Two exhibitions that invite visitors to reflect on the present by considering the past and our shared future are on view this fall at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at University of California, Davis. The exhibitions are on view through Nov. 29.

“OJO” Julio César Morales explores the U.S.-Mexico border as a lived human experience. Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice, a groundbreaking group exhibition from the Hammer Museum at UCLA, connects social and environmental injustice. A free public opening celebration with artists and curators, art making and music takes place from 2 to 5 p.m. at the museum Sunday, Sept. 28, coinciding with the start of the university’s academic year. 

“OJO” Julio César Morales

After more than a decade in Arizona working as a senior curator and a museum director, this midcareer survey marks Morales’ California homecoming and return to full-time studio practice. The Bay Area artist draws from real-life narratives — including his family's experience from both sides of the border — found materials and detritus of crossings to traverse the border’s geopolitical history while imagining speculative futures. “OJO” Julio César Morales comprises more than 50 works. Using a range of media including video, prints, watercolors, sculpture and photography, Morales approaches the harsh realities of the border with sensitivity, telling difficult stories in a quiet, deliberate way that honors their complexity.

• An outdoor neon work, tomorrow is for those who can hear it coming, (2025), welcomes visitors to the museum.
• The print series OJO: Los Extranjeros (El Paso 1938) (2025) incorporates source imagery from Dorothea Lange’s documentary photography of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
• Morales’ watercolor series, Undocumented Interventions (2010-2011), illustrates covert and often dangerous methods used to cross the border without documentation.

Manetti Shrem Museum Founding Director Rachel Teagle first showed Morales’ work in a solo exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art in 2004. 

“It is an honor to bring the deeply thoughtful work of Julio César Morales to the Manetti Shrem Museum,” Teagle said. “In his exquisite and complex embrace of the bilingual and bicultural border experience, Julio contributes to a conversation that is crucial to our world today.” 

Morales’ artwork has been widely exhibited, including at the Lyon Biennale, France; Istanbul Biennale, Turkey; Singapore Biennale, Singapore; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany; Prospect 3, New Orleans; SFMOMA, San Francisco; Perez Art Museum, Miami; Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; Museo del Barrio, New York City; The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; The Armory Show, New York; and Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco. He received his bachelor of fine arts degree from San Francisco Art Institute. Read a full news release here, and learn more about a complementary exhibition, Julio César Morales: My America, at Gallery Wendi Norris in San Francisco (Sept. 19–Nov. 1).

Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice

The lungs of our planet — oceans, forests and the atmosphere — are under threat, invaded by carbon emissions, plastics and man-made pollutants. The act of breathing was rendered even more perilous by the COVID-19 pandemic and encounters with escalated police violence that became a focus of the COVID period. Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice considers the connections between social and environmental injustice through the lens of contemporary art. The exhibition is traveling from the Hammer Museum at UCLA, where it was part of PST ART: Art & Science Collide, the recent collaborative arts event across Southern California organized by Getty that included more than 50 exhibitions across 74 institutions. 

The Manetti Shrem Museum’s iteration of the exhibition features 14 artists from different backgrounds, showing the global scale and impact of the climate crisis, while also pointing toward the importance of coming together in community across borders. The works on exhibit focusing on climate change are by artists, scientists and activists whose practices encompass photography, multimedia, large-scale sculptures, painting and more.

• Multidisciplinary artist Cannupa Hanska Luger’s site-specific, multi-part installation Sovereign relates to his ongoing Future Ancestral Technologies, which blends Indigenous wisdom with science fiction speculations. The installation was commissioned specially for Breath(e) and made possible in part by VIA Art Fund.
• Clarissa Tossin uses evidence of our current environmental crisis to create monuments to the often-invisible consequences of climate change, as with Rising Temperature Casualty (Prunus persica, home garden, Los Angeles) (2022). This sculpture is a silicone cast of a peach tree that died due to excessive heat and chronic drought in Tossin’s personal garden in Los Angeles.
• Scientist and artist Brandon Ballengée makes portraits of marine species that have been driven to extinction by human-caused disasters such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, using the oil itself as his medium.

Exhibiting artists: Brandon Ballengée, Mel Chin, Tiffany Chung, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Michael Joo, Xin Liu, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Yoshitomo Nara, Roxy Paine, Garnett Puett, Sandy Rodriguez, Sarah Rosalena, Clarissa Tossin and Jin-me Yoon.

Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice is organized by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and guest curated by Glenn Kaino and Mika Yoshitake with Jennifer Buonocore-Nedrelow, PST Fellow. It is on view Aug. 7–Nov. 29, 2025.

Upcoming Events

Dedicated public programming is planned in conjunction with the fall exhibitions. Visit manettishrem.org for more details. All programs are free.

• Sept. 28: Fall Season Celebration; Opening event featuring exhibiting artists including Julio César Morales and curators; a DJ set by artist Juan Luna-Avin; and an eco-friendly art activity.
• Nov. 4: Campus Community Book Project; This event brings together the evocative visual narratives in the exhibition “OJO” Julio Cesar Morales with the deeply personal journey chronicled in Javier Zamora’s acclaimed memoir Solito.
• Nov. 13: Breath, Soil, Water, Life; A live meditation on breath, identity, resistance and the power of listening responding to LaToya Ruby Frazier’s photo series Flint is Family in Three Acts. The culminating performance is by UC Davis students in the Major Voices in Black World Literature course.
• Through Nov. 29: Art Spark; Drop-in weekend art making offers a different activity each month that explores ideas, materials, and processes connected to works of art on view. Special guests from across UC Davis join on Oct. 18 and Nov. 1 to delve into science-meets-art themes. 

Find more events on our calendar. View the original article at UC Davis News. 

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