, and archival materials, Way Bayfeatures nearly two hundred works that reveal the depth and diversity of artists’ engagement with the region’s geographic, social, and cultural landscape.

The exhibition takes a nonlinear form and is organized around diverse poetic themes that cut across time periods, media, styles, and artistic cultures, bringing together voices from a wide range of practices and representing diverse communities and sensibilities. Works by artists and filmmakers such as Bruce Baillie, Lutz Bacher, Joan Brown, Bruce Conner, Jay DeFeo, Enrique...

In contrast to a conventional historical survey, Way Bay is organized to suggest poetic currents and connections among works from disparate cultures and communities, highlighting transhistorical affinities among artists, filmmakers, authors, and other creative practitioners who have contributed to—and drawn inspiration from—the region’s distinctive character.