OMCA Hosts Burning Man Art

OMCA Hosts Burning Man Art

PHOTO BY RON BLUNT

Michael Garlington and Natalia Bertotti’s The Paper Arch, 2018, comes to OMCA.


You can see the art from the Black Rock Desert festival right here at home.

Every year, over 70,000 seekers, artists, radicals, hippies, and tourists converge in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert for Burning Man, where participants build a massive temporary city of weird art and found objects and then ritually burn it down.

The desert’s getting more crowded every year, but luckily you won’t have to brave the heat, the sun, and the throngs to see the true spirit of Burning Man this year: The Oakland Museum of California is hosting No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man, bringing the funky, arty, DIY-vibe of Burning Man right to the East Bay.

This exhibition features all sorts of Burning Man-inspired art by Bay Area artists, including jewelry, costumes, sculptures, paintings, and even mutant, re-cobbled vehicles straight out of Mad Max. A companion exhibition within the gallery, City of Dust: The Evolution of Burning Man, curated by the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, examines the history of Burning Man from its origins as a San Francisco counterculture festival to its current incarnation as a high desert extravaganza. Through Sun., Feb. 16, 2020. Wed.-Thu. 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sat.-Sun. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Timed tickets are required for entry to the special exhibition. General $21, seniors $16, youth $12. Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland, MuseumCa.org.