Start with dedicated art lovers and philanthropists Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem. Add 15 works from their collection by world-renowned artists — including Salvador Dalí, Vassily Kandinsky, Joan Miró and Francis Bacon. Top off with 30 UC Davis undergraduate and graduate students studying studio art, art history and design. Result: A unique exhibition entirely curated and designed by students. The profound and exhilarating works in the exhibition, most on public view for the first time in decades, invite visitors to encounter the deeply personal nature of abstraction and to create their own interpretations.

Curated by students in the Fall 2023 Exhibition Practicum course led by Assistant Professor Alexandra Sofroniew and designed by students in the Winter 2024 Exhibition Design course led by Professor Timothy McNeil and Associate Professor Brett Snyder.

On view September 19, 2024–May 5, 2025

Salvador Dalí, Les désirs inassouvis (Unsatisfied Desires), 1928, oil, sand, and seashells on board; 30 x 24 1/2 in. (76.2 x 62.23 cm). The Fine Arts Collection, Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, University of California, Davis. Fractional gift to the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem. © 2024 Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Artists Rights Society. Photograph: Ben Blackwell.